hello

is there a benchmark/comparison of multiple notebook coolers?

lab measurements would help me choose the best/right, because I cannot draw safe conclusions and reach valuable arguements from just comparing specifications

for example, aluminum covering may be beneficial, but what if this is only theoritical since all the laptops have small plastic stands, so it won't touch the aluminum at all?

also, would 2 x 70cm be better than 1 x 120cm? etc

thanks

It wouldn't be easy to compare, because different notebooks have their air intakes in different positions. A cooler design that worked well on one type of notebook would not work well on a different style.

If you spend some time on some of the notebook forums, such as Notebook Review, you start to see that most of those coolers don't really help keep the temps down too much at all, in the real world.

One of the biggest knocks on the fan-powered coolers is that they're not quiet at all. Not even close.

My experience with notebooks has shown me that undervolting the CPU makes a much larger improvement (easily on the order of 5-10° C) than any notebook cooler that I've ever used. That, and keeping the area around the air intakes clear (perhaps raising the rear of the notebook slightly, not setting it on soft surfaces, etc) is the way to go.

thanks
I am suprpised by the 5-10 drop of temp, is that for sure?
is there a safe procedure to undervolt my Intel T2050? wouldn't that degrade performance significantly?

I have owned 3 of those notebook coolers... and they all pretty much suck. Noisy... but the best of them *do* reduce temps a little bit. If you are doing intensive stuff on your laptop, it might be worth it for you (I was compiling on mine, so wanted to keep it as cool as possible).

As stated above tho, its going to depend on what laptop you have an its vent positions more than anything I think.

Absolutely, 100% for sure, at least on all the Pentium M (Banias) systems I've tweaked.



Undervolting doesn't decrease performance at all.

Here's a pretty decent undervolting guide from Notebookreview.com

I can tell you what NOT to buy: one of the Targus notebook coolers made of silver painted plastic with two fans. Complete waste of money. Didn't do much to the temperature, and within months, the bearing chatter while it warmed up could be heard from the next room.

I then bought an Antec cooler, the black glossy plastic one with the aluminium cheese grater on top, and have been quite happy with it. Fairly quiet, and a much more pleasant noise than the groaning stock fan in my laptop (now my mom's laptop since I bought a new one).

Part of the reason the Antec cooler was so effective on my Acer Aspire 5002WLMi was that the heatsink on the inefficient SiS M760GX chipset was not connected to the CPU fan, but instead contacted a metal plate sandwiched on the inside of the plastic panel on the bottom of the laptop, so that all chipset heat was quickly and efficiently routed directly to my lap. Without a fan pad, this meant it was only usable as a laptop for the first 5 minutes after cold startup.

The fan pad does little for my Acer Extensa 4420-5963, as it has a heatpipe arrangement that cools both the Athlon X2 and the AMD RS690M. It also has very low fan thresholds that may mean lots of fan cycling, but also means it stays very comfortable for use on the lap, even after hours of use.

thanks
I was thinking to buy ixoft
http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Cool ... 15on01.asp