Cooling laptops

carlmart

Gawd
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Sep 17, 2006
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My question is on how possible it is to cool down a hot laptop's CPU, particularly when gaming.

This was one of the problems in this Asus N56J I bought three years ago: heat dissipation. The other is a short running battery. Next time I buy a laptop, let's hope many years from now, I will look at those aspects with more attention.

Well, today I found these two external coolers, which apparently work by heat suction. The question is how effective they can be.

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/IETS...108.1000016.1.1ec17bf0MnorhA&isOrigTitle=true

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/New-...108.1000016.1.5868c93eMyw6EL&isOrigTitle=true
 
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Something you might do before dropping cash on an external cooling pad: replace the TIM.

When I got my Acer, it ran pretty hot right out of the box - replacing the stock thermal paste with some Thermal Grizzly stopped the thermal throttling issues.
 
Getting to my cpu is quite complicated, according to the videos I have seen.

And the results they got with alleviating measures were very poor for so much work and risk of doing something wrong.
 
Well then, regarding the two coolers you linked, will they work with your particular model of laptop? Not all laptops exhaust out the side like is shown in the example pictures. Also, particularly on the first one, imagine what will happen to the laptop hinge if you forget it's there and try to close the lid over that little clamp arm.

You might consider a cooling pad instead:

4f421286-3724-4a62-b30d-c73603232381_1.7c9ed13fa331532c6c50454174614c79.jpeg


There are a zillion varieties of these on the market, they will work with almost any laptop as most pull air in from underneath the chassis, and - this is the big one for me - you're not clamping something to the side of your mobile device.
 
Thanks for making this thread. I kind of gave up on looking for something for mine. It's a MSI GT80 2QE:
thumb2-1-920x517.jpg



Overall a pretty neat machine and still very comparable to many desktops. Two Nvme raids(one pair of Intel SSD's and the other Samsung 850's, and a hybrid drive. Two 980m's in SLI that still can push 60 fps in 1080p(18.4" screen) for modern games that, cough-cough still support SLI or I can find bits for. Upgraded to 32GB 2133mhz. Biggest problem is of course heat. Temps on the CPU and GPU's are 70-80c with fans maxed! When fans are maxed this thing is ridiculously loud too.

Never knew about those kind of other exhaust coolers before. Interesting but I'd be more interested in something that creates cool air to feed into the bottom. Looked at many laptop coolers but I don't believe simply pushing more air is the answer. Hoping someone chimes in with something that can go that extra step.
 
I already have that "fan base", but it doesn't help. because the intakes through small holes in the keyboard and goes out only on the side. Maybe that's why it gets so hot.

Once I used a side fan, but it was loud and it didn't adjust in the way these ones seem to do, like forming a vacuum.
 
I already have that "fan base", but it doesn't help. because the intakes through small holes in the keyboard and goes out only on the side. Maybe that's why it gets so hot.

Once I used a side fan, but it was loud and it didn't adjust in the way these ones seem to do, like forming a vacuum.
Huh. Well that's a bummer!

If you do decide to grab one of those you linked, do let us know how it turns out. I think in theory it might help, I just get nervous about stuff attached to the side of the side of my laptop. Even a USB drive is enough to increase my anxiety levels. XD I guess those blowers won't wreck a port though, so it's not as bad.
 
I've watched the video again. I was right when I said it was pretty complicated, except for people that deal with such disassemblies everyday.

It's got too many very delicate unpluggings that have to be done on the inside. Murphy's law at its maximum. Risk bricking my laptop. Sorry, not an option.

That's the vacuum cooler I had showed. If someone here liked it, please let me talk to him
 
I've watched the video again. I was right when I said it was pretty complicated, except for people that deal with such disassemblies everyday.

It's got too many very delicate unpluggings that have to be done on the inside. Murphy's law at its maximum. Risk bricking my laptop. Sorry, not an option.

That's the vacuum cooler I had showed. If someone here liked it, please let me talk to him
if you have built a computer or changed your own TIM you can handle taking the bottom off a laptop. trust me, its a lot easier than you think. the biggest thing is having the confidence to do it. that vid also is at a goofy angle making it harder on him than it should have been. I would leave it in the normal laptop position(bottom down) and move the palm rest assembly forward to free up the video cable from the base. then you can disconnect the power and video cable from the mobo. its just those two connectors you have to reinsert on reassembly and about 15 screws. you could also take it to a shop and ask them to do it, pay for an 1/2 to an hour of labour
 
start with upgrading the TIM. tear down is not that hard at all.



if you want a "vacuum" cooler, linus(nick) liked this one, depending on laptop model: https://opolar.com/collections/laptop-cooler


Not sure but I think I remember Cagey or someone else posting that video awhile back. It's good one. Not so much afraid of taking my laptop apart as I've had to many times the 1st year I got it. The re-seller I purchased it from screwed up numerous configurations on it. After many emails and other communications I decided to take things into my own hands and just fix it myself. The design for the Titan's involves about 2 dozen screws but once out the top & bottom panels come off giving access to a large amount of the rig. It's actually kind of a neat design. Only thing I can't remember is if the pads will come off as easy as that video. If so then it shouldn't be so bad. BTW, is there a particular TIM you'd recommend? I vaguely remember then having the same thoughts as now. This would be a project for me to do over an afternoon with patience and a couple of good beers so I could give it the attention it needs. Pretty sure once I get those pads off I'm going to see a half-A$$ed splooge of TIM, that or little to nothing.

Last weekend I started researching these exhaust coolers since I hadn't heard of them until carlmart made this thread and I came across the oplar. Just watched that LinusT video and their results pretty much mirrored the reviews I read on Amazon. Results can vary greatly depending the laptop. Sometimes upwards of 10c sometimes barely 1c. Generally speaking, though, this is considered one of the best of this kind of thing.
 
