USB notebook cooler

[IAstudent]

I'm planning on getting some of my notebooks up for some dedicated F@H or DIMES work, but I'm concerned with how hot they might run 24/7. I'm trying to look into some kind of notebook coolers that sit under the notebook itself, and I think there are some that can be powered off a USB connection. Any suggestions?

[Leonardo]

Yes, there are USB-powered notebook coolers. I've used none of them, so I wouldn't know which ones work or not. I'd go to Newegg and then look for third-party reviews.

If I were you, I'd test run the notebooks without coolers and only buy a cooler(s) if the notebook needs. I've run F@H on several on IBM, Dell, and Gateway laptops. Only the Gateway (piece of ultra low quality junk) needed cooling. (I rigged up my own crude device.)

To know if the notebook is running hot, apart from it feeling hot, if the cooling comes on and stays on, well, it may be too hot. You probably already know, but if you elevate notesbooks off their resting surfaces, most of them will 'breathe' a little better. Also, before running F@H, make sure to blow out all the air intake and exhaust ports with compressed (canned) air.

Another option for you if the notebooks run too hot and you don't want to pay for coolers is just to set the F@H clients (config file) to use less than 100% CPU power.

Here's an article (http://www.short-media.com/articles/ghetto_cooling_your_laptop) of the beautiful custom cooler I built for my POS (good riddance) Gateway laptop.

[Sledgehammer70]

I use a few from Cooler Master.. can't seem to find the md# but they work pretty well :)

[RWB]

The ones I'm finding seem to small for my 17" notebook... otherwise I'd buy one too.

[edcentric]

Don't bother, I have f@h running on a few lappys and none of them have extra cooling. Even though f@h runs the CPU at 100% load you are not running any video, a little amount of HDD, and some memory. The effect is that overall you are still well below the design total heat load. Unless fo course it is a POS.

[DanG]

I am running a vantec laptop cooling pad on my dell 6400 core duo. After seeing it in action, if I didn't buy it on my company credit card, I wouldn't have one. It doesn't make that much of a difference. Just make sure you take some compressed air every month or so and blow the dust out of the fans and the heatsink.

[IAstudent]

My main concern for bringing this up is that one or two of my notebooks are what you might consider "ultraportables". One of them I know started to feel warm underneath the case after about 30-45 minutes on my desk. I'll try to find some way to prop them up and see if that helps.

[Ultra Nexus]

I fold with a Core Solo 1.6ghz NB and found that even though with speedstep sets the voltage to 1.35v to achieve 1.6Ghz, it runs completely stable at 0.95v (which is the lowest available, when idle) and forced it RightMark CPU Clock Utility. Now my NB folds much cooler!

[Sledgehammer70]

I have a cooling pad but only use it when gaming. It helps move the warm air from around the system. It helps, but i found my huge room fan pointed at the lappy to drop temps better :) but even than the PC doesn't get that hot :)