Looking for a laptop cooler???

[Diablo2K]

[Reserected see below]

I have a Lenovo 17" Legion 5 Laptop. I have a DESK that has a full size mouse pad top. The feet on the laptop are pretty small and I would like to raise the rear of the laptop but I don't want to raise the front much if at all. I notice after a while of playing Diablo 4 that the keyboard gets really hot as well as the exhaust on the side. If I use the mouse to close to the exhaust my hand will get really hot and I have to reposition my hand further away from the vent. All the coolers I can find with good reviews all have a raised up front. I found THESE and they will raise the rear but I would still like to get some air moving as well. I could get something like THESE but it would just clutter things up behind the laptop, it has ports in the rear, I currently have power, mouse, usb hub, and ethernet plugged in there now, there is plenty of room on the side of the cables in back for the fans but they would have to be pointed away from the back of the laptop as there is rear vents there. I seen a nice looking crossflow fan but with the rear ports it's way to big to work.

I have have a fan like THIS without the led display. I tried plugging it into the side usb port and blowing it over the keyboard, but it is loud, vibrates, and puts out to much air without any way to turn it down. Mine had stiff cloth blades so it don't hurt if I get to close to it.

I found THIS as well, but it is kind of expensive and has no reviews, the funniest part the pictures in the description has computers but none of them are using the cooler, one of them is even using a different cooler, LOL!

Any Ideas? I don't mean to be so picky, .

 

[stormy1]

Cut a hole in the desk and put a 200mm fan blowing up and some spacers under the back of the laptop to raise it slightly.

 

[Diablo2K]

Cut a hole in the desk and put a 200mm fan blowing up and some spacers under the back of the laptop to raise it slightly.

Don't want to do anything that drastic.

I did put my Google Pixel 7 box under the back to raise it up. I am also using the gooseneck fan blowing over the keyboard when I am gaming. I have it plugged into a hub as it vibrates pretty good and don't want it to possibly damage my laptop. When I am wearing my earbuds I don't hear it. My temps when playing Diablo 4 rarely go over 80c and the highest I have seen is 85c. I should probably do some stress testing to see just how drastic I need to go.

I am going to get THESE to replace the box.

 

[Diablo2K]

I ran Furmark and Prime 95 at the same time while monitoring the system with Afterburner. I noticed that pretty quickly the CPU was Thermal Throttling down to 2.8ghz after hitting a high of about 95c. In Diablo 4 I never seen the CPU throttle back however. But I looked at the bottom vents and there was a little dust on them. I removed the back panel and found that the fans were pretty dusty so I cleaned them out with my trusty Datavac Blower. I will retest and see if it made any difference.
[update] Running the same tests. The CPU started out at 4.7ghz (80 watts), temps went up to 86c then it throttled back to a low of 3.0ghz. Seems the system wants to keep the CPU at around 50watts. At this setting it is running at 76c.
The GPU is stable at 70c 80 watts. I set the computer to performance mode which is suppose to use faster fan speeds and it made no difference. a while back I ran some benchmarks testing the 3 different modes and there was almost no difference in performance, it was like 3 fps going from silent to performance. I have just been leaving it in balanced mode.


And after

 

[pendragon1]

those feet and the cleaning will help. you could also repaste the chips with new/better paste to knock off a few more degrees.

 

[mnewxcv]

I use something like this

https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Ven...?keywords=Laptop+stand&qid=1690724680&sr=8-18

 

[Diablo2K]

I use something like this

https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Ven...?keywords=Laptop+stand&qid=1690724680&sr=8-18

Thank you.

I seen several brands of this type of stand. But there was two things that made me think it would not be good for me. First is the spacing of the 2 bars. I would guess that they would run right through my fan intakes blocking airflow. Second can be seen in the pic below. My 17" Gaming Laptop is pretty deep and would hang over the back of the stand causing stability issues, or at least this is what I am guessing would happen. In this pic not only is the laptop extending beyond the rear of the stand, he has it also extending in front as well, my guess is to make it a little more stable. (This pic was taken from the reviews of the stand you linked.) I think those feet I linked would be just about perfect for what I am wanting to do, all I need to figure out now is how to get some fresh air under the laptop.

