Laptop Cooler for Dell i9300?

Hi, I've been reading these forums for a long time but never have posted, so here goes. I bought a Dell i9300 laptop a couple months ago , and I love it. The one problem I have though is dell seemed to neglect memory cooling, and the memory gets VERY hot after even 2 hours of gaming. This slows down the gameplay greatly.

My question is, does anyone have a recommendation as to a Laptop cooling pad for the Dell 9300? I've been looking around but any feedback would be appreciated. Or is there another solution besides a cooling pad?

 

I would say the Bytecc notebook cooler is very effective considering it's size and two fans. It blows a lot of air but this device is dwarfed by my 15.4" widescreen Inpiron 9100. Placing a 9300 on the Bytecc would look silly but I'm sure it could cool the memory although it might be a bit far away from the fans. You could place the memory near the fans but I would be afraid of the notebook accidentally slipping and falling from the unit. There are rubber mounts to keep the notebook from slipping but anything can happen.

 

I had the same problem with my 9300, so i decided to do some research. I looked at alot of cooling solutions and didn't come up with any made especially for 17" notebooks. I did notice that the Vantec LapCool2 got great ratings for smaller notebooks and also noticed that it has four rubber knobs to keep the notebook from slipping. It was only like $30 after shipping so i ordered one and i'll post again when i get it to let you know how it well it works.

 

Thanks for the replies so far, and let me know how the Vantec works out.. I was looking at that same one i think

 

I have the Vantec Lapcool2, i have the model that uses USB power, not AC. I bought it because i use my laptop for extended periods of time. When it is on for a while, it got a little hotter than i would like. I play games for hours at a time, while i was doing this, the laptop would get way too hot for my comfort. So i researched it a little and got the lapcool2. Let me tell you, the best accessory i bought for my laptop. My ZV6000 has never been remotely warm since i have been using it, even if i leave it on overnight! I just leave the fans on high and use it like a desktop! The best feature of this is the compartments in the bottom. I use one for the cable (when its not in use) and the other for my flash drive.

I bought mine at zipzoomfly.com with free 2nd day shipping right before the 4th of July. here is the link to the product: https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=370855

I hope this helps!

 

What's the noise on that fan?

I may want to get one, but first I'll have to see about the heat. I sleep like a rock at times, so the noise wont really bother me but it may bother other people

 

Mtrivs, while your great praise for the cooler is good, it doesn't really help in this case as much since your computer is a 15.4" and not a 17" as in the Dell i9300.

Maybe you could comment on something like how your comp fits on it and if your 15.4" is already slightly larger than it or smaller.

 

Haven't got it yet... How long does standard shipping take?(rhetorical question)

 

Very minimal, you can only tell you have the fans on when they are on full blast, but usually cant hear them if your typing on your keyboard or listening to music.

Although you are right, i do have a 15.4" screen, 99% of my notbook is covered by the cooler. However, the fans are in the middle and only blow air to the the middle of the notebook. So, reguardless of size i think this cooler would work great. Also, i dont know of any coolers that work as well that would fit a 17" scree, but i haven't really looked too hard either.

Even though it is rhetorical, i still need to answer..... 4-5 business days!

 

Thanks for the reply.

I'll check it out if I get the chance

 

Thank you all again for the replies I will look into the Vantec!

 

looks good i will consider that one u mention mtrivs
u say the sound is minimal
in comparison, is it less or more than the fans of the notebook itself?

 

K, I finally got my LapCool2 today for my I9300 and just got done putting it together, installing the drivers and calibrating the fans...just kidding. I was a little skeptical, like other owners of 17" laptops, as to if smaller coolers would cool and stil hold the laptop securely at the same time, so I decided to save some cash and opted to get the LapCool2 without the 4 extra USB ports, and I got to say, if your not looking for a drastic difference in temperature than you will be pleased with it.

