Do laptop coolers really work?

So my local place stocks both of these, only a $10 price difference (assume negligible).
Was thinking either this Cooler Master Ergostand
NotePal ErgoStand [4-port USB HUB] - Cooler Master - Leading Provider of Computer Case | Cooler | Power Supply

Or the massive23 LX.
Thermaltake - Australia - Massive23 LX - CLN0015

Will they make any difference in framerate with and without overclocking?
Will they allow me to push my GPU further?

My fans are constantly at medium but internal GPU temps hit 90c often. Not sure what's gona happen when I overclock it.

Specs are:
i7 840qm
2x 5870m
8gb 1333mhz ram

So I was hoping to do a 10% FSB overclock and bring my GPU from 700/1000 to 800/1200. Will that bring about any increase in performance?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/accessories/304671-notebook-coolers-buyers-guide.html

You certainly need to open and clean your laptop's heatsinks, maybe a repaste of the GPU's and CPU while your at it.
Buying a cooler if your temps are that high already won't help much, as with the M17x's cooling you shouldn't be in the 90s.

So i suggest you look into that first, you will have to do it eventually and then consider buying a cooler. Also raising the back end of the laptop will help lower your temps.

 

My personal opinion, laptops do not need coolers. If your laptop can't deal with the heat just sitting on a desk, then it was not designed properly. My Vostro 1500 was fine for 3+ years before I gave it a real good cleaning and decided to mod it up.

The biggest thing coolers do is raise the laptop up so it can intake cool air.

 

Many laptops don't NEED coolers but they can make a notable difference and can help to extend the lifetime of the machine. I have a Zalman NC-2000 cooler which I use with my Alienware M14x. When the cooler is there, according to MSI Afterburner's GPU temperature monitor, the GPU runs roughly 10 degrees cooler and I observe a roughly 5-10 fps improvement.

Is it a necessary thing? Nah. And is it a huge difference? Also no. But I like the fps bump and I feel better with the lower temperature. And it would likely help you some with overclocking.

 

I agree. I get about the same results using my Tagurs HD3 cooler. My temps hover around 80C for both gpus and 75C for cpu. With the cooler it goes down to 70C or lower for both gpus and 67C for cpu. Idle temps are even lower. I mean you don't need it but in the long run I think it would be worth it.

 

Kay just did a benchmark and on unigine heaven I get a score of 662 with 23FPS on 1920*1200, 4x AA and AF. My fans kicked to high halfway, with GPU temps at 100c-105, and CPU hitting a max of 67.
Think I *may* need cooling.
These lines are particularly concerning:

 

Laptop coolers that are essentially just a fan or two that blow air underneath the laptop might work for the right laptop that uses the bottom of the chassis as a heatsink, or help a tiny bit in moving more air around internally, but that really depends on the design of the laptop as well as the design of the cooler, and how well they work together.

If you have a laptop and cooler where the cooler fans line up with the air intake vents on the bottom of the laptop, you might be able to get some push/pull airflow going. But then again you could also wind up with the cooler interfering with airflow as well.

I would say overall looking into the particular cooling system of a notebook and how to improve it, either with cleaning and maintenance, thermal paste, a better optional heatsink, or just elevating the rear of the laptop or the whole thing would be better than a plastic cooler. But for certain notebooks that run hot and are used for gaming, if a cooler does the job, great.

 

Well at my temperatures do you have any idea may be wrong? 110c for a GPU is rather high.

 

I used to get that with my R2. I repasted with some AS5 and the temps went down a dramatic amount. You might also want to try the retention mod, Alienware M17x Teardown & Cooling Modification | Tech|Inferno I know there is also a thread somewhere around here about cooling. But for now try using the write up on techinferno should help your temperatures drastically.

 

If I felt comfortable opening it up, I'd get an xm processor already. Looking at medical management only, not ready for surgery.
Thanks anyway.

 

The vent might be clogged with dust, you wont fix that with a cooler. Open it up and clean it.

 

Check my signature for the best cooler one can own.

 

LOL very ingenius I would have never thought of that solution. Unfortunately it wouldn't work for my M17x R2 or M18x since theres a fan where the book is so I had to buy a cooler hahaha

 

You can use two books and prop 'em on the left and right side, thus leaving the center open Way cheaper than buying a notebook cooler. The only cooler I can think of that'd be good/cheap is the Thermaltake Massive 23, which has a giant fan in the center. Other than that, there's that one that has 3 fans, which I'm not sure if they're powerful fans. You gotta look at the specs for the fans.

 

You can get a big box fan for something like $10. Put the lappy on that, turn it to high, and feel the wind blow. Should keep that notebook pretty darn cool. When not using it to cool down the laptop, it doubles as your own personal breeze machine.

 

Personally I love the targus chill mat. I don't even really plug it in half the time but the bottom is cushiony and its sooo comfortable sitting on the couch with my M18x on my lap with this mat. usually 20 bucks on sale right from dell, free shipping too.

 

I've really fallen in love with the notepal series cooler master has. Three sizes, each with a certain amount of fans, and they are moveable. I have the smallest one with one fan for the M11x and I have the largest one with three fans for the M17x/MBP. Able to line the fans up perfectly with the ones on the bottom of the systems, and the nice thing is the AWs suck from the bottom and the coolers blow upwards. It's like they made these things for the AW lineup. They also have pass-through usb plugs so you don't lose a port.

I've always noticed small differences when using a cooler compared to no cooler, but the raised elevation is a big plus for me especially when using the laptop on a desk. So uncomfortable otherwise. I know I could use other stuff to prop the system up, but I see the fan(s) as a bonus.

 

Did you check the vents for dust?

Lots of cooler talk here but it still wont fix clogged vents.

 

Laptop coolers def. work, well in my case, atleast the 40-50$+ laptop coolers. I can't speak for the cheaper models, I would imagine the cooling benefit would be minimal. I have the Antec Ultimate 200 cooler and I think I wouldn't even be able to game without it, it helps like 5-10celcius of cooling

 

Laptop coolers do work, well a decent one should. I really dont see the point, if a laptop works and stay within the tolerances of the components.............thats fine.
If it does not and you experience shutdowns / graphical artefacts or throttling as a result of over heating..............clearly the laptop is faulty.

All this m14x has heat issues is complete rubbish, it gets hot due to the limited space for the cooling and relatively high performance parts.

If it overheats is clearly not functioning correctly and you should be getting on the phone to dell.

Seems to be a lot of panicking over this on these forums.

 

Your temps should not be too high if you are not overclocking (if they are too high like 90+ C, something is wrong with your laptop). And we do need coolers to push the clocks higher (even higher than the factorial designed overclocking).