SPCR

Any ideas on something good to rest a laptop on to conduct heat away?

Before I bought the folding Gigabyte aluminum laptop pad, I used a small cookie sheet or tray for the oven. Turned upside down it worked very well and surprised me with how much heat it was able to dissipate from my HP laptop.

Long time ago I just stuck some stick-on feet on a laptop. Just having some air space under it (rather than sitting directly on table) helped with temperatures. (Of course that was a 486, but it didn't have a fan.)

Laptops may be hotter now.

If that wasn't enough, I would be tempted to use one of the large heatsinks from an old Xeon or similar.

When my laptop is on a desk, or hard surface Just proping it up on a CD case works very well.
Same concept as the stick-on feet from scdr -- get some space between the bottom of your laptop and whatever its sitting on.

dunno if it will be enough, but thermaltake makes a fanless notebook cooler that is a pad that has some wierd salt substance that turns to liquid when heated ( so as for the liquid to flow around the pad and make the heat distribution more even)

you may want to look into it. If nothing else it's a great surface to put laptops on so you don't scratch the lid when flipping it over

cloneman wrote:dunno if it will be enough, but thermaltake makes a fanless notebook cooler that is a pad that has some wierd salt substance that turns to liquid when heated ( so as for the liquid to flow around the pad and make the heat distribution more even)

I had one of those for a few months under a circa 2007 Dell Inspiron ...with a bottom air intake. I remember it lowering the average CPU temps by about 2C (don't remember other components values). It could be enough if your fan is just past the threshold where it starts to ramp up. Was also comfy when using the computer on my lap as there was no burning spot.

Since I rarely moved that laptop while it was sitting on my desk I then experimented with using a 1cm-thick square jigsaw foam mat from the dollar store by cutting it to fit my laptop's bottom and giving it a generous air channel under the intake. Temps improved a further 2-3C if i recall. Then I gave up and just bought a simple Fellowes plastic stand, propping up the computer 3-4 inches high and giving it enough air to stay quiet under most non-intensive tasks.

Thanks for the tips. I've ordered one of these heat-transfer pads to put under it. Although I'll probably stop using it as a second screen and move it off the desk.