Your query is very vague. Do you have a heat problem or do you want a cooling pad as insurance against ever having a heat problem? If you mean whether or not extra cooling can benefit your Inspiron 5100, then the answer is automatically yes. It is almost like asking "Do I need more money?". But if you meant to ask whether or not you needed a cooling pad for your nominally cool running 5100 in your own normal use, then the answer would be no.
I own two types of cooling pads one of which I have modified to better meet the Inspiron's needs. I run under high CPU load most of the time, so the laptop heats up without cooling.
For those people reading the post wondering what a cooling pad is, well, it is a USB-powered cooling fan(s) mounted on either an aluminum, polycarbonate, or acrylic sheet that is placed underneath the laptop. The fans are 5volt fans similar to those in many CPU coolers. There are multiple pad styles suitable for different environments. Specifying a particular model as a solution can be a wrong answer if the user is going to use the device in a different situation.
There are multiple types of USB-powered cooling units. There are also cooling pads that are not powered by USB but via an external power adapter (aka wall wart). One cooling pad has but one fan, several have two fans, and at least two models have three fans.
Not all models are ideal for all Inspiron models. You should note the placement of support feet on the pad's upper surface where the notebook will rest. Typically, the feet are taller than the laptop's feet. This means that the actual weight of the laptop will rest on the pad's feet rather than the feet mounted on the bottom of the laptop. The placement of the pad's feet thus create pressure points on the bottom of the laptop in places where pressure might not have been intended. For example, the placement of feet of the popular acrylic two-fan cooling pad puts pressure directly on the sliding doors of the ram and video card areas of the i7000. The doors will bow inwards and transfer the pressure of the laptop directly onto the ram chips and the video card. If you rest your hands on the laptop keyboard, this puts even more pressure on those pressure points.
Another concern is the placement of the usb port on the laptop and the length of the USB cord on the cooling pad. For some laptops that have the usb port on the side of the laptop as opposed to the back of the laptop, some models of cooling pads have a usb cord is too short to reach to the laptop's port. In those cases, you will have to have a powered USB hub located near the laptop supply power to the cooling pad.
The addition of cooling fans means you will have more noise. The fans have no speed control and will make a constant gentle whirring sound. A three fan unit will make more noise than a two fan unit.
In general, the cooling pads are made in China and so are subject to overly positive claims made to help the marketability of the product. For example, on some models, the cooling feet are claimed to be made from surgical grade rubber. From inspection, I'd say that it was surgical grade if you were not working on humans. In an empirical comparison, I held up a Panaflo cooling fan with approximately the same noise dB rating as one cooling pad I purchased, and the Panaflo was significantly quieter than the cooling pad.
Hey so which laptop cooler do you recommend for inspiron 8600? Have you tried the fanless heatpipe one? What were the modifications that you made?
I ordered my Inspiron 8600 on Aug 31 and it has not yet arrived as of Sept 18, so I do not yet know which laptop cooler is most compatible with the bottom of the 8600. It's a Pentium M, so I hope it will not need cooling like that always-hot Inspiron 7000 I bought before. That darn i7000 just got too hot sitting in its dock. I suspect that most any normal cooler pad will be compatible (because I will modify it slightly if not).
I have not tried the fanless heatpipe one. I felt that the air-cooled solution was more effective and in retrospect it has been proven that way. In addition to being more effective, air cooling was cheaper.
As to modifications, I raised up the areas on the pad where the Inspiron feet would be anticipated to touch. I did this instead of removing the feet that were mounted to the pad. Thus, the feet mounted to the pad don't reach the bottom of the laptop. That way, the weight would once again rest on the laptop's feet instead of on other areas like the sliding doors.
Well, the Inspiron arrived at the local shipping center and I drove over to pick it up rather than wait to have it delivered to me. The shipping office commented that it was problematic to communicate the shipping status to Dell so that the website could be updated on a daily basis. Hence, Dell's website status would say that the package was still in transit to the shipper whereas the package had already arrived.