Thanks for making this thread. I kind of gave up on looking for something for mine. It's a MSI GT80 2QE:
View attachment 155828


Overall a pretty neat machine and still very comparable to many desktops. Two Nvme raids(one pair of Intel SSD's and the other Samsung 850's, and a hybrid drive. Two 980m's in SLI that still can push 60 fps in 1080p(18.4" screen) for modern games that, cough-cough still support SLI or I can find bits for. Upgraded to 32GB 2133mhz. Biggest problem is of course heat. Temps on the CPU and GPU's are 70-80c with fans maxed! When fans are maxed this thing is ridiculously loud too.

Never knew about those kind of other exhaust coolers before. Interesting but I'd be more interested in something that creates cool air to feed into the bottom. Looked at many laptop coolers but I don't believe simply pushing more air is the answer. Hoping someone chimes in with something that can go that extra step.

Opening up the vents on the bottom of the laptop where it pulls the air in should make it run cooler and quieter. Those little slits or grills on the bottom of pretty much all laptops hurt the airflow like you wouldn't believe.
 
This Asus has no slits or grills on the bottom. Only little holes on the keyboard to let the air-in.

But I think it's not enough to cool things down.
 
Not sure but I think I remember Cagey or someone else posting that video awhile back. It's good one. Not so much afraid of taking my laptop apart as I've had to many times the 1st year I got it. The re-seller I purchased it from screwed up numerous configurations on it. After many emails and other communications I decided to take things into my own hands and just fix it myself. The design for the Titan's involves about 2 dozen screws but once out the top & bottom panels come off giving access to a large amount of the rig. It's actually kind of a neat design. Only thing I can't remember is if the pads will come off as easy as that video. If so then it shouldn't be so bad. BTW, is there a particular TIM you'd recommend? I vaguely remember then having the same thoughts as now. This would be a project for me to do over an afternoon with patience and a couple of good beers so I could give it the attention it needs. Pretty sure once I get those pads off I'm going to see a half-A$$ed splooge of TIM, that or little to nothing.

Last weekend I started researching these exhaust coolers since I hadn't heard of them until carlmart made this thread and I came across the oplar. Just watched that LinusT video and their results pretty much mirrored the reviews I read on Amazon. Results can vary greatly depending the laptop. Sometimes upwards of 10c sometimes barely 1c. Generally speaking, though, this is considered one of the best of this kind of thing.
pretty much any good TIM will be an improvement I use AS5 or MX-4. with the heatsink in this one being partly aluminum, liquid metal wouldn't be a good idea.
 
I've seen another video, with audio, replacing the TIM on the same Asus, and the temp drop was just a few degrees.

Only increasing the cooling area, adding a copper plate over the tube, ribbed or not, the drop was better. But nothing too impressive.

The assembly is not designed for applications that increase heat.
 
This Asus has no slits or grills on the bottom. Only little holes on the keyboard to let the air-in.

But I think it's not enough to cool things down.

Hmmm... that is a really sucky design. Does it have vents somewhere else to let air in?

If not, would it be possible to make vents on the bottom of the case? From the looks of it, it would.

Those suction coolers are really only going to help IF the built in fan profile is really sucky.
 
No, apparently those that tried making holes in the bottom got things worst. Air flow was affected, and temp went up.

You can see on the video that the bottom has no vents at all.

Once I installed a side fan, but it didn't suck the hot air out as it should have. Nothing changed.
 
I keep my Macbook Pro cool at 100% load.

I removed the back lid and now it sits on a laptop cooling pad. This lets me maintain 3.4 GHz on the i7 and maintain 1 ghz for the GPU.

It is a cheap way to let it overclock while gaming.
 
I keep my Macbook Pro cool at 100% load.

I removed the back lid and now it sits on a laptop cooling pad. This lets me maintain 3.4 GHz on the i7 and maintain 1 ghz for the GPU.

It is a cheap way to let it overclock while gaming.

Wow. 100% load - cool - overclock - gaming.
Never thought I would see a post referring to a MacBook Pro containing those words. Especially without Hackintosh in there somewhere. (y)
 
to make that work you would need to source another fan that sucks air in from the bottom, then cut breathing holes for it.
its a doable mod. and I thought this thread seemed familiar...

It sounds pretty destructive and with unpredictable results.
 
That cooling limitation and the short battery time were two things I should have paid attention when I bought this laptop.

It won't happen in the future.
 
That cooling limitation and the short battery time were two things I should have paid attention when I bought this laptop.

It won't happen in the future.

I agree. My first 'gaming' laptop was a Toshiba Qosmio 775 3d/120hz with a 560m. Still have it. When gaming it chewed thru the battery in about 1 hour. Browsing could last 2-4 hours and cooling wasn't too bad but there is a PIA issue with moving it after it's gotten warm. The display won't re-init and sometimes have to do a full reset on the system. Display, when working, and speakers are amazing though. Next one was the MSI I listed above. By then either MSI or NV put in firmware that severely throttles the cards to useless degree when not plugged in. Not exaggerating when I say 5-10 fps vs. the 50-60+ when plugged in. Add in the noise for proper cooling and it's kind of a nightmare.

Not to derail the thread or defeat goals I agree with you on but I'm somewhat interested in the laptops coming out with a RTX 2080. Granted, what kind of chip are they really going to use since it's gotten pretty shady again with the variants but the possibility of 1080TI performance in a laptop seems intriguing to me. Couple that to a 1080p or 1440p 144hz g-sync screen and it could be something pretty amazing. Unfortunately that brings us back to the power/cooling arena.
 
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