NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Acer Forums › Acer Notebooks › Best Acer Notebook Cooling Ideas?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Best Acer Notebook Cooling Ideas?

post #1 of 16
12/2/06 at 7:59pm
Thread Starter 
Hey, just wondering what the best ideas are out there for just keeping our standard Acer cool when it is docked, or of sorts. Currently, I have a chill pad under it (which for those who don't know has a pair of 3'' fans blowing and pulling air from underneath) and that seems to help, but I was wondering if anyone has engineered anything better
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 16
12/3/06 at 2:23pm
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 16
12/4/06 at 11:16am
Antec Cooler fits perfectly under my 5672 and sits nicely on the lap too
keeps the touchpad area one heck of a lot cooler , even when gaming

in the uk these things average about £22 which is not a lot to prolong the life of your components and save your legs from burning

I personally dont think further cooling is required at all, maybe a fan upgrade inside is a suitable one is available.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 16
12/7/06 at 8:12pm
Thread Starter 
These are cool ideas. I wonder if anyone has set up any type of water cooling setup as a dock? I'm familiar with the water cooling on Desktop models, but haven't ever heard of this.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 16
12/10/06 at 12:01pm
I too have an Antec cooler pad, but I havent been using mine much latly...
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 16
1/3/07 at 5:38am
I was using a Vantec Lapcool 2, but now I'm using a 20 dollar Kensington portable notebook stand from CompUSA. Seems to stay just as cool (or hot), and I like the viewing and typing angle better, much better. Less hassle too....my external numpad serves fine as a USB 'hub'.

I'm not sure those fan coolers are worth a damn. I've been unable to prove it anyway monitoring temps with AMD's Dashboard from their website.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 16
1/4/07 at 3:26am
If you are a heavy gamer, your best bet is a cooling pad that blows upward and removing the 2 panels from the bottom of the laptop before placing it on the cooler.

People get all scared about turning a few screws, but it's the only way to keep the 5672 really cool under heavy load.

With the panels on, you are just cooling the outside of the plastic. It helps, but nowhere near as good as if the panels are off.

Besides, they take all of about a minute to pull off and put back on since they are designed to come off and put back on easily for upgrades.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 16
1/4/07 at 2:41pm
My 8104 has been overheating during gaming.

I tried using the Notebook Hardware Control of course, but if I undervolt below 1.228v my system becomes unstable with some games.

I'm thinking to try one of these notebook cooling pads. But seriously guys...why do we have to pay for these at the first place??? I mean isn't it a fault of the notebook manufacturer that our notebooks are overheating?!

I might call Acer support, as I have extended warranty, and ask them to do something!
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 16
5/10/07 at 10:24am
On my Acer Ferrari 3400 the HDD-temperature rises to 60 C despite an ambient temperature of no more than 20-22 C, computer being placed on a table, no obstructing objects around it.

If computer is raised 4 cm above the table, by means of 4 match box sized supports, the HDD–temperature will stay at 50-52 C regardless of which applications are running.
If computer is raised only 1 cm above the table the HDD–temperature will reach 53-55 C.

This proves that airflow is not disturbed by dust inside the computer AND that the chassis design and/or fan does not allow for enough cooling.

First HDD became fried and broke down. HDD was replaced (warranty), but apparently no one investigated why the HDD broke down. Comp. was returned with the same cooling problem and now I'm having hang ups and BSOD:s again.
Have just sent it to Acer in Germany and requested them to modify "whatever" to get adequate HDD cooling. After all, it is only a Seagate 4200 rpm drive - shouldn't generate more heat than what can be blow away.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 16
5/13/07 at 5:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by imp
This proves that airflow is not disturbed by dust inside the computer AND that the chassis design and/or fan does not allow for enough cooling.

Careful with jumping to conclusions. Airflow is most certainly disturbed by dust inside the computer. All your experiments showed was that airflow improves when the machine is elevated, which is true. When dust built up inside my case after 1 year, the HDD idle temp was up about 5 to 7 degrees higher than normal under the same operating conditions as when I first bought the laptop. After blowing out the dust with some compressed air, the HDD idle temp is back to where it used to be.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 16
5/16/07 at 9:11pm
My fault!
Forgot to mention that I quite regularly use my aircompressor. So far no visible dust has come out, no matter which way I have blown.
By the way, does anyone know if the fan is before or after the HDD? I.e. is it blowing air onto the drive or does it draw air past the HDD? From the looks of things my guess is that the fan draws air from the outside, making it pass all internals before leaving thru louvres (and keyboard?).
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 16
5/17/07 at 5:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bveld
My 8104 has been overheating during gaming.

I tried using the Notebook Hardware Control of course, but if I undervolt below 1.228v my system becomes unstable with some games.

It's not CPU so much that causes overheating, it's ATI chip (CPU and video are on the same heatpipe). It highly depends on ambient temperature and airflow. I also found that setting ATI PowerPlay to Balanced instead of Performance in both ATI properties page and NHC settings for ATI (you need to also disable and then enable again PowerPlay use in NHC for the change to pick up) got rid of overheating completely. Although graphics is not always smooth (jerky movements from time to time in some games).
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 16
5/17/07 at 6:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamC
Hey, just wondering what the best ideas are out there for just keeping our standard Acer cool when it is docked, or of sorts. Currently, I have a chill pad under it (which for those who don't know has a pair of 3'' fans blowing and pulling air from underneath) and that seems to help, but I was wondering if anyone has engineered anything better
.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 16
5/19/07 at 10:27am
Hi..I use Akasa notebook cooler with USB hub for my ferrari3400. works really well now my idle temp gone down from 38 to 33 and while heavy gaming my laptop would shut down..but now i get max of 70c. A notebook cooler is a must if u want to protect your investment. Good luck
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 16
5/29/07 at 10:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by imp
My fault!
Forgot to mention that I quite regularly use my aircompressor. So far no visible dust has come out, no matter which way I have blown.
By the way, does anyone know if the fan is before or after the HDD? I.e. is it blowing air onto the drive or does it draw air past the HDD? From the looks of things my guess is that the fan draws air from the outside, making it pass all internals before leaving thru louvres (and keyboard?).

I don't think the HDD is hit with any airflow from the fan. Basically, air goes in the intake at the bottom, circulates over the CPU and exits from the exhaust on the right side of the system. The chips by the touchpad and the HDD don't seem to be hit with any of this airflow, hence why the touchpad area gets so warm.

One guy on NotebookReview seems to have improved the situation a bit by cutting off a piece of fan shroud so that airflow from the fan also circulates over the chips by the touchpad. Maybe that's worth a try if you don't mind voiding your warranty. Mine is already over so I might give it a shot.
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 16
6/5/07 at 2:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarthAcer View Post
It's not CPU so much that causes overheating, it's ATI chip (CPU and video are on the same heatpipe). It highly depends on ambient temperature and airflow. I also found that setting ATI PowerPlay to Balanced instead of Performance in both ATI properties page and NHC settings for ATI (you need to also disable and then enable again PowerPlay use in NHC for the change to pick up) got rid of overheating completely. Although graphics is not always smooth (jerky movements from time to time in some games).
Thanks, that finally sorted it for me Cheers
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Acer Notebooks
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Acer Forums › Acer Notebooks › Best Acer Notebook Cooling Ideas?