Guide to Cooling Down Your Notebook Computer

I'm only following what the rebate form says.

MIRs are a pain but $5 is $5.

 

Very interesting! could you post a picture of your cooler?I'd like to see it.

The cooler is definitely doing something; according to your measurements it is reducing The temperature by about ten percent. For this guide using my Sager 5320 notebook, I saw an overall drop in CPU temperature at load and at idle of about ten percent using the Targus Chillmat. So no, the cooler you made is not terrible at all.

There is probably a temperature difference between the cores because one half of the CPU is sitting next to a heat-producing component. That is all I can think of.

 

Worthy of MacGyver. I too would like to see a picture of this.

 

Yeah I'd like to see a pic of it as well. I use the BYTECC Notebook Cooling Pad when away from home while I just place a 3 speed Honeywell table fan under a cheap D.I.Y. table stand where I place my laptop. I normally get 10-15C cooler temps.

 

Oh yeah.. any of you guys ever tried making extra vents or grills on the back of your laptops for more airflow? Just a thought.

 

That probably would make for more effective cooling but the problem with that is through the holes you make dirt and other particles would come through and into the laptop where they should not be. At least through the regular vents the dust/particles are contained in that area. Maybe if you cut the holes and then put grating of some sort behind them that would help but I do not know.

At any rate, doing any sort of physical case mod is likely to void your warranty.

 

Wow! Very unique, thanks for the pictures.

Quick question - is the air sucking out or blowing in? Blowing in would be most effective. If it is sucking down that could create a vacuum between the cooler and the fan intake and it would compromise the effectiveness of the cooler.

 

Very creative Baserk

 

Yeah, that awesome! I might actually consider doing something like that after seeing your project .

 

larson is right...now I'm thinking about it too! Even though it looks 'ghetto' as you put it, that's still a decent job and you learned a little in the process!

 

Lol it is a tad medieval, although if it works, it works. I bet you could build a really nice one with some aluminum panels. They sell small flat sheets of aluminum at the hardware store. Aluminum is very soft and easy to work with, just be sure to file/grind down all the sharp corners and edges.

 

I just got this one for $19.99 AR - it seems like it's on sale often, recently as low as $9.99 AR and I'm pretty impressed by it - it does the job quietly and efficiently...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16834999850

 

Well, since I cannot find a notebook cooler that actually fits my specific needs for dimensions and locations of fans, I think I might build one of my own in the next few weeks.

I'm thinking about building it to work with my nc8430 and the docking station (thus the size problem), and I'm going to aim the fans at the following places in my notebook (highlighted in red):

The first spot on top is where my CPU and GPU are (yes, right next to each other), and the second spot is where my RAM is (which gets warm somtimes). The yellow spot is where my hard drive is, but I probably do not need a fan there but I'm considering it anyway.

I was thinking about getting this fan for the GPU/CPU combo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106100

And either that same fan for the ram area or one that is still 120mm but quieter (I do not need to push as much air for cooling there).

So general questions:
1) Is 16-18dB too loud? What about two of those?
2) Would this push enough air for cooling? Or do I need to consider something else?
3) Should the fans point up towards the laptop? Or away to draw heat out?

 

$12 is a lot of money for a case fan Greg . . . stop by Micro Center and see what kind of prices they have.

1. A conversation is about 75dB so 16 - 18dB is very quiet.

2. You might want to get a smaller fan so you can push more concentrated air. A case fan would work though.

3. You want the fans to blow at the laptop.

 

Hi everyone.. i'm rather new to these forums

I recently bought a 1720 inspiron dell
I want to know whats a good cooler for it. And can i do the undervolting thing with dell? Does anyone recommend me using the AS5? (if i do use it.. do i have to re-apply like 1-2 years?) I need a good cooler pad for a 17" which i'm not too sure.. some suggestion would be awesome!!!
Thanks guys


Clovet

 

Are you sure the 1720 even needs a cooling pad? I would wait until you get it and see. No point to spending unnecessary money. ;-)

 

Chaz I need your help once again good friend.


Recently I just bought a Spire Pacific Breeze laptop cooler and I guess I'm content with it.

It pushes a good amount of cool air under my laptop and out toward the sides.

Then lately, I've been wondering whether a cooler that pushes air UP towards the bottom of the laptop would be more effective in cooling the laptop itself then a cooler that pushes cool air underneath it.

Coolers like the Zalman ZM-NC1000 pushes air UP.

Then again, I've read some reviews that have said the Spire Pacific Breeze does a tremendous job in cooling a laptop.

I know that how much a cooler cools the laptop certainly depends on the kind of laptop and how the vents are situated.

In this case, Vaios have their vents on the bottom.

So my question is, does a cooler that pushes air UP do a better job of cooling then a cooler that pushes air UNDERneath the laptop?