The first thing I noticed was how thin the LapCool2 was. Just eyeballing it, I would have to say its no more than 1/2" thick. I would also say it seems built pretty well, though the majority of it is plastic. The dimensions are 300mm x 262mm x 10.5mm, which basicly means my 9300 hangs off all four sides of this thing by about an inch and a half on each side and about half an inch on the front and back. There is a rubber nub at each of the four corners to keep the laptop from slipping that do their job well. There are also two feet at the bottom to raise the laptop at an incline and to let air circulate under the fans. Personally, I would have liked to have seen more of an incline, as it is(let me get my calipers out here) at about 9 degrees or an inch off the ground in the back. My laptop still feels like it is just stting flat on my desk. I guess that is also why my 9300 feels so sturdy on it. I am confident that my laptop is not going anywhere or I wouldn't use it.

I would have liked to have included pictures, but I don't own a digital camera, as up until two weeks ago I used my Sony s710 camera phone for most picture taking and i'm not eligable for a replacement until September. All I have to say is that it's not a good idea to brush your teeth and talk on the phone at the same time...I wish I was just kidding. So, i apologize for that. Just know that your Laptop is secure as long as it is on a flat surface. I tried using the Lapcool2 and my laptop on my lap at the same time but it was too cumbersome for me.

Okay, on to the reason I bought it; to cool my laptop. During long sessions of BF2 I noticed my computer would peak at 62c. During normal day to day use it would hover no higher than 52c. Both temperatures seem high in my opinion but thats why I got the LapCool2. After a two hour gaming session with the fans on the highest setting(which is easily drowned out by anything else in the room, the fans are that quiet), I only noticed a decrease of 2c to 60c. Not much. As far as sitting idle, I noticed a 4 degree difference. Better, but I bought the LapCool2 to help me with my gaming moreso than anything else. Overall, it did what it said it would do and I didn't know what to expect from it going in, so i'm not sure if it's worth the $25 I spent on it but I am going to continue to use it since I have it and it makes at least a little difference. I Hope my experience helps anyone else out there that was in the same situation and wasn't sure if a Lapcool2 was the way to go. I'm just happy I didn't buy the 4 USB $35 model.

 

Recently I've played games for many hours on my 9300. Here's my observations.

It got really hot, particularly the middle middle (RAM) and middle back (not sure what's there). The right back where I think graphics is is slightly cooler b/c there's a fan there which blows out fairly warm/hot air. The left back where I think CPU is is fairly cool, the fan blows cool air. I'm fairly certain it takes air from bottom and blows it out the back. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about any of this.

What I've done for a temporary ugly solution. Put all 4 corners on half inch thick comic books, just the corner such that most of the book is sticking outside. Have one of those room fans point downward to blow between comp and "ground". Now it is very cool to touch. However, this is b/c of the massive air flow.

For a more elegant solution such as a cooler, I think that one should not be too concerned with noise b/c if you're doing cpu or graphics intensive things like video rendering or gaming, you don't really care. If you're watching a movie, which is only time it matters, that doesn't really use your comp too much and can just shut the cooler off.

So....anyone know which cooler has the most powerful fan?

 

The LapCool2 does have powerful fans for a cooling pad; that's why I bought it. They run at 2600 rpm.

 

For all the gamers out there, do all of your 9300s overheat after many hours of gaming???

 

i got this one:
http://www2.elecom.co.jp/accessory/cooling-sheet/sx-cl02/index.asp
and it lowered my idle temp by 5-6C.

 

Bytecc's cooler is supposed to fit 17" laptops, it runs at 3200 - 3500 rpm which is about 1000 rpm faster than the Vantec. The angle is nice too. I'm leaning toward this one. At $20 it's a cheap solution.

http://www.byteccusa.com/product/cooler/nc-500.htm

There is also a 4 fan cooling pad, but it's rpm is slower and it's airflow is the same as the bytecc above (40 cfm). But the nice spread of fans may work better for 17" laptops. Both claim to run whisper quiet. Also cheap at $20.

http://www.hardwarecooling.com/product_info.php/cPath/33/products_id/370

I've also read that different laptops vent differently so may need to have the air blowing in from the bottom instead of away. Which may mean reversing the fans which is supposedly easy to do.