So I had some free time this vacation and this is basically what happens when I have free time: a new project and a thread about it . This one dealt with the high temps coming from my 7800GTX and the overall higher temps in the laptop and the lack of airflow within it.

The concept:


The result:


Basically:
It's a laptop dock with a cooling fans and it can all be powered by the laptop. The base 1/8" thick aluminum (2" and 1/2" L-shaped). The laptop prop is 2 1/4" PVC piping. The metal was primed twice with oil-based white prime and then coated 4-5 times with black, "hammered" texture rustoleum paint. The PVC pipe was painted with the same black paint. The fan on the left is an 80x80x15mm 5V fan and the fan on the right is a 60x60x25mm 12V fan (more on that later). The fans were wired to be rub of USB 5V power.

The Work Log -

The fans, sleeving, and heatshrink wrap were all ordered from www.jab-tech.com (they moved out to oklahoma, they used to be right next to me ). I then took a skip down to the Home Depot (local gigrundous hardware/home improvement warehouse) and got the aluminum, screws, nuts, countersink, primer, paint, zip ties, no-slip stick pads, etc. Here's the goods:


I then got to it downstairs and started cutting the aluminum. I chose aluminum due to its light weight while retaining its strength. Also, it doesn't rust, so no worries about chips . Here's the measured and marked aluminum:


After trying to fasten the first two pieces of aluminum together, I realized that it was hard as a bitch to get the screws in. Also, they wouldn't even go in the whole way. I asked my Dad and he said "get a tap," so off to True Value we went. The screws used are 5mmx12mm. Since Home Depot only had 12 in the entire store, when I stripped the first two, more were needed. We found 5mmx16mm at the store, which were a little too long, so we bought cap nuts for them too. The tap we bought was a 5mm carbide pimpstick . Then we swung over to radioshack and picked up a ColdHeat solder gun (very awesome, more on that later). Here's my Dad trying out the new tap:


After we got the tap, things went very smoothly. The basic procedure was square the corners, clamp it, drill and countersink one hole, tap it, put the screw in and into the wood, drill and countersink the other hole, tap it, put the screw partially in, unscrew the other screw partially, screw both screws through, put the washers and nuts on them, and then finally tighten both screws. Here I am squaring the corner and here's another pic of how the clamping was done:


Here's a pic of me measuring out the spacing for the middle piece. The two PVC joints were the original concept, but I realized later on that it'd be too difficult to cut them the way I would need them, so the idea was scrapped.


Here's the middle piece clamped while the last four screws go in:


And the base is done :


I then sanded the entire base with some "fine" grain "metal" sand paper. It was actually damn course in my book (from someone used to polishing heatsinks and cars with 1500grit ) at 180grit. I then wiped the base down with 91% isoprophly alcohol and applied the first coat of prime:


Here's the painting set up (occurred in the root cellar of the house, used mainly to store pool supplies and what not):

Basically it went in a coat, dry, coat, dry fashion. The space heater is on the low power 750watt setting as to dry the paint but not mess it up due to intense heat. Sanding was done between coats as needed.


In between coats, the fans were prepared . I first cut the 3 pin heads off them and then cut off the RPM wire (yellow) close to the base. I then cut that wire in half and used it as an extension on the ground and power wires to make sure they'd reach the back of the laptop. The second pic is of the USB head. I got them from this Walmart pack of USB heads for an interchangeable travel USB kit. The pic basically illustrates how damn small it is (it sucks to have big hands on these kind of things ). The third pic is of the whittling process.


Here I am soldering the wires to the USB pins:


The wires were soldered, then the flex sleeving was fit over, then the heat shrink wrap, then the pins were finally put into and anchored into the USB head. Then I positioned the heatshrink wrap and cooked it over our wood stove . Also while the was going on, I cut the PVC pipe (had some in the shed) and rough sanded it and applied ~3 coats of paint.

After the base was finished being painted, I added some no-slip pads to the base to keep it stable and anchored while allowing room for the zip-ties. I then added the fan grills to the fans and ziptied them to the base as well as the wiring to the back. I also added some smaller no-slip pads to the front to hold the front of the laptop. There were also two pads in the back to keep the PVC pipe positioned.


