Buying dirt cheap notebook cooler for mbp

Mods, if this needs to be sent to accessories thread, please do so. I've been looking at these 2.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Black-USB-3-Coo...34.c0.m14.l1262&_trkparms=|301:0|293:2|294:30

http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-3-fan-Quiet...=66:4|65:15|39:1|240:1318|301:0|293:3|294:200

I like the black one better since the fans will cool the upper part the mbp which definitely gets hot during gaming. But i read the technical specs and saw the following:

Black one: 1500rpm large fans
Silver one: 3000rpm medium sized fans

So my question is which one do i buy?

Btw, the reason for posting here is that we, mac owners know that our notebooks can get pretty hot at specific places and you could advise me which one to purchase based on the position of the notebook cooler fans.

 

I higly recommend not getting any of them.

The black one will kill your usb controller sooner or later. It's 3 x80mm will use too much power and might blow the capcitors on your Macbook Pro.

The 2nd one won't work very well. The direction of the airflow is reversed. You can probably switch the fan if you want and that will work.

 

But the black one has a lower power consumption than the silver one. Where's the catch?

 

if worry about burning the usb capacitor, why not get an usb hub w/ ac/dc adapter?

i have one of the similar fan to the silver one and it was fine with the macbook pro i owned, you just have to clean of the dust once a while

 

Yay, a math problem!

Ignoring the pointed-out power issues, we can look at these fans simply by the surface area covered over time. Because this is a ratio problem, we can look at the power of a single fan from each to compare the entire set. So, with the first set of fans, at an 80mm diameter, and going at 1500 RPM, here are the calculations:

Surface area of a fan (S) is S= one half times the diameter (D) squared times pi.
So, S=(.5D)^2•∏, or 1600∏. Again, because this is a ratio problem, and the other fan will include pi, we can simply remove it. So, the comparative surface area can be referred to as 1600. To get the surface area over time (S/T), we multiply this value (S) by the number of rotations per minute (R).
So, S/T=1600•1500, or
S/T=2,400,000 for the first set of fans.

Comparing the second set of fans, using the same math, we arrive at a figure of 2,700,000.

So the silver ones, running twice as fast, will cool your system a little bit more.

Of course, this is all speaking hypothetically. As you mentioned, the fans on the black one are better-positioned. And it appears that you'd be able to use a standard 5v power supply with it if you so wished instead of a USB connection.

 

Thank you all for your inputs, btw, hydrocyanic, did the temps decrease while gaming and using the notebook cooler??

 

When I was still using the mbp classic with only the dedicated video card, the temperature get's much higher, and I use this cooler from belkin

http://reviews.cnet.com/docks-stands/belkin-laptop-cooling-stand/4505-19213_7-32335791.html

It does the job, albeit a little loud, and the best part is that it comes with rubber grip to prevent the notebook from slipping. I got it during boxing week sale for about 15 bucks.

However, after I switched to new mbp, and using the integrated graphics most of the time, I don't find the need to use a cooler anymore.

EDIT: Beware of those cooler scratching the bottom of your mbp.

 

Why are you bothering with a notebook cooler for a Macbook Pro? Just use SMControlFan and increase the fan speed. That's what everyone I know uses a Macbook Pro uses and boy do they sound loud as though on load.

 

Just to add a little extra information.
Supposing relatively similar volumes of air being moved (in cubic feet, cubic meters, liters, litres... whatever you prefer), the bigger low RPM fans will produce less noise than the smaller high RPM ones. I don't know if you're taking noise into account , but I thought it was worthwhile mentioning it.

Hope it helps and do keep us posted on your choice and results!

 

All my games play FINE, but when i play left 4 dead, it gets up tp the upper 80's. That's not normal. That's why im a bit scared. I won't be playing this game now but i'll soon be playing warcraft with friends. I don't want to fry my components. I prefer taking my precautions. I find it a but weird, crysis which is waay more demanding than left 4 dead, brings my gpu to ~82c whereas left 4 dead behaves abnormally. sometime it even quits itself.

 

Luke with all your heat issues have you talked to apple? Your temps seem always to be on the high end in comparison to others and instead of looking for bigger and faster fans, might it be advisable to find out if there is a defect somewhere?

 

Yeah, that 's a good point. I had overheating issues with my first-gen MBP in conjunction with video artifacts, and they replaced the logic board under AppleCare free of charge. It dropped temps at idle by about 5ºC, temps at full load by about 15ºC.

