my custom notebook cooler

EDIT: PICS AND GUIDE ADDED

well i decided to make a notebook cooler for my new toshiba x300. the fans are in an awkward place, so making it myself was ideal for getting it to be the coolest. i based my idea on another cooler made on this site, but added a few extras. im not yet done the cooler, as tomorrow im getting more screws, bolts and rubber for the bottom. i also have to add another support on the bottom so i can use it on my lap.

i have ALOT of pictures, so i hope you guys like it

My Laptop

is a toshiba x300. its pretty new and looks like a beast.





Getting started;


since i live in canada, it would be harder for me to find the exact parts i was looking for. i then had to be creative and make my own parts. i also have a 17" so its alot harder to find something that will support the weight and size.

i first purchased a metal mesh sort of material from staples. it was about 10$.



i bought a large metal sheet, ususally used for duct work. the picture is the piece i cut off



i also bought some metal slats, also used for duct work.

i bought 2 fans, 4$ each. i might buy more powerful ones.



First steps


i first took the sides off of the metal basket from staples. i used metal cutting scissors. it was very easy to cut off. it then looks like this;



flip it over and you got your perfect incline



since it isint that strong, being so wide, i reinforced it with metal slats purchased from home depot. i then cut and bent it over the edge of my kitchen counter. i measured holes for the screws and used a drill to make holes. its pretty flexable, but very strong. here is the result after being bent, cut and drilled;



The Hard Part


since i dont have the right machine to bend sheet metal, it was difficult. i wanted to bend it and get rid of any sharp corners and edges. i first measuerd my laptop on the metal then cut the sheet, the result is seen above.

after doing this, there are many sharp edges, so i decided to make a clean bend. since it is such a small bend, this is the hardesr part. i took about 1/2 an inch, and folded it up and over. i did this on both sides.



to do the front, i made it so the top, metal mesh material would just slide into a groove in the front, it actually turned out alot better than i thought it would. i first made 1 bend, just like above, then bent it a second time, but didnt make it flush with the base. this is what it looks like




this makes it easy for the top part to slide in. it looks mesy now, but i didnt do any finishing bends to make it strait. its now just the rough shape.



the back is pretty easy, its about 1 inch from the end and bent up on the same angle as the metal mesh material.



this will sit inside the flap of the mesh material



Attatching The Fans


attatching the fans was pretty easy. i first lined up the top with the bottom of my laptop and measured the vents.







i flipped the cooler over and screwed in the fans. it now looks like this, but i dont have a picture with them screwed and without the metal base.



EDIT: WIRING .


i did some wiring, cutting and taping. i didnt do any sodering, as im too lazy. there is a great step by step on this site. i used the guide, but didnt use his base. http://www.instructables.com/id/USB-Desktop-Fan/ ii may add a switch later, but i havent yet, but feel free to do it. EDIT : instead of using the usb wire, i bought a 12v adapter (the wire used for charging a cellphone, etc) and plugged it into the wall. since the fans are 12v each, i bought a 12v adapter, now the fans run at full speeds and i see a huge decrease in temps.

here is what the wiring looks like on the cooler. i followed the previous guide, then made the wires more organized buy twisting them together.



i ran the wires to one side of the cooler, leaving only the adapter wire to attatch.



here is a view from the side with the fans wired and the wires nice and neat. there is plenty of space for the notebook to breathe




EDIT: i added a switch, which i might add a picture of.

Putting It Together


now is the time to put all the pieces together. do this after you do the fans, as you then cant position the fans on the bottom.

i added the supports, using screws and a drill. it pretty straight forward, i used a drill to drill a hole in the mesh material, then put the metal support in, one on each side. It works great and its super strong. you can see where i put the supports, anywhere on both sides is fine.



i screwed all the pieces from the back. if i didnt explain it well, the metal supports you bent earlier goes in between the mesh material and the sheet metal flap. (the sheet metal being on the inside.)



here is the best picture showing the layering.



i screwed the base onto the top, i dont have enough screws, but im getting more tomorrow. also, use nuts on the screws, again, i dont have any, but will get them tomorrow.



i then just made the finishing bends to make it flat to sit on the table. it looks like this.




now push the front flap over the mesh material, i used the backend of a screwdriver






And What It Looks Like;










it hangs off the back a little, but it actually works amazing, the warm air is pushed away from the fans, and the sheet metal flap blocks the fans from being able to suck the warm air back in







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i hope you guys like my idea. this is my first time with bending sheet metal, wiring and actually making something that looks nice.

it works very well, i can see a drop in about 10 - 15 degrees in about 10 - 15 minutes while multi tasking with internet, music and word.