 

[mnewxcv]

Thank you.

I seen several brands of this type of stand. But there was two things that made me think it would not be good for me. First is the spacing of the 2 bars. I would guess that they would run right through my fan intakes blocking airflow. Second can be seen in the pic below. My 17" Gaming Laptop is pretty deep and would hang over the back of the stand causing stability issues, or at least this is what I am guessing would happen. In this pic not only is the laptop extending beyond the rear of the stand, he has it also extending in front as well, my guess is to make it a little more stable. (This pic was taken from the reviews of the stand you linked.) I think those feet I linked would be just about perfect for what I am wanting to do, all I need to figure out now is how to get some fresh air under the laptop.
View attachment 586635

Here's a couple pics of mine with a thinkbook 16p, which is about 1.5" less deep than yours from what I could find. Just for reference. Good luck!

 

[Diablo2K]

Here's a couple pics of mine with a thinkbook 16p, which is about 1.5" less deep than yours from what I could find. Just for reference. Good luck!

I am just going to go with the feet for now. I do have this saved in my wish list to try out at a later time.

those feet and the cleaning will help. you could also repaste the chips with new/better paste to knock off a few more degrees.

I use to use Arctic Silver 5 back when I was building my own PCs, it has been a while and I do still have some, but I won't use it, it's just to old and risky. I had heard of Thermal Grizzly from watching videos on Youtube and checked them out on Amazon and there web page. They have 6 different pastes (4 if you don't count the liquid metal) plus 2 different sheets. I think I will go with the Kryonaut but don't know if it would be beneficial to go with the Extreme version at $22 (14.2W/(m·K)) or the regular version at $9 (12.5W/(m·K)) (the regular version is a smaller amount but I don't need much). I am also considering the KryoSheet, it is even more expensive and I can't find the thermal conductivity numbers for it but should be fairly easy to apply, just cut the size I need, sit it on the core, and attach the heatsink.
What do you think?

Please check out the update I did on the stress testing I did in the previous post with the pics.

 

[pendragon1]

reg Kryonaut

 

[Diablo2K]

reg Kryonaut

Ok, I will consider it. If I was having issues with real life games I would do it for sure. But the only time I see thermal throttling is running Prime95 and Furmark.

 

[pendragon1]

Ok, I will consider it. If I was having issues with real life games I would do it for sure. But the only time I see thermal throttling is running Prime95 and Furmark.

i thought you wanted it to run cooler, or was this all just a waste of time?

 

[Darunion]

https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-MULTIFAN-Receiver-Playstation/dp/B00G05A2MU/

These little usb fans are nice. I have several of theirs. Quiet and move just enough air to keep a laptop cool. I use a pair on top of my audio receiver and a larger one to keep my networking crap cool. Also nice to just use to blow at you on a hot day lol.

 

[Diablo2K]

i thought you wanted it to run cooler, or was this all just a waste of time?

I do. But this started out as I was just looking for a laptop cooler to fit my needs. The thought of doing the Thermal Paste is a little scary. If I screw it up I can't afford to replace the laptop. I am pretty sure I can do it no problem but then there's always Murphy getting in the way . LOL.
I really do appreciate your input. I am seriously considering doing it, I think in the long run it will help keep my laptop going longer than if I don't do it.

 

[bluestang]

reg Kryonaut

Ok, I will consider it. If I was having issues with real life games I would do it for sure. But the only time I see thermal throttling is running Prime95 and Furmark.

Kryonaut is not good for laptops long term. Gelid GC Extreme is better but I would use Honeywell PTM7950. It is what Lenovo started using to get way better temps and longevity of TIM a couple years ago. His unit may be older than when they started not have it.

Plus, seems you're using a laptop like a desktop...I would expect high temps under this type of load.

 

[pendragon1]

Kryonaut is not good for laptops long term.

how so? pump out? i havent personally used it, just know its one of the best that isnt liquid metal.

