Building custome laptop cooler - water based

[chrisvw]

Hi,
As I have an overclocked full aluminum laptop which due to its design dispenses a big amount of heat through its body and gets uncomfortably hot (60+ Degrees - meassured with heat gun) during demanding gaming sessions I was thinking of building my own laptop cooler.
As of now I have two designs in my head and wanted to hear your thoughts on them:

1. Water colled -- I take a standard 3 fan laptop cooler and place several connected small cooper pipes on the top and the bottom of the cooler which are then connected to a small usb water pump. The laptop would rest on the top copper pipes and transmit the heat to the bottom pipes where it is able to cool down (possibly I would also install cooling fins on the bottom)

2. Copper based -- Take laptop stance and cut a rectangle into it. Then I take one of my old desktop GPU cooler (Accelero XTREME 9800 - http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/attachments/air-cooling/4288d1232961677-accelero-xtreme-gtx-acceleroxtreme_gtx280_01l.jpg) and connect a 15cm x 15cm copper plate (with a few holes drilled into – for air flow) to where normally the graphic card goes. If everything goes smoothly the copperplate will be on top of the laptop stance and the GPU cooler connected to the bottom.

Both options would cost me less the $50.

So what do you thing will yield the better results?
Would you do it differently?

Best,
Chris

 

[Rustyy117]

Hi Chris,

I take it the 3 fan laptop cooler doesn't reduce the temps enough on it's own then?

The water cooled idea sounds like it would be more trouble that it's worth, have you thought about how you'll fill/drain the coolant?

Will it have a res?

How will you secure the laptop to the cooler?

How practical will the cooler be?

I think you'd need some kind of radiator for your idea to be effective, I don't think the copper pipes will dissipate the heat very well even with a fan blowing on them.

~I'm not sure I understand your second idea, do you have a diagram or drawing perhaps?

(I feel like someone from Dragons Den with all these questions )

 

[chrisvw]

Hi Chris,

I take it the 3 fan laptop cooler doesn't reduce the temps enough on it's own then?

The water cooled idea sounds like it would be more trouble that it's worth, have you thought about how you'll fill/drain the coolant?

Will it have a res?

How will you secure the laptop to the cooler?

How practical will the cooler be?

I think you'd need some kind of radiator for your idea to be effective, I don't think the copper pipes will dissipate the heat very well even with a fan blowing on them.

~I'm not sure I understand your second idea, do you have a diagram or drawing perhaps?

(I feel like someone from Dragons Den with all these questions )

HAHAHA Dragons Den - good show

a quick sketch:

http://s10.postimg.org/hfep1nort/cooler_New_Page.png (sorry I dont know how to show it within the text)

the water cooling actually is not that hard to do - just stick some copper pipes together...

draining filling: should be possible by connecting two copper pipes via a platic tube (instead of the usual copper pipe)

res: Yes, it would be connected to the plastic tube (as outlined above)

practicality: does not need to be! It would only set on my desk - does not need to be mobile.

-----

Apart from maybe diamonds and silver (correct me if I am wrong), copper (Thermal Conductivity of ~ 400) is a perfect heat transmitter.

To cool a CPU it makes sense to use liquid and water (small area which gets very hot). But I have a big area which does not get that hot.

A big copper plate will surly attract more heat than a few copper pipes and a professional GPU cooler might actually cool the copper more effectively then my water based solution – in the end it can never get cooler then room temperature

What are your thoughts?

Best,
Chris

 

[Rustyy117]

Hi Chris,

I take it the 3 fan laptop cooler doesn't reduce the temps enough on it's own then?

The water cooled idea sounds like it would be more trouble that it's worth, have you thought about how you'll fill/drain the coolant?

Will it have a res?

How will you secure the laptop to the cooler?

How practical will the cooler be?

I think you'd need some kind of radiator for your idea to be effective, I don't think the copper pipes will dissipate the heat very well even with a fan blowing on them.

~I'm not sure I understand your second idea, do you have a diagram or drawing perhaps?

(I feel like someone from Dragons Den with all these questions )

HAHAHA Dragons Den - good show

a quick sketch:

http://s10.postimg.org/hfep1nort/cooler_New_Page.png (sorry I dont know how to show it within the text)

the water cooling actually is not that hard to do - just stick some copper pipes together...

draining filling: should be possible by connecting two copper pipes via a platic tube (instead of the usual copper pipe)

res: Yes, it would be connected to the plastic tube (as outlined above)

practicality: does not need to be! It would only set on my desk - does not need to be mobile.