EDIT: i now have real temps during gaming. the most drop in temp is my gpu, which got as high as 65 without the cooler. with it, it only gets as high as 47 degrees.

here it is without the cooler



and with it




i hope you guys liked my review, its sort of a how-to as well. i hope this will help the people who are wanting to make their own cooler. this gives you an idea of how to make one. I just winged it while making this, figuring out what to do when things came up. i think its amazing, especially since ive never made anything like this before.


- - - also, tomorrow im adding a support on the bottom sheet metal, so i can use it easially on my lap. - - -

sorry about the pic quality, i took it on my phone

i would also love rep+


the first few posts on here were due to these questions in the first post i made;

First Post;

well i just made a custom notebook cooler for my toshiba x300.

i took alot of pictures and will do a detailed how to and how amazing its been working.

i dont know what my temps were before, but i just downloaded cpuid to monitior my temps.

so far i cant believe how much it has gone down. the cooler has been under my notebook for no more than 10 minutes and my cpu temp went down 10 degrees and my gpu went down 7 - 8 degrees.

i just have a couple questions before i write a review. how much power can my usb power? i have 2 - 12v fans running and its powered by usb. its not that powerful of a fan, but it blows air into the computer.

thanks and i have many pics of me building it that i will post tomorrow.

EDIT: my hd is down from about 57 to 41 degrees

im now running to an outlet with a 12V adapter, instead of the usb. fans runs at full speeds

 

A powered port can supply 5V, 500mA. An unpowered port can supply 5V, 100 mA. Of course, these are the ideal values, and you'd be getting less current. Running a 12 V fan through a USB port is asking for frying your mobo..

 

o alright, im not actually running it through the usb, its running through a usb thats plugged into a wall, with a converter

would doing this be running the fans slow, it seems like their running slower than they should, but they still help

 

now with pictures and the full guide bump

 

Very nice project.

 

the cooler looks good, but i never liked the look of that laptop, but that's just my opinion.

 

yea i didnt like it at first, but i really started to like it, silver and red on the cover looks sweet, it really stands out and ive gotton alot of comments about it

 

Wow..those pictures were very detailed.....nice!

I do actually like the look of it...Nice elevation!


Cin

 

Pretty cool,especially seing as how it does lower the temps.
Though as others mentioned, you`d be far better with the fans being powered from an outlet with an adapter.
Thing is, this sollution is cheap and more effective than most USB coolers.
Amazing work dude!

 

When I bought my 7811, i saw that Toshiba at bestbuy and it looked/felt too cheap/gimmicky with the flashy red color and fan covers. I didn't use it for much to get a solid feel for it, so I can't comment on how it be everyday. What are the specs on it?

(that can be said for the orange trim on the gateway which i'm not a fan of either)

Either way, its a good idea what you did clean it up with smoother bends and whatnot and it would look great! May have inspired me and many others to tackle on some sort of project like this. Good job bro!
:thumbs up:

 

thanks guys, i really am starting to like this toshiba, it feels really sturdy with no bending or flexing.

also, the bends are a little messed because i used a pingpong table

 

you - my friend - are the MAN!

 

nice DIY.

it's a little rough around the edges, but the results are pretty nice.

 

edit : i added real pics of the temps. i see a huge decrease while gaming, my gpu only gets max of 47 degrees

i also changed the way i wired it up, i might add pictures of the adapter, switch and new fans.

- - - the reason i added new fans was because i was playing around with the wiring, i then tried plugging it directly into the wall without the adapter. that was a bad idea. the fans fried themselfs and i heard a loud pop. so i went out and bought an adapter and 2 new fans, it now works perfectly. the adapter regulates the power going into the fans, giving it just the right amount of power.