The final product:


A good $100 went into this project, but it was fun as heck and that made it worth it . First of all, kudos to my Dad for his expertise as well as providing an extra set of hands . As far as functionality goes, it's great. The raised laptop is perfect for my hands now and typing is more comfortable, even after a few hours. The fans run perfectly off of USB and they lower temps significantly. I ended up pulling out the PCMCIA slot and mechanism to totally unrestrict airflow. The HDD stays at room temperature now, even under load (instead of 36-40C). GPU temps were lowered in FEAR 4-6C and CPU temps are down 2-3C. DIMM/northbridge temps are also down 8-10C. Very good results I think and I'm quite happy. Hope you guys enjoyed the log. Lemme know if you want any other photos or if you have any suggestions .

Cheers,
Mr. K6

i wish i was that bored and that talented

K6 you know how to work with plexiglass?

Thanks guys

Nope, but hell, I'll try anything. Why do you ask? And I've never actually owned my own soldering gun, so that's a first there

No new significant 3DMark05 until I volt mod my 7800GTX. However, once I get another break and fool around with my GTX heatsink some more, I'm hoping to get a higher overall everyday overclock

Maybe? I've never seen a commercial for it, but then I dont watch TV much. It's a really handy soldering tool. Instead of your traditional plug in the wall type of stuff it runs on 4 AA batteries and can get up to 1000 solders out of it. Basically, the iron tip has two points, and when you bridge them (via the metal you're working on), it heats up. It says in the manual it hits 400F in .100 sec and 900F in .300 sec. I believe it. It takes a bit of time to get used to working that fast, but it does an incredibly neat and clean job .

If it works, why not

good show k6

and the new insanse overclock, 3dmark and temps are.............?

(nice project!)

another day another dollar make a another girl scream and holler. thats pimp k6!

question- is that the cold-heat soldering tool as seen on tv your using?

you are a GOD

Nice cooling dock Mr. K6.

Here's a pic of my ghetto cooling pad.



Just a Powmax cooling pad (exactly the same as the Targus one with a different name put on it) with 4 wooden blocks wrapped in electrical tape slightly taller than the cooler around it. Works pretty well as far as I can tell.

I got a cooling pad in the works too! Haha, just waiting for my fans and grilles to arrive.

Cool Post some pics and a write up when you're done

I'll do a documentation. Though, I'm not sure how well it's going to turn out as I've never done anything like this before.

Is that Cold Heat I see you using? I heard that it was absolute junk and is potentially dangerous for use in soldering electrically sensitive components.

its crap if you are soldering small points say on a motherboard, but for jobs like this its good

Indeed it's ColdHeat and I'll agree with the later part of that statement . It is a fantastic gun and and the fact that it runs on batteries makes it very portable and convenient to use. However, due to its design of using the actual metal being soldered to bridge the gap between the points to create the heat, I'd imagine that could damage electrically sensitive components (circuit boards and the like). However, it is far from junk and very well designed, making it worth much more than the $20 I paid for it. So basically:
Yeah

Good idea Darq, but here's the problem: isolating the air in the box will only again make it stagnant and therefore kill any benefit from having a laptop cooler. The ideal concept here is to get the fans to remove the heat from the laptop, so an open solution fits best. However, take the idea of cooling the air (refrigeration of some sort) before introducing it to the laptop and THEN you have a need to isolate the air . Now I'm not quite sure what you guys mean by peltier cooler, are you simply meaning cooling the air and then introducing it to the laptop? Or are you making a huge base plate for it. I've never been a fan of peltier coolers due to the fact that you still are stuck with the heat on the otherside of the plate, and they also waste alot of electricity.

I'm not so sure that there needs to be a contest, but I think it would be great if you guys would have at it and post your work here. There's nothing like community feedback and a group think tank to get some great designs and ideas rolling. Now my design wasn't so much in the aim of hardcore cooling as it was functionality. The fans are powered by the laptop and the laptop alone and no external power supply was required. Also, the base is very sturdy and portable, and can easily be reproduced. Later down the line I might try something different, but until then, I'm pretty satisfied with the results and I think I'll turn to modifying the cooling on that damn 7800GTX .