The large size of the Inspiron 8600 meant that it would barely fit on the two-fan cooling pad. The bottom feet overlap over the edges of the pad. The 8600 runs suprisingly hot and the cooling pad is useful. I had been thinking that the Pentium M was fantasy type of cool, but it is still pretty hot running. In the end, there is way more heat than from my nice trusty i7000 which could go without the cooling pad.
---- SUGGESTION FOR FRUGAL PEOPLE NEEDING COOLING SOLUTION:----
The i8600 can be supported by short tubular sections of plastic about one inch or so in height. The added spacing results in a larger air gap so the hot bottom will be cooler. I've already tried this passive cooling approach with various objects such as the cores from used up rolls of scotch tape, using the empty cannisters from 35mm rolls of film, and even a two pieces of wood with holes drilled to accommodate the feet on the laptop's bottom, Because the Inspiron 8600 feet protrude so much, it is good for stability in that a tubular support won't wander around too much.
I have used it for 1.5 weeks now and I can tell you that the fan is very quiet ..the Dell fans are the loud ones. The surface is aluminium encased and works as an effective heatsink. I currently use it with my i8500 together with i8kfangui. It's very impressive as after 4-5 hours of continuous normal use the HDD stays around 35C and the CPU temp is also around 35C.
I have a P4m system and I use one of 2 cooling pads. I have a 4 fan USB powered pad I leave on my desk at the office. This pad has variable speed fans, and an on/off switch and seems to work well under "normal" conditions. The second pad I have is the "heat-sink" style with the thermal conductive pipes, and no fans. It is definitely much more quiet, but it does not keep the system as cool.
For my system, when I am performing video rendering, or a NAV full system scan, neither cooling pad is effective enough to keep the system from getting "too hot". My HD normally hovers around 38-40C, and jumps to 50C or higher during heavy CPU utilization and/or excessive drive access. In this case, I use the Intel Power Mgmnt utiltiyto force my processor into the slower 1.2GHz "Speed Step" mode which helps keep the heat down as compared to the full 2.0GHz processor speed...
I have decided to use a cooling pad with the Inspiron 8600 all the time because it runs so hot. If the Pentium M chip makes so much heat, I wonder how hot one of the generic laptops using Pentium 4 desktop chips will be. I see some of those sold at the mom-and-pop computer shops and via mail order/websites.
Now, if Dell would make a winterized laptop where more of the heat would come out of the keyboard to keep our fingers warm whilst typing in the crisp winter air.
--
FOLLOWUP:
Now that I've had the 8600 for a few days, it has done nothing to change my impression that it likes to run HOT. Even on the cooling pad, the laptop's fan comes on if the cooling pad is at low air flow. So, now I have the laptop getting a good blast of air underneath and its fan no longer turns on until I run a large CPU load such as one of those distributed computing projects to make use of idle CPU time.
Evidently, the method being used to conduct heat away from the processor could be beefed up in the next laptop version. That's my conclusion since I have enough air on blowing on bottom of the laptop to keep almost the entire bottom cool to the touch. So, if the outsides of the laptop are cool and the fan still comes on, that implies that the method used to transfer the heat from the processor to the outside of the case could need some improvement.
As for the two-fan acrylic cooling pads that I use, I originally purchased them for use with the Inspiron 7000 which fits on them. The 8600 has such a large size that I rest the lower lip against the bottom of the 8600 against the feet rather than having the laptop rest against the lip in a conventional placement. I paid $8 each for them. They are made of acrylic, have a silvered coating, a slide switch to turn the two fans on/off, a short usb cable, and one usb socket (passthrough) so that you don't lose a usb port on your laptop by connecting the fan. I typically connect an external hard drive through the port, so the additional cabling doesn't seem to affect the data lines with additional noise.
