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Laptop chillers

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Old Jun 7, 2010 | 08:06 AM
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Default Laptop chillers

So, Saturday night....I got pretty freaked out because I went to the club with my laptop, booted it up, and started up the software I use, during my sets. The laptop actually shut down on me by itself...not once, but twice. After powering it back up after the 2nd time, I felt the top of it, where the CPU generally resides and noticed it was really hot.

So I got a small bottle of water from the bar that was kept in the freezer, and placed it on top of the laptop for a couple of hours during my set, and it kept the area cool. It didnt shut down at all after doing that. So I'm thinking one of 2 things....

1. The fan vent area is clogged up. I noticed its been kicking on alot lately. I bought some canned air online and plan on blowing out the vent in hopes this helps

2. I bought a cheap laptop cooler on Ebay. It has 2 fans, and lifts the laptop up a little. So hopefully the fans on the thing will help circulate air and keep things cooler

Anyone have any experience with Laptop chillers? How well do they work?
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Old Jun 7, 2010 | 08:14 AM
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ive always got my macbook pro on an angle using some 'feet' risers
makes sure the bottom can allow heat to vent out
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Old Jun 7, 2010 | 10:41 AM
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Stacy has one. It did wonders for hers.
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Old Jun 7, 2010 | 02:45 PM
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You don't really need any additional fans from what a laptop already has. It just needs to be slightly raised while being well vented below it. Also just pulling about your laptop and cleaning the heatsink and case fans would do wonders.
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Old Jun 15, 2010 | 06:41 PM
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Well, I got it today in the mail. Its alot smaller than Iexpected which is good, and it folds up to an even smaller size for travel. It has 2 fans, plugs into the usb port, but also has 2 extra USB ports on the unit itself. Theres also pretty cool LEDs on all 4 sides of it, which makes the entire bottom of the laptop glow really bright blue.

It seems to keep everything cool, but then again....they're not meant to cool things. They're more meant to circulate the air so heat doesnt just sit there underneath the processor. Overall...I'm pretty happy with it. I only spent $6 on it, and its definitely worth the price. *haha*
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Old Jun 16, 2010 | 10:00 PM
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If you're having problems with heat, the first thing to check is your running tasks.

Alot of people try to replace a desktop with a laptop. Laptops are not desktops. They do not run the same software for the same purposes.

lists of dos for laptops:
Office tasks on the go only
Music
Movies
light gaming
internet browsing
social communications

lists of donts for laptops:
downloading
file servers
web servers
programming or any other processor intensive task (unless it is a school/work related task)
lots of background tasks
full scale games


A laptop is a portable computer. It is designed to be less powerful, and has less heat dissipation to compensate for mobility. Being that mobility is added, unless you have a solid state hard disk, bumping it will disrupt and potentially corrupt hard disk tasks. Bumping also adds heat in many different ways.

Blocking fans by laying a laptop on any surface other then a hard flat one will cause premature wear and tear and eventually failure.

Electronics are designed in a laboratory. Unless you buy military grade electronics, they are not designed to get dirty. Make sure you keep your laptop clean inside and out to aid in heat dissipation.

Once a heat sink has become very hot, the compound holding it to the processor tends to go bad which creates less of a bond between the processor and the heat sink. It's a good idea to replace the heat sink compound.

Other then that, if you find your laptop is getting hot and you're just sitting there in the house, what you need is a desktop. Desktops provide the proper work/play environment which laptops do not. A laptop will cause strain on your wrists, back, neck and shoulders. Laptops are not a replacement for a desktop, they are a mobile computer designed to handle lighter tasks at 2-8 times the cost of the same hardware on a desktop.


Keep your processor idling at less then 3%. My Ubuntu netbook, which I'm currently on, idles at 0%-3%. It's not a fast computer. It's just tuned properly. Actually, this thing is very slow when loading programs. For comparison, it takes about 5 seconds to load firefox, but on my self built (for $800 total) desktop it takes about .02 seconds to load firefox.

I see too many people buying laptops. 99% of people really need to first buy a actual desktop, designed to handle the tasks that they are trying to do with a lower failure rate and faster speeds. Then they should buy a $249.99 netbook which is designed for browsing the internet cheaply from anywhere with extreme portability.

The crazy thing is you can buy a $1000 laptop... or you can buy a desktop with the same specs, desk, computer chair, monitor, keyboard, mouse and a netbook with that $1,000. The computer companies would rather keep you coming back with excessive failure rates from normal use of laptops though. You will get the same failures out of a netbook, but the difference is that they're cheap.

Not saying that you don't need a laptop.

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