Custom Cooling Trays

[Potestatem]

I really don't know what people's thoughts on cooling trays are, or even if its a good idea funnelling air through the system.

I personally found the 5 volt USB powered trays a little rubbish, so I decided to modify my Cooler Master tray. As you can see from the picture this was my first attempt at electrical work (which I know nothing about!) and there was a few bumps in the road. I initially wanted to add extra 5 volt fans so that the entire width of vents on the back of my M18X had fans blowing into them. I tried to source 5 volt fans and failed so I went out and bought 3 crappy cooling trays to rip apart and extract the fans. After speaking to a friend it was pointed out that perhaps taking that much power through a USB port would not be a good idea, whether it is or not... I do not know.

I then decided to wire 12 volt fans into their own power supply. I sourced 6 fans easily enough then with advice from a knowledgeable lady in a tech shop a power supply. When setting it up I made the mistake of wiring in the variable resistor from the vanilla 5 volt set up. This then melted while I was at sea and I was once again without a tray. As you can see from the picture I managed to cut it out of the equation with a chocolate block. Since I removed the dead resistor it does look ugly as sin, and yes I replaced a few tie wraps with bits of boot lace... I will eventually get hold of a soldering iron and tie wraps again to make it a little more pretty!

The power supply I have has a range of voltage settings going from 3 volts up to 13.5 volts so this does act as fan speed control.

Another thing I would do if I were to re build the tray, would be to add rubber gaskets of some description between the fans and tray. On 13.5 volts the damn thing reverberates quite a bit, I solved this with squishy door sealing trim on all areas that make contact with the desk and outer edges of the laptop. One final change would probably be quiet fans (its noisy as hell on 13.5 volts, but if using headphones... who cares!)

Compared to some of the brilliant custom jobs I have seen on these forums this mod is most definitely rudimentary and a little crude! It has however taken a good 10°C off my GPU's and 7 or 8 off my CPU.

I still don't know if pumping that amount of air into the laptop is a good idea xD

Potestatem

[MrSweet1991]

No replies? Sounded interesting and i like the use of the smaller fans, curiouse though.. would 1 larger fan the high static pressure used on radiators be quiter and produce more air? The anount of oower required maybe the problem but man would be awesome to see like corsair sp120's on their lmao

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[calsurferpunk]

I've been using regular usb powered cooling pads for a while and have noticed a good difference in temperature (externally at least). It seems as those the ones that work best have some sort of metal on the upper surface though. When I've had one that was strictly plastic, it didn't absorb the heat as well. Even having that little bit of metal on the top has kept my laptops noticeable cooler when playing a demanding game especially.

[electrobeatz]

After speaking to a friend it was pointed out that perhaps taking that much power through a USB port would not be a good idea, whether it is or not... I do not know.

Potestatem

as far as i know USB 2.0 can get u a max of 2.5 watt (5V, 0.5 Ampere) and USB 3.0 will deliver u a max of 4.5 watt! (5V 0.9A). you shouldnt go over those limits.

i also have a cooler master but the fans there suck ass. only thing i noticed is that they blow more dust into the laptop.. you can try out IC Diamond thermal compound. only thing i can say it.. it is REALLY REALLY GOOD!

in idle my GPUs are running about 50°C and the max temperature i had was about 82°C (alienware m18x r2; 980m SLI)