I don't remember where I bought mine for $8 each plus a flat small postage fee, but here is a different source of those cooling pads so you can check out the description and picture at least:
Also mentioned in the thread was the passive aluminum cooling pad which had heat pipes to conduct the heat to a large thermal sink where the heat can then be radiated away. I am not sure of the model mentioned, but I've seen the one at CompUSA which is identical to the one described and pictured at:
The advantage of the CompUSA one is that it cost $29.95 at CompUSA and $39.95 on the internet Yahoo shop. The cooling pad does NOT contact the bottom of the laptop, so any cooling effect has to occur from the laptop radiating through the 1/8 inch air gap between the bottom of the laptop and the aluminum cooling pad.
As for hot laptop stories, here is one about the Swedish scientist whose laptop got so hot it burned his lap.
Antec claims 25.9db of noise. I puchased one - it measured 65db near the fans. The vendor obviously made their measurement a couple of feet away. The fans are really loud and for all the noise don't blow a lot of air.
So, once again, it goes to show that the more expensive solution (Antec) is not necessarily the best overall solution when compared to the much cheaper acrylic cooling pad which also has two fans like the Antec but doesn't restrict the fans inside lots of stylish plastic casing.
As to how much is cool enough? Well, it seems that for the 8600, there is a lot of thermal resistance between the case and the hot parts inside. The internal fans can still come on even though the exterior has been cooled by the cooling pad fans to the point where the case bottom is either cool or slightly warm in certain specific areas. At that point, I know I've cooled the case as much as could be done.
SUGGESTION:
Maybe in future Inspirons, Dell can pioneer the innovation of a new laptop case design feature: heat transfer mount. What this "heat transfer mount" could be is a metal area on the bottom of the laptop case to which the heat pipes are connected. This area would have a set of screw holes or a "lip" to which something like an external heat sink or fan could be attached to provide extra cooling. This type of heat transfer area would get around the thermal resistance of the exterior plastic case. It might even allow for Dell to sell a better type of dock which had built-in cooling fans to take advantage of the thermal transfer area.
As laptops get bigger and become desktop replacements, a thermal transfer area may actually become necessary in order to not have too large a cooling fan inside the laptop's case.
Okay, finally remembered the online store that I bought the acyrlic cooling pad. I can't quite recommend this pad to 8600 users as it is just a bit too small. However, the place sells a larger cooling pad with more fans that is physically larger.
I got mine on ebay for 6 bux, a hot setup puttin out 40 cfm, which keeps my 8100 soo much cooler especially when running heavy games that heat up my ram. I looked around alot for a decent setup, it also has a high speed usb through port so you dont lose the 2 ports you have on the back. this was a steal from hardcore cooling. They have some homepage not sure what it was , just look on ebay, thats my advice...Here is the software to see how hot your comp is running and controlls the fans. Without the fans i would be running at the 60s, with the fans it dropped about 10 degrees to 50, but now the cooling fans stock on the 8100 rarely come on, and thats also because i have the software to turn the fans on earlier at 60. well worth the investment.
For the sake of completeness I'd like to add links to
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/laplogic-lappads-review.html these passive insulation pads (if you just dont want to burn your lap, but dont care as much about the laptop itself)
There are some other comments regarding this issue on
slashdot.
Message Edited by rubinlinux on 06-09-2004 12:47 AM
Diagon Alleycat
23 Posts
0
September 15th, 2003 11:00
Your query is very vague. Do you have a heat problem or do you want a cooling pad as insurance against ever having a heat problem? If you mean whether or not extra cooling can benefit your Inspiron 5100, then the answer is automatically yes. It is almost like asking "Do I need more money?". But if you meant to ask whether or not you needed a cooling pad for your nominally cool running 5100 in your own normal use, then the answer would be no.
I own two types of cooling pads one of which I have modified to better meet the Inspiron's needs. I run under high CPU load most of the time, so the laptop heats up without cooling.
