External laptop cooling

[duckmanbro]

Hi guys,

With the recent hot weather and what not (well, in Australia anyway), my laptop feels to be running quite warmer than usual. I use I8kfanGUI, however it won't force the fan to high speed, or read the temperatures and compensate for the temperature rises. I tried tweaking it a little, but I'm not completely sure or confident to play around with it (Oh, and my laptop is a Dell XPS M1530).

Is there any type of external hardware that I can use to help keep my laptop cooler, just for the warmer periods? I don't want a cooling mat, I use the laptop at different desks more than on my lap. And besides, they aren't the best to cool the actual laptop.

Thanks.

 

[GenMarshall]

One thing that I use is this device that elevates the back end of the laptop which allows more air flow into the cooling units.

 

[duckmanbro]

Yeah, I have a 9-Cell battery, which adds an extra 2cm to the overall tilt of it (at the back), which is nice. But is there any further things I could use to cool it?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Something like this then?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=laptop+cooler&x=0&y=0
Or was that a laptop cooling pad that you dont want?

The extra height from the battery might be bad for cooling solutions, as most rely on the bottom being flat. Not sure though.

Also, how high are the temps getting?

 

[duckmanbro]

I'd prefer not getting the pad seeing it is already raised from the battery.

The temperatures have been reading about 40-50 on average, but when gaming and using 3D rendering etc, it can reach a peak of about 70-80 (in Celsius). I guess it isn't too bad, but are there ways to minimise temperatures? Getting a laptop for this wasn't the best of ideas, but it's great for portability and everything is there for my customers

 

[Genocidicbunny]

If you know what you're doing, open it up and clean out the dust. Im sure there's oughta be some. Take special care to clean out the cpu cooler.

 

[taper]

It's not easy to carry around, but at home I just use an ordinary desk fan to blow across my laptop. Keeps the temps down, and it's cheap.

 

[lutzj]

You could set it on top of a room-temperature bag of water to leech off heat, but a cooling mat is probably your best option. Taper also has a good idea.