laptop cooling ideas?

[Tony Del Porto]

On Aug 9, 2004, at 5:05 PM, Michael T. Halligan wrote:

> I just got a powerbook 17", and though I've fallen in love with it,
> I've also noticed the tremendous amount of heat it seems to shoot
> down. In the coming winter months, I'm sure I'll learn to love this
> feature, but right now it makes me nervous.
>
> The first idea I've come up with is to buy a marble slab.. While this
> will be rather useless for placing upon my lap, or carrying, it should
> suck in the heat pretty well, since marble's a great heat sink. As a
> base to put the laptop on when it's on a desk, laptop stool, a
> chair/bed/pillow, it should work well (though be slightly cumbersome).
>
> Beyond a big piece of rock, does anybody have any better ideas for
> cooling laptops, that are preferably quiet?

I have one of these:

http://www.devdepot.com/morepictures.html?pcode=HTIHANDLE

on my 15" TiBook. It folds under the laptop elevating it from whatever 
surface would normally be trapping heat. Also handy for its intended 
purpose, as well as starting conversations with people who haven't seen 
its like. It tends to keep the fan from going full bore when under 
moderate load (four or five ssh sessions, iTunes, browser, mail.app, 
etc.), but under heavy load (compiling anything) the fan still goes to 
max. My Ti is a 550, so YMMV.

There is a handle available for the 17"; I have no idea if it works 
similarly:

http://www.quickertek.com/cfiberhandle.html

Tony Del Porto
SysAdmin, Conference Network Coordinator
USENIX Association
2560 9th Street, Suite 215, Berkeley CA 94710
tony at usenix.org | www.usenix.org | www.sage.org