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Do laptop coolers work or are they a fnacy gimmick?

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mepis

Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2005
I always wondered if laptop coolers really work. I got one just because I like fans. I'm a cooling freak to say the least and like moving air. Anyway I've had both the Antec cooler with my last laptop and a generic one that I have now with my current laptop. I got curious if they actually help cool the components at all so I tried a few things. Keep in mind this was with a generic cooler.

The temperatures were measured through speed fan. I wasnt interested in the actual temperature so much as I was interested in the delta difference between with and without the laptop cooler. The tests were done with the laptop in my signature.

Generic cooler specs: 34 CFM's, no metal to help absorb heat, 3/8 inch clearance from cooler to bottom of laptop, 2 squirrel cage design fans blowing directly on laptop

Temp Sensor 1= Socket temperature
Temp Sensor 2= HD temperature
Core=Core Obvisouly


Test 1: Idle sitting on bed with comforter
With Cooler:
  • Temp1=40
  • Temp2=41
  • Core=48

Without Cooler:
  • Temp1=40
  • Temp2=41
  • Core=49

Test 2: Under load for 30 minutes on bed with comforter
With Cooler:
  • Temp1=40
  • Temp2=41
  • Core=58

Without Cooler:
  • Temp1=41
  • Temp2=43
  • Core=59

Test 3: Sitting on kitchen table idle
With Cooler:
  • Temp1=38
  • Temp2=38
  • Core=45

Without Cooler:
  • Temp1=38
  • Temp2=38
  • Core=45

Test 4: On Kitchen table 30 minutes under load
With Cooler:
  • Temp1=40
  • Temp2=40
  • Core=52
Without Cooler:
Temps were the same as with cooler


Judging by the test I dont think the laptop cooler does very much really. I think I piece of cardboard or a dinner tray would accomplish the same tasks. I thought it might do something with the first tests while it was sitting on the bed. But with the laptop cooler the laptop sits up with a 3/8 inch gap so the comforter isnt restricting the vents or insulating the HD nearly as much. I think the second test on the flat kitchen table proved this. The difference in temperatures between the first two tests and the second two tests I believe come from just the different floors in my house. The first floor is much cooler then the second.

I think the fans on the laptop coler cool the plastic on the bottom of the laptop a little but as for the actual components with the sensors I do have available it doesnt seem to really help at all. The cpu exhaust on this laptop is clear in the back under the lid so it's not easy to obstruct it.

Does anyone else have similiar experiences with this or can anyone else confirm this with other coolers? Im just wondering if it's the design of this laptop that really revent it from being able to do anything or if laptop coolers in general are just a big scam?
 
I have to ask, what kind of laptop? That sounds like really low load temps.

If I fire up a game on mine, it quickly hits 85c on the GPU (7900gtx) and 70c+ on the processor. I'm sure more airflow would help my laptop, but I've yet to try it :-/

:sn: edit: I have tried elevating the back of the laptop and noticed the temperatures do drop a little.
 
Laptop pads disperse heat more evenly so there's not one area of burning death on you leg.

Usually they make CPU temp go up and GPU temp go down.

Ones with fans sometimes work, but they have to aligned with intake and exhaust ports.
 
I have an HP Pavilion DV2000 with a sempron 3200+ and geforce go 6150 on the nforce 4 430 chipset. I was using speedfan so I dont know how accurate the temperatures are and am not really willing to open it at this point and throw in thermal probes to find out. I was really only interested in the delta with and without the cooler. The HP dv2000 is designed a bit better then most laptop in the way of cooling but it still doesnt seem to help one bit for me and judging by the answers so far it seems different for everyone.
 
Mepis, I have never seen a dv2000 with a sempy...
I was running a dv2000 with a turion x2 mobile, but the sucker overheated (over 120 for load temps) and burnt the cpu, and mobo. Im trying to rma it, but hp is saying its my fault lol. The damn thing is an entertainment pc, so if benching, and playing games on it entertains me, they cant do anything about it lol. I tried p95 once, but it hit 135 and I shut the sucker off lol.
 
sempron.jpg


I have the dv200z to be exact. From reading around there is a wide varety of configurations for the dv2000 model series.
 
As far as my laptop cooler is concerned, yes it does work and very well at that, but there's a reason:

The cooler I chose was a Gigabyte Rollpad passive laptop cooler, http://www.ictblog.it/uploads/rollpad.jpg (which might be discontinued, but I'm not 100% sure). I wanted something portable, compact, silent, and something that didn't sap juice from my battery.

The rollpad goes on your lap, tabletop, where ever, and all it does is allows air flow to your laptop no matter where you put it and that's it. I use my laptop as my main computer up at college (both for gaming and 3d CAD), and if it weren't for this thing, I'd prolly have a pile of black goop that was once a Vostro.

So, in essence, laptop coolers DO work, but their purpose isn't to drop the ambient temp of your components, it's to be sure that the on board cooling is able to do it's job no matter what. Honestly, if there is a laptop cooler out there that can drop temps anywhere from 5-10 degrees C, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, but that's not the point behind a laptop cooler.

Hope this helps!!

-Mobious-
 
Last edited:
I guess that makes sense. The only reason I use mine anymore since doing this little bit of digging is to always keep space under the laptop. Battery life Im not to worried about because my battery is crap as is and only lasts about 30 minutes. I need a new one. That, and as I said, I like fans.
 
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