 

It's all dependent on the laptop. The Spire works well for just about any laptop because it covers the entire bottom side of the machine. The most effective coolers push up but The fan placement is different on each laptop so you have to get one that matches your fan placement.

 

Hmm I see. Fan placement...let me open up my NB real quick..

 

I know very few people have this laptop but would you expect the Sager NP5790 to need an external cooling solution?

 

I've used the Clevo M570U (Sager NP5760) before and it didn't need a cooling pad. I don't know how that compares to the M570RU though (NP5790).

I say wait until you get it, and if it runs too warm for your tastes, then get a pad. The Zalman NC-1000 is the best for 17" notebooks.

 

Damn. I just took one of the fans used to cooling one of my stereo equipment and put it underneath my notebook to see how well it can cool my laptop versus the Spire Pacific Breeze.

My CPU dropped down to an amazingly low 36 degrees though my harddrive didn't drop.

With the Spire, the lowest it will ever go is 42 degrees.

So with that, air pushing up > air pushing underneath




Chaz, you feel like having another Spire Pacific Breeze cooler?

 

Lol, no. My X61 runs very cool and I don't need a cooler for it.

I'd keep the Spire around. Always good as a back-up cooler.

36* is an awesome temperature, congrats.

 

A good way to cool your notebook is to have a standard stand fan (the one used to cool your room...) blow cool air to it; if positioned correctly to blow directly into your notebook's cooling system (cooler) it can lower your temperature from 3 to 5 degrees under full load. I use that metod myself during the summer and it really works.

 

You are right, that is very effective. I used to have to do that with my old Dell Inspiron 5000. I put a pencil under the back to elevate and it blew the cool air underneath.

 

My laptop fan never run in full speed (unless 80 degrees+). So I was wondering is there anyway to force it into running full speed? For gaming? I ve heard a thing or 2 about ACPI fan controll in NHC (which i use). But I ve never really looked into it... can anyone teach me how to use ACPI fan controll or is there any other way to make my fan run at top speed when I need it?

Thanks for any help!

 

Have you checked if there is a BIOS upgrade for your notebook? They sometimes fix things like fan control.

Also, it sounds like you really need a cooling pad.

 

I'm probably going to do that myself in due time...I wouldn't mind having a little breeze in my room anyway :/

 

nono chaz im not suffering from a overheating problem, u might remeber (page6 of this thread) I basically did what needed to be done in the guide (running at a nice 38 degree atm), cept that i did all of that before i even read the guide..lol I was just wondering how i could increase my fan speed so that my cpu could be even cooler? the 80 degree was before i did all the stuff from the guide, i was saying that my fan had only ever been up 2 full seepd than!

Thanks for any help!

 

Have you tried SpeedFan?

Note that by increasing the system fan's speed you will increase the wear & tear on it.

 

Yeah i ve tried speed fan... but it doesn't regconise my fan. Yeah i know it could wear the fan out quicker...but it would be on max all he time, just im playing games

 

any renowned notebook cooler brands that you can suggest??

 

The Targus Chillmat I mentioned on the front page is a good pad; the Thermaltake IXoft gets good marks (it's a bizarre cooler though, but it works), and the Zalman NC1000.

 

Great stuff. Cheers folks.

Any merit in going for a "podium" type cooling pad? No fans or phase change material or anything else. These simply seem to prop the laptop up so that there's better circulation on the underside. Chaz's pencil trick might work just as well for all I know!

This one (Targus Podium Coolpad) seems to be getting half decent reviews though:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16834999816
http://macteens.com/features/fullstory/review_targus_podium_coolpad1/

 

That is simply a passive cooling pad, which you can easily make yourself. Yes I think the pencil trick would work almost as well and for a fraction of the cost.

 

imma stick a fan to the bottom of my sager just like i had on the side of my desktop

 

Hey all,

Ok so if i'm on idle after using my notebook(see sig) for 2-3 hours the temperature is roughly about 45C. Now If i'm on load for 2-3 hours its about 59C.
Do you guys think this is a good temperature rating? I may be on load playing neverwinter night 2 instead of starcraft which would probably make the temp higher.
BUT, never the less I'm waiting for my Zalman NC1000 Silver.
Dell told me 1720 with the Zalman will be no problem for size factor.


Loads - I mean only like firefox, winamp music, msn, starcraft, (until i get other games purchased, I have neverwinter night 2 coming in tomorrow or the day after that)

 

The CPU temperature I assume? Those temperatures are fine. The cooling pad should bring the temperatures noticeably lower though.