 

[Diablo2K]

Kryonaut is not good for laptops long term. Gelid GC Extreme is better but I would use Honeywell PTM7950. It is what Lenovo started using to get way better temps and longevity of TIM a couple years ago. His unit may be older than when they started not have it.

Plus, seems you're using a laptop like a desktop...I would expect high temps under this type of load.

Yes, my laptop is my only computer. I consider it more of a Desk Top replacement more than a laptop. You can't set it on your lap as it will block the vents. I do have a lap desk that I have only used a few times. I rarely take it anywhere and only use it at my desk at home.

 

[daglesj]

Pastes are dead! Long live PTM7950!

 

[Carlyle2020]

If you elevate it and want a fan: alpine 17LP (use just the fan) + Noctua NA-FC1 and artisan putty to hold it underneath

​

 

[Diablo2K]

Here is my plan at this time, subject to change.
I am getting THESE FEET to raise the rear of the laptop. They will be here by the weekend. However I have blown my budget for this month so next month I will get Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and redo the thermal paste in my laptop. Also to help with airflow I will get THIS FAN and this CONTROLLER. The reason I am choosing this fan is because it will lay flat below the cables in the rear, there is not much space back there to for a regular fan, as on either side of the cables is the rear exhaust for the CPU/GPU cooler and I don't want to put a fan there and have it blowing the heat back into the laptop. I will plug the controller and fan into my USB hub and not the laptop, the hub has power buttons to turn on/off the fan. I am also going to be getting This Fan to blow air onto the keyboard to keep it cool. I have a fan like this now but it vibrates and is loud, I only use it when I have my earbuds in so I don't hear it. I will probably have it on a controller as well.
This is probably overkill and as I said earlier subject to change. Hopefully it won't start looking like a rats nest behind my laptop . Thoughts?

Here is my current setup:

You can see the current gooseneck fan and how it is plugged into the hub and pointed at my keyboard.

[Edit] I am watching

and I am worried that I will need to replace the thermal pads for the VRam etc. as in the video and I need to find out what I need to get before I take things apart. Is there anywhere I can find out what I need or is there a good "Package" of assorted pads I can get?

 

[Shoganai]

A laptop stand (with a base that allows airflow at the bottom) + a desk fan blowing toward the laptop has worked about 100 times better than any "laptop cooler" I've ever bought.

 

[Diablo2K]

I got the feet today, they are smaller then I thought they would be. But it is still better then the cell phone box I was using. I am going to get the fan running asap as well.

 

[Diablo2K]

I was looking at the pic of the inside of my laptop and it got me thinking. I am currently transferring 256gb of data to an external SSD and I noticed the SSD in my Laptop is reaching 60c (~350MB/s) and after a while the transfer slowed down big time. Would it be a good idea to grab a heatsink for it. Which one should I get, I don't know how much clearance I have? The smallest I seen was THIS 2mm heatsink, they also have a 4mm version. I have tried these cheap heatsinks before, the main problem I have had is with the mounting system and the rubber bands breaking. I do not want a metal bar loose in my laptop. Would a solid copper heatsink be better?

The SSD in my computer is a WD Black SN770 2tb, it is a Gen 4 drive however my laptop only supports Gen 3.

 

[xDiVolatilX]

I got the feet today, they are smaller then I thought they would be. But it is still better then the cell phone box I was using. I am going to get the fan running asap as well.

View attachment 588546View attachment 588547

Doesn't the laptop wiggle off the feet? How is it secured to not move during a wild gaming session? Lol

 

[Diablo2K]

Doesn't the laptop wiggle off the feet? How is it secured to not move during a wild gaming session? Lol

The feet have rubber/silicon top and bottoms. The feet are big enough there's enough contact with the laptops feet that it makes for a stable connection. I haven't had any problems with movement. I don't know how rough you are when your playing games however. I rarely feel the need to move the laptops position once I find the "Right" Spot.

 

[Diablo2K]

Would THESE thermal pads be good to get sense I won't know what thickness I will need?