 

nice little project. I have never heard of that laptop before, I never knew Toshiba painted their laptops, it looks pretty cool. I love red, thats why I painted mine red.
As for the cooler, I dont know how stable that shelf will be. You may want to put a brace along the part which connects the two surface planes which touch the surface, so you add extra rigidity.
You also may want to get a rivet gun, and attach a metal lip to the front of your base, so that your laptop does not slide off the cooler and off the desk.

Next time, get some EBM Papst fans, and you will be set

I am amazed how much your cooler works, and it is very price effective

K-TRON

 

thanks, i love the red colour too, and i always liked yours with the red, just a little expensive for me

also, i added these rubber clear grips to the stand, the laptop doesnt fall off and stays in place.

the stand is really solid, but i agree, adding more supports will make it stronger, so i might, especially when i have it on my lap.

here is some of the new pics of the stuff i added;

the new fan (1 of 2)



the switch



the switch attatched





and my final setup (i just cleaned so thats why it looks nice )



i dont have a pic of the adapter, but its pretty easy to know what it looks like.

here is the link to all the pics, i didnt use all of them so theres a few more on here, hope you like;

http://s442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/tornbacchus/

 

tom, just a fyi, those potentiometers /rheostats (the thing your using to control fan speed) they get really hot. So watch out, cause over extended use, the rheostats pop and will make a really bad smell. Potentiometers work by controlling a gap between the two electrodes. The higher voltage output is when the two plates inside are closer together, but when you turn the knob for lower rpm, the gap increases, and a lot of the extra energy gets burnt off and escapes as heat. You should be careful, cause they can blow.

It looks like a potentiometer, but if its just a switch, than disregard what I said

K-TRON

 

yea its just a switch, on and off. also, i know that smell, when i was playing around with the old fans, they popped and i fried them and it made that smell.

but anyway yea its just a switch but thanks for the advice

 

nice cooler, I never would have thought of using a letter tray. If anything, I would have probably been too lazy to cut it and just place the notebook on top the tray with fans on the bottom!

I like the elevation on it, im looking to get some serious height with a notebook cooler so it feels more like a desktop monitor. Currently, im notebook coolerless so I use my calculus textbook to prop the back of my laptop, go figure.

 

K-TRON, you seem to like papst fans a lot , are they high quality/quiet or something?

 

thanks guys, the new fans i got are pretty loud, i may look into other quiter ones. ill look into the ones k-tron is advertising

 

thats freaking sweet dude!

 

That is freaking sweet. Sorry i am bringing this topic back from the dead but. I am really inspired to make a new cooler now. All i was looking for was finding a material like that shelf thing from STAPLES. It has the small holes and that is what i was looking for. Now i know what to get.

Sounds like this thing is thousand time more effective than the cryo lx. So i am going to make this instead. IT HALVED YOUR TEMPS WOW.

 

ha well after a few months of using it, i have a suggestion. dont do the metal base, just the mesh material on the top with the metal supports.

i also put rubber feet on the top of the mesh material to hold the laptop on. it may look like the laptop is about to fall off of it, but it hasnt yet. even without the fans turned on, my temps stay below 50.

 

very nice!!! try it with some 120mm FANS WOOT!

 

i was thinking of adding another 4 fans underneath it, on the HD and a few other hot spots and get this thing to idle under 40 while surfing the internet etc

 

Sorry for resurrecting this thread. Just got the metal mesh and i will post my guide up soon. I hope you look at it yourself and tell me if you like it.

SO it halved your temps. Thats nice. Does that mean i can overclock more once i make my own cooler.

 

Great job bro, + Rep

 

Very impressive. Isn't that angle a bit too high though?

 

lolz, me and my friends make a joke about the existance of custom-made coolerpad just the other when we were browsing for some coolerpad, and im so much surprised that there is actually one!! great customization!!!

 

Here's mine here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=316945&page=3

Cheers,
Theo

 

My is just a 2by4 (hardwood) 12inc long cut (half) in an angle to 2 piece and a 12cm fan standing in back.
Now just to secure the notebook to the desk I's a big angle but it's nice to type and screen is right height.

No1 makes a perfect cooler for 17" widescreen 18"x12" so I make my own instead.