-----

Apart from maybe diamonds and silver (correct me if I am wrong), copper (Thermal Conductivity of ~ 400) is a perfect heat transmitter.

To cool a CPU it makes sense to use liquid and water (small area which gets very hot). But I have a big area which does not get that hot.

A big copper plate will surly attract more heat than a few copper pipes and a professional GPU cooler might actually cool the copper more effectively then my water based solution – in the end it can never get cooler then room temperature

What are your thoughts?

Best,
Chris

Thanks for the diagram Chris.

As it doesn't need to be mobile then either solution is much more viable

Have you considered welding heatsinks to the copper piping to increase the cooling efficiency?
Obviously copper is an excellent thermal conductor but I just thought that the smooth, round surface of the copper pipes might not be optimal for heat dissipation. More surface area = better heat dissipation after all.

I think your GPU cooler cooling idea would be much easier to test and find out if it's effective, I really have no idea which would work better (Sorry! ).

Anyway just my 2 pence.

 

[chrisvw]

Thanks for the diagram Chris.

As it doesn't need to be mobile then either solution is much more viable

Have you considered welding heatsinks to the copper piping to increase the cooling efficiency?
Obviously copper is an excellent thermal conductor but I just thought that the smooth, round surface of the copper pipes might not be optimal for heat dissipation. More surface area = better heat dissipation after all.

I think your GPU cooler cooling idea would be much easier to test and find out if it's effective, I really have no idea which would work better (Sorry! ).

Anyway just my 2 pence.

Thanks alot for your help!

The thing about heat sinks is that for some reason they are really expensive (for 1 inch its +5$)...

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Rustyy117]

Thanks for the diagram Chris.

As it doesn't need to be mobile then either solution is much more viable

Have you considered welding heatsinks to the copper piping to increase the cooling efficiency?
Obviously copper is an excellent thermal conductor but I just thought that the smooth, round surface of the copper pipes might not be optimal for heat dissipation. More surface area = better heat dissipation after all.

I think your GPU cooler cooling idea would be much easier to test and find out if it's effective, I really have no idea which would work better (Sorry! ).

Anyway just my 2 pence.

Thanks alot for your help!

The thing about heat sinks is that for some reason they are really expensive (for 1 inch its +5$)...

Thanks,
Chris

Maybe you could salvage some old heatsinks from scrap computers?

Not sure how viable that option is to you but thought I'd mention it.

 

[4Ryan6]

A big copper plate will surly attract more heat than a few copper pipes and a professional GPU cooler might actually cool the copper more effectively then my water based solution – in the end it can never get cooler then room temperature

What are your thoughts?

Best,
Chris

True the big copper plate will attract more heat, it will also hold it as well.

The graphics air cooler will simply be way overmatched for the job, look at it's design logically, at it's copper base vs the amount of heat pipe it takes to cool just that base contact surface.

A water resolution will require more than you've anticipated and just the copper tubing for heat transfer will not transfer much heat at all and a water cooling resolution will require a radiator for heat cancellation.

You could consider a pump, heat exchanger, and small radiator if you are after a permanent solution, the heat exchanger is 5.75in x 5.75in and is not cheap but will do the job.

http://customthermoelectric.com/Water_blocks.html

 

[chrisvw]

True the big copper plate will attract more heat, it will also hold it as well.

The graphics air cooler will simply be way overmatched for the job, look at it's design logically, at it's copper base vs the amount of heat pipe it takes to cool just that base contact surface.

A water resolution will require more than you've anticipated and just the copper tubing for heat transfer will not transfer much heat at all and a water cooling resolution will require a radiator for heat cancellation.

You could consider a pump, heat exchanger, and small radiator if you are after a permanent solution, the heat exchanger is 5.75in x 5.75in and is not cheap but will do the job.

Hi,

thanks a lot for your answer - looks very interresting but dat price...

While you are probably right that a well-executed water based solution will have the biggest cooling impact, I do believe that having the graphics card cooler only connect to a small part of the copper plate is not a problem.

After doing some research, I found out that the thermal heat distribution of copper is very good and that there will not be a big difference in the temperature measured on the edge of the copper plate and the part connected to the cooler.

So I believe that if the cooler can cool down its own copper plate the bigger copper plate will have a very similar Temperature.

What do you think?

Also what will transfer the heat best:
a thick or a thin copper plate
or a copper plate with some heat sinks on top

 

[chrisvw]

I am still hoping to get an answer on:

Also what will transfer the heat best:
a thick or a thin copper plate?

Thanks,
Chris