Best Notebook Coolers for 18" Alienware Laptops

I too find similar reductions in temperatures with this cooler. I notice that my main system fans come on far less often than without it, so I'm quite content with my efforts to reduce my global footprint - though running an M18x is far from ecologically or environmentally friendly to start with! LOL!

 

I did a crazy mod to my U3 and it works wonders.. check my thread for links to the fans i used.. but each fan cfm is about 84 or some thing like that..

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/671802-my-soon-frankin-cooler-my-m18x.html

 

I have long wanted the CM storm but the price has never come down. I have heard the build quality is lacking though, it seems so perfect for the AW Though.

 

You'd do way better with a U3, due to the open frame, rather than a closed frame, which is silly.

 

I just figured out, when u put your M18x a bit below the rubber grips at the top of notepal u3 it won't slide downside anymore because of the big rubber thing with the "cooler master" title.

Also there's something new: http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Detail/mobile/notepal-series/notepal-u3-plus.html

 

Ok, where do we buy it from tho...

Cant see it on Amazon.co.uk :/

 

the plus looks the same as the U3 original?

whats the difference?

 

I just got this one long ago NotePal U Stand - Cooler Master because Notepal U3 scratched my rig in 2 places while skidding down... I am very happy, it fits perfect and you can even have your system lifted up at an angle for better cooling.

 

can we get a pic of your rig on the stand?

 

Hey all I'm new here as I've just bought in the past couple months the M18X R2 refurb with gtx 680m and I am so happy to be part of the family lol. I have just purchased the Cooler Master U3 so I can't wait till that arrives.Thanks so much for the great reviews and advice.

 

Hello there. New here, but this was the only place I could find on the web with the most information about notebook coolers.

I stumbled upon something the other day and thought this would be the best place to ask about it. It's about the new cooler master products - I'm really excited about the Notepal U3 Plus and the SF-17 (replacement for the discontinued SF-19). Does anyone know when these products will be available here in the US?

Here's a link to a PDF showing the products: http://cmupload.coolermaster-usa.com...chure_back.pdf

 

If the new NotePal U3 has more powerful fans, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. That said, such a cooling pad, even without the fans, will get the job done for most purposes as it will provide more than enough elevation for proper airflow. So if these new cooling pads have mediocre fans... just buy a NotePal U3 cooler, ditch the fans or upgrade them if you're savvy with wiring and all that, and you're set

 

Hey guys,

I'm just posting up some pics of how I have my NotePal U3 fans positioned for use with the M18xR1/R2, and how I position 'the beast' ontop of the U3 itself. Some people might find it useful - I was asked, so I am obliging!. As you can see, I sit the 18x pretty much as close to the front edge of the U3 as I can as it helps with ergonomics for typing. The rubber feet of the U3 marry up quite nicely to the feet on the underside of the beast. Slippage, for me, is non existant with this kind of arrangement. I find it very solid and my beast does not slide about at all. Anyway's........I digress.....

Here are some pictures - I'll put 'em all in the spoiler below, just open it up to get an idea of how I use mine. Pretty self explanatory, really, but if anyone has questions, feel free to ask!

Here they are - hope they help, if anyone is curious!:

Spoiler

 

Thanks Steve for taking the time uploading photos of the fans positions and layout of your laptop on the U3 cooler. Mods please +Rep this guy for helping me

 

My pleasure, Blossom. You can rep me yourself by clicking on that little star shaped icon bottom left under my user name!

 

hehe thanks for also showing me where the rep button is also lol

 

Hahaha, I'm just a helpful dude LOL

 

Your setup looks awesome by the way.

 

Cheers bud! - I had to take that off my glass desk to picture the U3 etc....I'll try and post some shots of my 'actual' setup in it's 'natural environment' (lol, sounds like some wildlife programme on tellie) with my U3011 etc.......can't recall if I posted some earlier.....

I must say, looking at those pics I just took earlier, that grille is soooo much better than the new design....oh well LOL

 

Sweet pictures; and you're totally right about the grill design on the new revision.

 

Those pictures are exactly the same as how I have my U3 fans for my M18x but I can back it up with testing that the fans do actually make a difference and can cool quite significantly depending on the application.

 

is the white cloth there for a reason? also, having only had a quick browse of a few pages, it seems that the general consensus is the notepal u3 is the best choice?

Cooler Master NotePal U3 Notebook Cooler - R9-NBC-8PCK-GP

or should i wait for this new version you guys are mentioning?

 

Oh, the 'white cloth' in the picture is just a decorative table runner! - nothing to do with the machine or cooler. I don't know anything about the new one!