If you want to go extreme make a ductwork to the fan intake holes

 

i actually forgot all about this thread, but i didnt see any pics on that link, if you happen to read this id like to see it


like to keep this thread goin as well

 

i need pics of the wiring plz.

 

Here's my beastly setup.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=413549

 

Really nice job. I also want to make one for my XPS M1730. Thanks for the good guide.

 

Oh sorry i havent look at this in a while

OK so about the wiring:

i fried my old fans first trying to do something wrong with the wiring so i bought these and cut off the connectors so that only the red and black wires are shown



i stripped the ends of all the ends (2 blacks and 2 reds) and twisted the two red ends together then the two blacks together as seen below



i got a 12v wall adapter from an electronics store (the plug that has a box on it, used to charge cellphones and such) and stripped the two ends of the wire. NOW do a trial and error here. attach the black wires to one of the adapter wires and the red to the other while its plugged in. if it doesnt start, switch the wires around and it will work.

ONCE you have figured out which one is black, twist the black wires to the adapter wire. (only the black one for now if u want a switch)

the switch: attach the twisted red wires to one of the switch wires, and the other switch wire to the adapters red wire. (THIS CREATES A BREAK IN THE CIRCUIT when the switch is off. it only needs to be done to the red wire, because it has to be a complete circuit, and once its broken, it wont turn on)



sorry i dont have anymore pictures, it may seem hard, but its pretty easy.

hope this helps

 

Looks great, might have to do something similar.. Have you thought about using USB powered fans? Newegg has a few of them it seems, wonder how well they'd work.

 

Hi man
Thanks a lot.
Because of You, my Q.X300-130 won't give BSOD's (Black Screen Of Dead) anymore.
Now the GPU (G94-9700 GTS) is somewhere around 34 degrees Celsius as idle and not above 62 in full load, while the Main CPU cores (8600 Core2duo, 2400 MHz) will not exceed 60 (full load) and 44 (idle).

 

Beauty and The Beast

 

I was wondering how you connected your fans to the 12V power adapter. You are using the 3pin connector right? How did you connect that to the 12V power adapter? Could you post a picture of the connection between the fan wires to the power adapter? Thanks.

 

A fan's 3 pin connect is comprised of a positive wire, negative wire and a RPM speed wire. Most people don't use the RPM speed wire and cut that off, since there won't be any issues with cutting it off and it serves no purpose.

 

how bout those fans that connect directly to the power supply(4pin molex connector), and do not go through the motherboard? How would you connect that to the 12V power adapter?

 

well there are 3 wires for the fans that i used. a red wire, black wire and a yellow wire.

the red wire i think is positive, black is negative and yellow is the rpm speed wire.

cut off the yellow wire, and just use the red wire and black wire, and when you plug it in, the fans will always run at full speeds.

 

Thanks for the interesting thread.
How did you connect the 2 wires to the 12V ac adapter?(Did you cut of the end of the wire's from the adapter then join wires from the adapter and fans?)
Please can you post a photo of that?

 

Qapla.... Qapla!

 

Okay So im looking back at my old thread here, and I thought that I would bring it back, because people seemed to like it.



Here's whats happening:

The black wire from the two fans are connected together, then I run that wire to the switch (first cap at the top of the picture)

The other wire coming out from the switch then attaches to the black (negative wire) from the 12v adapter (middle cap in picture). The reason for the switch is to disconnect the circuit. You only have to break the circuit on one line, which in this case is the negative wire.

The red wires from the fans are combined, then twisted to the positive wire of the 12v adapter. (bottom cap on picture)

I'm still using this cooler, and as my laptop builds up with more dirt and dust, this cooler is a must when playing games. Without the cooler, my GPU can get up to 100c, as soon as I turn it on, the gpu temp goes down and stays around 65c.

Anyways I want to keep this thread going again If your just looking at the last page, go to the first page for ALOT of photos.

 

That is a great work tornbacchus!
Can you tell me about the noise?

Thanks

 

The two fans sound like a desktop, since that's what they are. I don't find it loud at all, probably because I'm used to an xbox 360 with fans at full blast

But it is louder than the 1 laptop fan inside my laptop, but nothing that I can't deal with.