[edit] I was looking for a better app to see the SSD temps and found HWinfo64. I opened it and ran a Crystal Disk Mark benchmark. It shows 3 different temps. Drive temp 2 "Current temperature of the NAND flash media" hit a high of 107c. Crystal Disk Info only shows a single temp as does WD Dashboard. Is this temp reading something to be worried about? I am planning on getting a heatspreader as soon as I can.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

Would THESE thermal pads be good to get sense I won't know what thickness I will need?

[edit] I was looking for a better app to see the SSD temps and found HWinfo64. I opened it and ran a Crystal Disk Mark benchmark. It shows 3 different temps. Drive temp 2 "Current temperature of the NAND flash media" hit a high of 107c. Crystal Disk Info only shows a single temp as does WD Dashboard. Is this temp reading something to be worried about? I am planning on getting a heatspreader as soon as I can.

View attachment 590647

I bought a couple of heatsinks for my m.2 drives, think I used some thermal paste for the tallest chip and a pad for the lower ones. I ditched the rubber bands that "secured" the sink to the stick and just wrapped it with capton tape.

 

[Diablo2K]

Is there a way to get a full screenshot of an app that is longer than the screen? I have to scroll to see the whole table but I would like to capture all of it in one single pic.
Before Results:
No overclock and I have the laptop set to performance mode.
CPU, I ran Aida64 Stability test.
You can see the CPU hits a high of 98c and goes into Thermal Throttle.


And the GPU Results running Furmark:
No issues I can tell. Running at a high of 86c.


And now the SSD Results, running CrystalDiskMark. OUCH! it is a WD Black SN770 2tb. It is a Gen 4 drive however the Laptop is only Gen3. you can see Temp 2 hitting a high of 114c.


I know these are not real word results. While playing Lost Ark CPU still hits the high 90s and thermal throttles and the SSD gets into the mid 90s as well. GPU does fine hitting mid 80s.
I will be getting the thermal past tomorrow sometime. I will update the post with pics and comments.
I already have the SSD Heatspreader. It is an IcePC cooler 2mm thick. I don't think I would have been able to get the 4mm version to fit. When I unpackaged the heatspreader I was actually shocked at the weight of it. The pad is probably 1.5mm as it is almost as thick as the heatspreader. I am still debating whether to remove the label on the SSD or not.

 

[Diablo2K]

Ok, it is done. Here is some pics of the process:
Before/After cleaning the cores, the old paste flaked off so it was pretty dry. One of the thermal pads over the video memory came apart a little. I do not have a replacement so hopefully it doesn't have any issues.



Here is a couple pics of the SSD after heatspreader install. Note that the SSD is actually bent a little. There is really only 2 chips on the drive, the memory is on one end and is taller than the controller in the front. There is a fairly large gap between the 2 chips where there is basicly plain PCB, this is where the label sits so it didn't need removing. The thermal pad is almost as thick as the heatspreader. I used all 5 of the bands to secure the heatspreader as the last thing I want is to have a huge slab of copper flying around inside my laptop.



And here is a pic of how I have things are laid out on my desk:


Right now I haven't ran any tests yet, kind of waiting for things to set before I stress out the system. Temps are looking good so far. i will update this post after I do the stress testing.

 

[Diablo2K]

Ok, I did the SSD test first. There was a 34c drop in temps! That is huge, I wasn't expecting that much of a drop.


I will do the CPU and GPU tests here in a bit and post the results.
I played some Lost Ark. I am not going to post any large pics this time cause there's really nothing to show. CPU Maxed out at 86c and there was no thermal throttling. GPU was even cooler at max of 76c. So I am really happy with the results. The biggest difference I noticed was that the exhaust from the right side vent is no longer burning my hand, I hold the mouse right next to the exhaust and it was getting really toasty and I had to keep moving my hand away from the vent. I do have that little 75x15mm blower fan pointed towards the vent there to help with that also. I am going to grab a 120x32mm Blower fan later to swap out with the smaller one. the current one is pretty quiet with the fan turned down but I do notice it especially when I quit the game and turn the fans off.