 

Last night after packing up my laptop I remembered that I wanted to purchase an item on sale in Planetside 2 and not wanting to completely unpack I set it on the table without elevating it, to my surprise within a matter of minutes I could feel some intense heat coming from the primary GPU side and alt+tabbing out of the game I noticed that the primary GPU temp had gotten as hot as 79 C! This was in the in-game menu, with not a lot going on and it really was only like 3 minutes after starting the game.

I quickly pulled out my handy dandy "passive cooling device" a book that I usually carry with me, and the temps immediately plummeted down to around 65 C. Not exaggerating, simply elevating makes a MASSIVE difference.

Well, sometimes I either forget the book and am always interested in reducing my total load-out weight; I ran across this nifty and compact "passive cooling device" that I bet gives any bulky stand/pad a run for its money in effectiveness.



Has anyone done testing between simply elevating and using a stand/pad? I bet there isn't much of a difference. The aluminum chassis and fans are ample enough, they just need access to fresh air.

 

Hello All,

With the impending arrival of my M18 on Monday I have been giving some thought on my Notepal U3 stand. You see,I have the stand but the fans that came with it were accidentally thrown out by the Dragon,,,er the wife. So I would like to buy some 120mm fans and retrofit them to the underside of my U3. I would also like to have them run of the mains and not from a USB on my M18.

Could any of you guys suggest what hardware I would need to complete this? Fan controllers etc?

Thanks

The Crab.

 

The easiest way to do this would be to buy a USB hub with an AC adapter, and run the cooler through those ports instead of directly to the system. You may also find the hub to be useful for other things as well.

A good USB 3.0 hub is about $30 on Amazon.

 

Do you think 80mm fans or 120mm will give the best cooling?

 

I don't think J. Dre actually read the entire post...

How good are you with electronics? If you BUY fans with a molex plug, you're going to need to rewire them. If you're up to the task, 3x of these fans would do you nicely. Low noise, high air flow. Alternatively, you can order more of the fans that come with the unit from CoolerMaster themselves.

Edit: Added details about rewiring. Each of them would have to be redone that way.

 

80's are fine. A faster fan controller would help the most.

I did read the entire post... I just felt all of the technical rewiring is unnecessary, and my suggestion eliminated his concern about the USB port.

---

http://forum.notebookreview.com/accessories/703124-my-ultimate-cooling-pad-build.html

This may elighten you as well, enjoy.

 

Does the M18X really benefit from a cooler? I know the MSIs and Clevos I have used needed case mods to really get any benefit.

 

Yeah it does. 4 huge vents at the bottom.. It drops the temps about 15c and the system fans never spool up to audible levels, even when over clocks and heavy gaming

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

The M18x doesn't really need it, or any internal modding like some of the other brands. I haven't found using a laptop cooler to be much of an improvement over elevating the rear of the laptop. Pushing more warm air through the heat sink radiators doesn't provide a great deal of benefit, and the stock fans are so lame they don't increase the air velocity enough to change its temperature. Under substantial CPU overclocking conditions, it is of zero value and I generally find my GPUs run cool enough that there is no need for cooling help, even when they are run at their max stable overclock they are typically no warmer than 75-80°C.

I have modded my U3 with a higher CFM 80mm chassis fan for the CPU and it still is more of a novelty than anything else. I like it for ergonomics and aesthetics. If I am pushing my system hard enough that it needs significant help with cooling, the cooling pad is a waste of effort.

We already have a thread for cooler discussions. I will merge this one with it.

--Edit--
not sure how you're getting that kind of an improvement, dandan - good that you are, but I see maybe 5°C with my fan mod, about 2°C with stock fans. I don't have one of the Vantec Tornado fans like DumbDumb, so his might help a lot more... but it is extremely loud.

 

The Coolermaster Notepal U3 is on sale on NCIX canada for $24.99 + a $10 MIR. From what I could gather, this is one if the best coolers. If you buy from MemoryExpress, they will prove match and beat the difference by 25%. Shipping from ME was cheaper for me also ($5 vs ncix's $7-8).

The rebate is good until the end of September.

 

Not sure either I thought it was common . But yeah with all 8 fans running 3 chained together through one USB port I see a good improvement. The stock fans almost never have to run. 15 idle.. And about 8 at load.. A 200/400 oc on the go us gets me 75c on the cooler. Without.. About 82-85

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

Just thought I reiterate the significance of this modification: http://forum.notebookreview.com/accessories/703124-my-ultimate-cooling-pad-build.html. I am still using it to this day and it seems to be holding up well. Now that the entire lineup has intake vents across the bottom of the laptop, this cooler is more effective.

