How I cool down my laptop and why?
I bought a Dell Inspiron 7620 2-in-1 (mouthful) some 6-7 months ago. Took me many months to choose a laptop and this one was the best for me. It is a 16` 16:10 with a powerful CPU and a good GPU. The screen is amazing, the keyboard is very good, and the chassis is aluminum.
In these months I had to fix the touchpad because it was not working anymore, and that was a massive issue, but the worst is that the battery capacity dropped to 83% capacity in only a few months time.
Luckily the battery is big, 87W, but this rapid drop was unexpected.
You see, this laptop is really thin.
Almost as thin as a USB A port. Couple that with a powerful processor and video card, plus just 1 fan, and an aluminum body and you get a hot pancake.
When I stress the laptop a bit it is so hot you can barely touch it. 80-90C. And I had to render the TROM II documentary on this laptop. Got crazy hot, for many weeks on end.
Therefore, I highly suspect that the battery capacity dropped because of the heat. I cannot see any other reason.
But now is July and I am in Spain. Thus, it is hot as fuck. This is tomorrow:
So hot it is difficult to keep my own body cool, let alone this laptop.
So I decided to buy a laptop fan. This sort:
But the fan was barely creating any sort of air flow. I ordered two more…All under 20 Euros because I don’t feel in the mood to spend more than that on a fan for the laptop….considering it has one inside-the-fucking-chassis!
After two weeks of use the temperature of the laptop would not go above 80-85C when I’d stress the laptop. So a 5-10C cooler. But I was not happy!
I said let’s try something else. Let’s order a fucking fan….you know a normal one. But a small one. And cheap as fuck. I spent too much time looking for one, but I eventually bought this one for 7 Euros:
Plus a metal laptop stand for around 10 Euros:
And guess what? With that setup my laptop is always cool. Even when I stress it it will stay at around 60-65C max. That’s a massive improvement!
And I have to say that I never thought I’d be excited about a fucking fan. But this one, for 7 Euros….is my favorite fan ever. Why?
First the way it is designed. You can put this fan in many different ways.
You can put it sideways, upside down, or flat on the table.
You can even hang it on the wall…
And so it allows me to position it anyway I want. Like directly bellow the laptop:
Or behind it:
So it is extremely handy.
Best part? It has a rechargeable battery inside so you can use it for 1-3 hours on the battery alone. This is useful because now it is so hot I take it with me when I move with my laptop. Like put it in bed to blow air on the laptop while I hold it on my lap. It has 5 speeds and it is more powerful than you may think 😀. Plus it has a USB C connector so it is easy to find a replaceable cable when you need one.
Actually I was so impressed that I ordered one more, to blow air on my USB C dongle that is metal and I noticed it got extremely hot. I use one single dongle to connect my laptop to the charger, external monitor, projector, mouse, speakers, LAN, and more. I love it because I can plug/unplug with ease. But because it was getting so hot my LAN connection will drop several times a day.
Now that I got that cool fan, there is no drop anymore 😀.
Conclusion.
These special laptop fans are bullshit. At least those under 20. I tried several and they were very inefficient. And no, is not because they try to keep them silent and thus less powerful….the small fan that I got is also very quiet….but at least it works! Also, fuck you people who design such thin laptops and do not care much about the heat dispersal. Why the fuck you put a fan inside if it is so inefficient anyway? I guess they have to sell these laptops based on looks….I see….
Anyway, if your laptop gets hot, invest some 20 Euros and buy yourself a metal stand for it plus a mini fan. You can always repurpose that fan. And you can get a nice laptop stand.