Lets see, I have bought:
Laptop Cooling pad (raised feet) - $10
Fan Controllers - $7
IcePC SSD Heatspreader - $12
75x15mm USB Blower Fan- $9
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut- $9
That's a total of $47, Extending the life of my laptop and reducing my stress levels - $Priceless!

Thank You everyone for the input, I really do appreciate it.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

Ok, it is done. Here is some pics of the process:
Before/After cleaning the cores, the old paste flaked off so it was pretty dry. One of the thermal pads over the video memory came apart a little. I do not have a replacement so hopefully it doesn't have any issues.



Here is a couple pics of the SSD after heatspreader install. Note that the SSD is actually bent a little. There is really only 2 chips on the drive, the memory is in the back and is taller than the controller in the front. There is a fairly large gap between the 2 chips where there is basicly plain PCB, this is where the label sits so it didn't need removing. The thermal pad is almost as thick as the heatspreader. I used all 5 of the bands to secure the heatspreader as the last thing I want is to have a huge slab of copper flying around inside my laptop.



And here is a pic of how I have things are laid out on my desk:


Right now I haven't ran any tests yet, kind of waiting for things to set before I stress out the system. Temps are looking good so far. i will update this post after I do the stress testing.

Get some Honeywell PTM 7950 phase change pads for the CPU and GPU, and a tub of K5-Pro for the other chips. As for your nvme heatsinks, I wouldn't trust those bands as they can snap, used some capton tape IMO.

 

[Diablo2K]

Well Damn. CPU has been thermally throttling. I have seen temps as high as 95. I am just going to stop watching the temps and play my games. There is nothing more I can really do anyway.
Started playing Starfield. I have to play on low settings to get 60fps average, and does it ever look like ass! LOL, this is the first game I have played where I have to play at anything less than High settings. Cyberpunk 2077 Plays well as long as I have Raytracing turned off, Lost Ark I have everything maxed out. Forza Horizon 5 Everything Maxed out except for raytracing on low. I have been wanting to get a desktop, I rarely move my laptop and at least a desktop is easy to upgrade piece by piece, where as a laptop is all or nothing.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

Well Damn. CPU has been thermally throttling. I have seen temps as high as 95. I am just going to stop watching the temps and play my games. There is nothing more I can really do anyway.
Started playing Starfield. I have to play on low settings to get 60fps average, and does it ever look like ass! LOL, this is the first game I have played where I have to play at anything less than High settings. Cyberpunk 2077 Plays well as long as I have Raytracing turned off, Lost Ark I have everything maxed out. Forza Horizon 5 Everything Maxed out except for raytracing on low. I have been wanting to get a desktop, I rarely move my laptop and at least a desktop is easy to upgrade piece by piece, where as a laptop is all or nothing.

Too thick pads will prevent HS from making proper contact with your CPU and GPU. Use thermal gunk so any excess will just squeeze out.

 

[Diablo2K]

Too thick pads will prevent HS from making proper contact with your CPU and GPU. Use thermal gunk so any excess will just squeeze out.

Are you talking about replacing the pads on the V-Ram and such? How much you think I would need, 10, 20, 60grams?

 

[The Mad Atheist]

20g is more than enough with 2 extra applications.
You want to blob it on to every chip that is cooled by the heatsink but the CPU and GPU.
Just don't use too little, and coat the whole chips. You want to use enough so it squeezes out the sides, any that spills out can be put back into the tub.

 

[Diablo2K]

20g is more than enough with 2 extra applications.
You want to blob it on to every chip that is cooled by the heatsink but the CPU and GPU.
Just don't use too little, and coat the whole chips. You want to use enough so it squeezes out the sides, any that spills out can be put back into the tub.

Ok, thank you. I will give it a try. I watched a video on Youtube and they really made a mess of it but it did work.

 

[Diablo2K]

I am once again looking for a Laptop cooler. I am still having issues with CPU Thermal Throttling as well as I would like to raise the screen as it is now the top of the screen is below the level of my eyes. I don't have much hopes of one solving my heat issues as the main reason I am reconsidering the Laptop Cooler is to raise the screen. With the holidays coming up I am pretty strapped for cash and I am currnetly looking at the KLIM Nova RGB Laptop Cooling Pad, at less than $20 I can aford it. However I will get something better at a later date.