 

Personally, I've found that the RightMark CPU Clock Utility is one of the best things you can use to keep your computer cool. A little bit of patience, some work with undervolting and Orthos, and now you're running 15C cooler than you were before. I've been using it for over 3 years now, first on a Gateway 7405GX (Athlon64 3200+) and now on a Gateway NX860XL (Intel Core2Duo T7200 2.0GHz), I've never had any trouble with it whatsoever.

Sadly, I've not noticed any guides on using RMClock to undervolt using Google. I'd be happy to describe the process and post it here if people are interested. It's not super-intuitive, but I think I could write a guide that would make it easy for the newbiest newbie to do; and if you followed it to the letter (being patient and not doing too much at once), there is virtually no chance of harming your computer.

Email me at [email protected] if you're interested.

 

I also really like RMclock, so far I have only been using it to keep the cpu from making an annoying power state switching noise. I would like to learn some more about using it, especially for keeping things cool. So yes, please do share, I would be most interested.

And as far as cooling methods go, I was once troubleshooting a game crash issue, and wanted to make absoultely sure it wasn't heat related, so I ran the laptop over one of our central AC ducts. Normally it idles at about 35c, highest it will ever go under extreme load is 70, while on the AC it idled at around 4-10, and only reached about 30 under load.

 

I need serious help Hp Pavilion ze4805us. i took all the screws out i could find there is something in the center I cannot seperate to open the case to clean fan. Help!

 

Can you show some pics?

 

RM clock is one of the best, agreed.

There is a good article on undervolting using rmclock here
http://www.nordichardware.com/Articles/?skrivelse=465

 

ill use some compressed air and a cooling pad most likely : )

and one question - Does taking apart the bottom of the notebook void a warranty at all? However, I know warranties are different... If so they wouldn't be able to tell right?

I don't know if thats a stupid question or not... but hey no question is a dumb question i suppose

 

Nice find, Scallywag! I actually wrote a guide myself, but it's not as professional as the one you pointed out. Not sure if I should still post it or not.

Also, I should note that if you have a dual-core processor, your best bet is to use Orthos instead of Prime95, as it's simply a version of Prime95 optimized for dual-cores.

 

so far the best results I had - well, with my Compal EL80 - was to use
1. tickless linux kernel 2.6.22 (x86_64, archlinux, 2.6.22-pierlo line)
2. liquidmetal on both gpu and cpu.
3. 1.21 (recently-recent bios) bios.

Running 20-25 degrees C on CPU cores Before (older, non-tickless kernel) it was about 40 degrees.

 

Sorry if I am resurrecting a dead thread. I noticed an interesting thing happen with my computer in regards to cooling. Usually my computer idles at about 25-30C if only doing mundane tasks such as web surfing etc. I recently updated my bios, and from then on it idled at least at 45, and when using the internet it would get as high as 50. So I got my old bios version installed, and it went back to normal. I am not sure if the bios version I downloaded was corrupted, or whatever, but mabye it is worth mentioning that making sure you have a good bios version installed could help in keeping things cool.

 

yes, definetly, made a difference in my case. plus software/OS also makes a diff. a lot - ~100% temperature change, os-based. dunno about your window$ dudes, but if you run Linux, definetly run NO_HZ aka tickless.

 

Reading this thread about cooling your notebook a while ago inspired me to make myself a cooler. Cooling is cOOL!!
Now I want to use NHC (2.0 Pre-Release 06) to start undervolting but I have some questions.

I have changed the value for multiplier12 from V. 1,1750 to V. 1,0750 yesterday.
No problems occured during the full test I ran.

Now I have some questions about the different multipliers.
- Do you have to change them all (7,8,9,10,11,12,12) or only the last one (last 12).
- Why is multiplier 12 2 times in the voltage option window?
- If I only change multiplier 12 to V. 1,0750 and multiplier 11 stays default at V. 1,1375 does this mean that only under 100% load the voltage will drop?

Below are my default values and the customized values I would like to start testing with. (Multiplier, devolt value , customized value)

7 V. 0,9875---> 0,9625
8 V. 1,0250---> 0,9750
9 V. 1,0625---> 0,9875
10 V. 1,1000--->1,0000
11 V. 1,1375--->1,0375
12 V. 1,1750--->1,0750
12 V. 1,1750--->1,0750

If someone could answer my questions and/or comment on the customized setting, I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks from the undervoltingN00b.

 

1. I dunno why there is an extra one... mine shows 3 '16X' but i can only change one. And yes I changed all the voltages on every multiplier, but i dont think you need to do 12x twice, just leave the later one.

2. If you only change the last one, then yes the voltage change will only occur to the last one.

Apparently it is safe to UV by 0.200V. But obviously I think it depends on CPUs. I have UV'd by over 0.200V on some multipliers and its running ok.

I have had my notebook undervolted for over a year now and I have not noticed any noticeable problems

Good luck with that!