Laptop Cooling idea....help please(suggestions)

[maxama10]

Now Ive looked all over and found a lot of fan based cooling pads for laptops but none water based.

So I came up with an Idea. Let me know what you think

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9091/coolingpadks3.jpg

Basically it would be an aluminum box with copper tubing running throughout it. The copper tube would be connected to the top pannel of the aluminum pad using thermal paste. This copper tube would run to a tank and from a pump. The drawing is incorrect with that, the other end of the pipe should go to the bottom of the tank(blue) rather then the pump(grey). The pump would plug into an outlet on the wall. This pad would then sit under the laptop and cool it.

Now I have several questions, would there be a need to cool the water tank? Im thinking most likely, if the case then how could you do this? Would this be more efficient then a fan based cooling pad? Would this idea work period? What does AO think?

Thanks guys,
-Max

[robnix]

Now Ive looked all over and found a lot of fan based cooling pads for laptops but none water based.

So I came up with an Idea. Let me know what you think

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9091/coolingpadks3.jpg

Basically it would be an aluminum box with copper tubing running throughout it. The copper tube would be connected to the top pannel of the aluminum pad using thermal paste. This copper tube would run to a tank and from a pump. The drawing is incorrect with that, the other end of the pipe should go to the bottom of the tank(blue) rather then the pump(grey). The pump would plug into an outlet on the wall. This pad would then sit under the laptop and cool it.

Now I have several questions, would there be a need to cool the water tank? Im thinking most likely, if the case then how could you do this? Would this be more efficient then a fan based cooling pad? Would this idea work period? What does AO think?

Thanks guys,
-Max

No. It would be bulky, heavy, and a pain to move around.

[maxama10]

No, would be stationary for the desk or table...

[FooTemps]

Waste of effort, if you're tethering your laptop to your desk, just watercool the laptop itself.

edit: might as well be more specific.

1. heat pads usually don't move heat away from the laptop from contact. All laptops have feet, and many laptop pads are FLAT. They don't have a contact surface for the heat to transfer into.
2. Many heat pads blow cool air to the laptop or vent hot air from the laptop. Again, the fans on the pads aren't cooling down a heatsink which is attached to the laptop body.
3. The thermal interface would be terribly inefficient. The heat would have to transfer through far too many mediums to get efficient cooling.
4. If you want to do it, do it right. Don't make it an aluminum box with copper tubes. That will require a thermal interface between the tubes and the contact surface. At the very least, use the same metal. I'd reccomend brazing cut copper tubes to a copper plate or even better, drilling a piece of copper stock and pumping water through that.

And if you're going through so much trouble to watercool the bottom of the laptop, just build a compact watercooled system.

[maxama10]

Ah, thanks! Heh, cant say I didnt try...