I have not done the thermal putty yet but I just ordered it and when it comes in I will apply it and redo the thermal past on the CPU, GPU as well. I am currently seeing Highs of about 96c these are spikes but it is enough to trigger the CPU into thermal throttling and dropping down to 3.8ghz/50watts for a while. If this don't fix the heat issues I will just have to live with it until I can get my desktop built.
[edit]
I am going to go out on a limb and get the KLIM Everest Laptop Cooling Pad . It has really good reviews both on and off Amazon. People are reporting a drop of 20c in temps. I got to do something.

[update]
I did some testing and noticed when the CPU goes to 100% Load the fans take a while to respond, actually a good long while even in Performance mode. In the mean time the CPU Temps hit 95c immediately and the CPU Thermal Throttles. Running Furmarks CPU Burner and watching Temps/Watts/GHZ I see that the CPU drops down to 3.4ghz and about 55watts. The fans ramp up and the temps drop to about 84c but the CPU remains at 3.4ghz/55watts. I suspect sense the load doesn't go down the CPU remains throttled to protect itself. Playing a game the CPU load fluctuates as does the CPU Speed/Watts.
I am hoping the Laptop Cooler will force air through the laptop before the CPU 100%, however I don't have high hopes of it solving my problem but it should at least help.

I am losing about 20-25% performance due to thermal throttling. This laptop was my first and will be my last gaming laptop, at least my last Lenovo as it does not have any options to adjust fan curves, voltages, speeds or anything other than in performance mode I do have an option to overclock the GPU a little.

 

[Diablo2K]

I got the Klim Everest cooler. It did help alot with temps however having 2 fans the harmonics made the sound unbearable for me as well as how high the keyboard was from the desktop I had to return it. I am going to get the IETS GT500 it only has a single but larger fan sound should be lower toned and have no harmonics yet probably move even more air. I am also going to get a new monitor and keyboard. Set the laptop to the side of the desk and use the laptop display as secondary and the new monitor as primary display. This way the laptop will run cooler and the height wont bother me sense I will be using a traditional keyboard. This is the last step/mod/fix before I get my new desktop computer.

P.S. I did get the Thermal Putty, it did not help with any thermal issues. I am no longer going to monitor my temps while playing games and such. It just stresses me out, theres nothing I can do about it so why worry. I had been using 2 tablets as aditional displays using Spacedesk I have gone as far as disconnecting the table I used to display the temps so to avoid the temptation to open the apps.

 

[Mad Maxx]

I got the feet today, they are smaller then I thought they would be. But it is still better then the cell phone box I was using. I am going to get the fan running asap as well.

View attachment 588546View attachment 588547

I got a pair of these flip stands for my M2 Air. I wanted something to raise the back a bit for a better typing angle. They attach with an adhesive that's strong enough to keep them in place without scuffing the case when/if they're removed. These stands have 2 options for adjusting the height. I tried the feet you have, but they weren't very stable.

 

[Diablo2K]

I got a pair of these flip stands for my M2 Air. I wanted something to raise the back a bit for a better typing angle. They attach with an adhesive that's strong enough to keep them in place without scuffing the case when/if they're removed. These stands have 2 options for adjusting the height. I tried the feet you have, but they weren't very stable.

View attachment 611029View attachment 611030View attachment 611031

I had seen versions of those type of feet, problem I have is that the bottom of my laptop has the vents back there and there is little room to adhere them to the bottom. The feet I got are a little problematic finding the right place for them at first but once I do find the right placement I don't have any issues with stability uunless I need to move the laptop for some reason which is rather rare for me. I do think I may revisit the possibility of getting some stick on feet. I think if I get some about 1 inch wide they would fit between the fan grill and the edge of the bottom.

[edit] Just measured with a some calipers and I have about 0.8 inches between the outside holes and the edge of the bottom, but it would not be a crime if I do hang over the first line of holes to get something to fit. Looking at trying THESE maybe, they are 1.17" wide???