DIY Laptop cooler with awesome temperature readings *Tutorial*

Hey everyone, I know many people including myself have inquired about laptop coolers. For those times when you spend even 30 minutes gaming, or rendering photos in photoshop, your system temperatures may go through the roof!
It usually depends on the level of performance your computer is capable of. (Higher performance components=higher temperature)

I found myself looking for a solution to my hot laptop for hours upon hours. I mainly researched coolers which may be powered by USB of some sort, or even an external power source, but most fell in the $30-$50 range, and the actual cooling performance among buyers was widely skewed.


I decided to make my own, and I thought I could share this inexpensive (free for me) method of drastically cooling your notebook.
My notebook is an Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi. It's ROUGHLY 13 inches wide and 10 inches deep.

First, I got a cardboard box bottom, this was from a grocery store and used to contain Fuji Apples All I looked for when choosing a box was sturdy cardboard, and a width great enough so that the left and right rubber feet on the bottom of my notebook would both fit



Next, I measured out the height of the fan I would be using in the cooler. I had this old 12volt 80mm fan laying around with a simple 3 pin connector. I measured out the height and then cut from that point to the open side of the box, creating a triangular angled piece.



Then I used that angled piece and put a little duct tape on what would be the bottom. This will simply act as a friction so it won't slide on my desk.



Then I cut a square in the top of the cooler and stuck some more strips of duct tape so the rubber laptop feet will not slide off the cooler during my intense minesweeper battles



I don't have an intermediate picture for the next step. All I did was cut a (slighty less wide than the fan) square in the rear of the cooler so that the fan would fit in , but still have an area to be secured to the inside.


Here you can see what I mean. I then just got 2 pieces of duct tape and set the fan in the inside of the cardboard, oriented so it will blow air IN towards the computer



Here is another view from the outside. I got a little crazy on the duct tape, but that never hurt anyone. I poked a little hole in the side of the cardboard for the fan wires to come out as well




Now I can explain what I did through my trial and error. I had this cooler setup, and didn't know how to power it. For immediate results, I used the positive (Red) and negative (Black) wires coming from the fan and just stuck them into a 8.4volt NiMH battery I had laying around. It ran fine, and cooled the notebook significantly. But I wanted MORE POWER! ...


Actually, the battery ran out, and I didn't feel like recharging it, so while I was looking around I found an old charger for NiMH and NiCd batteries. On the back it has INPUT: 110v AC .... (plug it into the wall), and OUTPUT: 12v DC , 280mA.


12 volts: perfect right!? Well...you have to take into account the current as well. 280mA is equivalent to .28A. in general, 80mm fans will be designed for .15 to .20 amps from my experience. Does that mean it won't work?
Well I tried it out, and let it run and run and run. The fan didn't get hot, nor did the wires, or anything. The only thing that got slightly warm to the touch was the AC adapter, and that was after 2 hours continuous use.

I concluded it was safe and taped the fan wires into the charger plug. It started spinning full blast and temperatures started dropping.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not an electrician, so don't take my word on this method of plugging it in and going. I just assumed the amperages were close enough. I definitely would not leave it plugged in unattended.


Anyway, it's up to you, a battery or a 12v AC adapter. Here's a picture of the adapter and plug connection. VERY simple.







So much for all the design of it, how does it work! I made a quick comparison using Notebook Hardware Control, which monitors my harddrive and CPU temps. The temperatures are down a huge amount! These were taken during about 10 continuous minutes of general websurfing the same websites, nothing intense.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m267/kuksul08/cooler/CoolerResults.jpg


Right now after writing all this, my CPU is 61 degrees celsius and HDD is 38 degrees celsius without the cooler. Also the internal fan is on high.



Review

The laptop is very stable on the cardboard suprisingly. It does not wobble any more than if it was on the desk.

Also, the angled keyboard is very good for typing and raising the screen to eye level, much more comfortable.

I did some intense processes (games and photo rendering) which normally produce 75C+ processor temperatures and 45C+ harddrive temperatures. With the cooler, the CPU never exceeded 62C and HDD never exceeded 35C

Very simple, cheap, and effective. Have fun!

 

Nifty! But knowing most of us we are lazy, and rather spend 20$ on some person to do it for us

Would you mind trimming down the pics...My 1900x1200 screen picks it up nicely, but I wonder about those still on 1024x768...


(Side note) E46 BMW? What year? Bimmerfest Member? Are you going to Bimmerfest in May, providing you live close by...

 

I went ahead and changed the largest pic to just a link. Sorry, but it does make things harder to read.

That being said: AWESOME!!! I've been trying to figure out how to do a custom laptop fan that fits along with my docking station and notebook stand, and you might have just given me the right idea. Thanks!

Coming from a EE student, even though the difference is small it could be significant. You might want to look into getting a little variable resistor to put in parallel with your fan. See about getting an at home MultiMeter (I got one for about $20) to verify that the fan gets enough current but not too much.

If you could find a fan that was rated for .5A and ~5V that would be perfect...that's USB power specs right there .

 

Hmm, I thought I trimmed them down to 640x480px except the last one. They're tiny on my 1680x1050

Yea I've got a 2001 330Ci. I don't think I'll go to Bimmerfest since I don't have my car in SLO (school). I'm on e46fanatics btw

 

My multimeter only measures resistance and volts AC and DC. Myself being an ME student, we could have collaborated and made a supercooler

 

V=IR...I=V/R...Ohm's Law Just make sure you always use the DC info.

Current = Voltage / Resistance

I'd like the idea of a supercooler!

 

Is it true that it doesn't matter how many amps you have running to the fans, but too many volts can damage the motor?

I don't really understand this concept

 

This is a neat idea and I also agree with the other poster that most people will rather just buy a $30.

Me, I bought a coolermaster aluminum one for $50 the other day and found out that it doesn't work as well as I would hoped. Even after reading many reviews on many different models and picking I thought would be the best turned out to be all hype.

I also will be making my own when i have a little bit of free time but instead of using cardboard I will get a piece of plexi glass at my local Home Depot or Lowes.
I have a few sheets but already cut prior to thinking about using them for my next project.

If I do get around to it I will post my results.

 

awesome idea man thanks !

 

Ingenius very nice.