 

Here are photos of my latest U3 mod. Thanks to n=1 for sharing the link to where he saw this. The AC powered fan controller is what makes it worth doing.

<iframe class='imgur-album' width='100%' height="750" frameborder='0' src="http://imgur.com/a/iZ192/embed"></iframe>

 

Just adding my two cent. I have this cooler:

CM Storm SF-19 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad with Two 140mm Turbine Fans (SGA-4000-KKNF1) .

I got this one after I placed an xm card in my previous lappy. I use it now on my 18. It blows a lot of air, but I wouldn't swear it lowers temps a lot, maybe 5 degrees. What it does do is left up the back end so more air can flow. It also gives me piece of mind, I crank it up when the lappy fans are spinning hard.







CM Storm SF-19 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad with Two 140mm Turbine Fans (SGA-4000-KKNF1)

 

I had a CM Storm SF-19 before my U3. I kept for two days, decided it was not good enough and returned it to Fry's for a refund. I bought the U3 to replace the SF-19. I did not find it more effective. It looked really nice and I bought it based on recommendations of others. It felt cheap to me and I could not get past the fact that it was made out of plastic Another thing that irritated me was the fact than when fans were cranked up all the way I could feel a minor vibration from the blades being out of balance.

 

So I decided to take the mod one step further and cut some metal from my U3:



Yeah I know the worksmanship isn't the best, but let's just say towards the end I was working with a Dremel cutting wheel that had ground itself down to <1" in diameter so...

In any case, this is after 30 minutes of Watch Dogs on Ultra with SMAA: (everything on stock, Liquid Ultra on CPU, Gelid GC Extreme on GPUs, ambient temp was 25°C/77°F)


It works plenty well, so don't hate. Of course YMMV since I'm using a Clevo.

 

I'm sure that works a lot better, n=1. Good job! The U3 is a really nice product (based on how it is built) but the surface blocks about 50% of the airflow, even with much higher CFM fans. Even a cooler with a wire screen type grille is going to be restrictive. When you look at surface area it makes sense... air cannot pass through a solid surface and even a wire screen or grille will have a "diffuser" type of effect that is an impediment to air flow.

 

I was even debating cut out the cross between the fans so the entire fan is exposed and the laptop will receive the full blast of air. But I decided to leave it in due to structural integrity concerns, especially since most of the weight is supported by the rear rather than the front.

In any case though, cutting out the U3, in combination with ShinEtsu paste proved to be so effective that a far greater temp drop is seen when playing demanding games. After an hour of Far Cry 3, peak temps were down by 7C. Before the master 780M would shoot up to 77C and the slave ran all the way up to 82C. Now the master tops out at 70C, and the slave doesn't edge past 74C. Same story with the CPU, went from peak at 78C to peak at 71C.

And all this in a 26C (79F) room. Mission accomplished. (and there's still more modding I could do if I really wanted to)

 

i have a cnc and metal break at work so i decide to make my own cooler. still a work in progress.

 

Wow, that is truly amazing inap. Awesome work!

 

Wow... it's... awesome looking cooling pad! Great job! :thumbsup:

 

thanks guys, thinking of buying a new fan controller instead of using the one from my dead sf-19. trying to find a spare case for the laptop too, once i get everything, i will prolly paint everything to match.

 

Forget the fan controller, take my word for it when I say you basically need two settings: on, and off.

Then again I'm using an AC to Molex adapter that comes with an on/off switch to make life easier:



Yeah I know I still have the fan controller, but I just set all fans to max and forget about it. Could've just used a 4 way Molex to 3 pin splitter to make the wiring less messy.

 

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for a cooler for my M17x R4.. I've ruled out the Cooler Master U3 as it raises the notebook too much.. Is there anything that is similar with adjustable fans but flatish? I've also been looking at the Zalman NC 3500 and Thermaltake Massive 23 LX... I'm looking towards the Zalman as it can fit the whole my 17x and doesn't look as flashy as the thermaltake.. Any suggestions?

 

The cooling comes from being raised really... anything that gives you the height you can manage will do the job.

 

To Meaker's point, if all you are looking for is good results, a piece of scrap 1x1 square wood stock place under the rear feet will do the trick. You can paint it black if you want it to look nicer.

A couple of plastic soda bottle caps work well, and the bigger plastic lids from Gatorade or Vitamin Water bottles are even better, but they are slippery on a smooth surface.

 

Guys, I've tried the books method and the bottle cap method.. I just don't like them and I'd like to have something which I can carry with me..

I really like the NC3500 and just need some opinions from anyone who has used it before pulling the trigger..