 

Your temperature seems normal. I have heard many people going to to 85-90 degrees range on Macbook when they're playing games.

 

Isn't the surface area of a fan (S) is S = bracket one half times the diameter of the fan blade (Db) squared times pi bracket minus bracket one half times the diameter of motor (Dm) squared times pi bracket.

To make it even more complicated, the outer edge spin faster than inner edge thus will push more air. For a 1500rpm 80mm fan, the outer edge of the fan blade is significantly larger than the inside edge. The SAo is probably almost twice as big as SAi. Of course there's exceptions such as those specially designed low rpm quiet or ultra high rpm sever fans.

Also, you have to take into account of air pressure. The higher the pressure, the harder for the fan to push the air with its fan blade.

 

He's got a mbp not a macbook, and his temps are high. My temps in Vista while playing a game don't go above 74 and I don't have my fans maxed out; they're set to 5500. Right now i'm browsing in Firefox in Vista64 and my temp is 43. I'm pretty sure that Luke never gets that low

 

That's because you have a 17 incher which dissipates heat very well. i've been playing dota (warcraft) for a few hours now and when i exited the game, my temp was 71c. So my guess is that the left 4 dead was not well ripped. I got it by torrenting and it was Skullptura's rip. I don't think it's an overheating problem because my temps are perfectly normal on os x. I've installed w7 rc and my temps have been promising till now. low 60's with default fan settings(i.e not using smc fan control to lower temps in windows). I also tried putting it up to max fan rotation in smc os x and then surfing on the net on w7. Max temps were in the lower 50's (a few times 48c YAY!!). I think it's the macbook pro which gets hot by default. i will buy apple care for sure!!

 

It also depends on what games you play, I noticed when play TF:2 my MBP runs a LOT cooler then playing left 4 dead.

 

Figured that mine dissipates heat better, just didn't think it would account for over 10 degrees difference (your max gaming temps vs. mine), but then again I haven't tried L4D. In the end if you're happy then I'm happy.

On another note, I thought L4D was based on the same engine as TF2 and CSS (what my temps are mostly based on) and am a bit surprised there is such a difference.

 

Yes, that's weird, i played css and my temps did not go crazy as l4d.

 

I play dota for like 4-5 hours straight on 4k rpm and my temps never go above 65.

 

around 10C under normal room temperature(25, +/- 3)

under gaiming i see a greater drop from 80(ish) to 65-68

it will drop more or less obviously if room temperature changes

ymmv, but i am quite certain the 3fan cooler i have didn't burn the usb slot, and i suspect those 3fan cooler are all made in similar fashion(hence the low price)

 

I have 2 different coolers, neither seems to do much on my Unibody MBP (2 or 3 degrees at most), though they helped more on my old Macbook Pro...

When using the 9400, I'm usually under a normal non game load in the 50s, and in game load up into the 80s... unless the fans are going full blast, then the 70-75. With the 9600, the temps do not change very much, but the fans spin up to fast a lot sooner. Hardcore gaming in most games pushing the computer to the limits my laptop runs about 80º even with the fans at 6200rpm. in this situation trying either of my notebook coolers do nothing whatsoever. I have the MBP unibody 2.53ghz machine.

 

WOW!!That's cool temps!!!mine is upper 60's with default fans (2k) and 50's with max fans while surfing the net. temps vary with game. I've been playing warcraft 3(dota) with 71c. crysis 86c max but i'm almost always on 82-83c.

 

I have the same MBP as you and it does not get anywhere near as hot as yours. You can find Apple care on eBay for about half of what Apple charges btw. I paid $139 for mine. I also have a rider on my homeowners insurance that covers my computers so i am double covered.

 

Most if not all notebook coolers do very little. You are just as well off with a notebook stand with vents in most cases. Those el cheapo ones you are looking at on eBay are junk.

 

im buying this one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Laptop-Notebook...4|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:2|294:50

it's not that expensive and the single large fan will allow cooler air to circulate beneath the laptop. I will post a feed back once i get it.

 

are you using 9400 or 9600?

 

9600m gt + w7 rc

 

how are you guys reading the temperatures of your mbp's? also mine has gotten pretty damn hot before and my fan has only came on once...it usually only gets really hot when I have it on my lap though. Its the 2.66 512mb video card version, 15".

 

istat in os x, speedfan in vista, for me

 

istat? is that the best one for mac?

 

istat pro. Its the best one. very detailed. You can get it from the apple downloads section.

 

its the best one if you like to use widgets. if you like to have the information available on your desktop then istat menus.