For those people reading the post wondering what a cooling pad is, well, it is a USB-powered cooling fan(s) mounted on either an aluminum, polycarbonate, or acrylic sheet that is placed underneath the laptop. The fans are 5volt fans similar to those in many CPU coolers. There are multiple pad styles suitable for different environments. Specifying a particular model as a solution can be a wrong answer if the user is going to use the device in a different situation.
There are multiple types of USB-powered cooling units. There are also cooling pads that are not powered by USB but via an external power adapter (aka wall wart). One cooling pad has but one fan, several have two fans, and at least two models have three fans.
Not all models are ideal for all Inspiron models. You should note the placement of support feet on the pad's upper surface where the notebook will rest. Typically, the feet are taller than the laptop's feet. This means that the actual weight of the laptop will rest on the pad's feet rather than the feet mounted on the bottom of the laptop. The placement of the pad's feet thus create pressure points on the bottom of the laptop in places where pressure might not have been intended. For example, the placement of feet of the popular acrylic two-fan cooling pad puts pressure directly on the sliding doors of the ram and video card areas of the i7000. The doors will bow inwards and transfer the pressure of the laptop directly onto the ram chips and the video card. If you rest your hands on the laptop keyboard, this puts even more pressure on those pressure points.
Another concern is the placement of the usb port on the laptop and the length of the USB cord on the cooling pad. For some laptops that have the usb port on the side of the laptop as opposed to the back of the laptop, some models of cooling pads have a usb cord is too short to reach to the laptop's port. In those cases, you will have to have a powered USB hub located near the laptop supply power to the cooling pad.
The addition of cooling fans means you will have more noise. The fans have no speed control and will make a constant gentle whirring sound. A three fan unit will make more noise than a two fan unit.
In general, the cooling pads are made in China and so are subject to overly positive claims made to help the marketability of the product. For example, on some models, the cooling feet are claimed to be made from surgical grade rubber. From inspection, I'd say that it was surgical grade if you were not working on humans. In an empirical comparison, I held up a Panaflo cooling fan with approximately the same noise dB rating as one cooling pad I purchased, and the Panaflo was significantly quieter than the cooling pad.
Message Edited by i8600 on 09-15-2003 05:51 AM
NJ8234
11 Posts
0
September 15th, 2003 23:00
Hello i8600
Do I need more money??? hahaha, just joking...==))
By the way, Thank you for replying me, your answer very helpful.
have a good evening
WUK
4 Posts
0
September 16th, 2003 02:00
Hey so which laptop cooler do you recommend for inspiron 8600? Have you tried the fanless heatpipe one? What were the modifications that you made?
Thanks,
Ken
Diagon Alleycat
23 Posts
0
September 18th, 2003 12:00
I ordered my Inspiron 8600 on Aug 31 and it has not yet arrived as of Sept 18, so I do not yet know which laptop cooler is most compatible with the bottom of the 8600. It's a Pentium M, so I hope it will not need cooling like that always-hot Inspiron 7000 I bought before. That darn i7000 just got too hot sitting in its dock. I suspect that most any normal cooler pad will be compatible (because I will modify it slightly if not).
I have not tried the fanless heatpipe one. I felt that the air-cooled solution was more effective and in retrospect it has been proven that way. In addition to being more effective, air cooling was cheaper.
As to modifications, I raised up the areas on the pad where the Inspiron feet would be anticipated to touch. I did this instead of removing the feet that were mounted to the pad. Thus, the feet mounted to the pad don't reach the bottom of the laptop. That way, the weight would once again rest on the laptop's feet instead of on other areas like the sliding doors.
WUK
4 Posts
0
September 18th, 2003 17:00
Diagon Alleycat
23 Posts
0
September 23rd, 2003 07:00
Well, the Inspiron arrived at the local shipping center and I drove over to pick it up rather than wait to have it delivered to me. The shipping office commented that it was problematic to communicate the shipping status to Dell so that the website could be updated on a daily basis. Hence, Dell's website status would say that the package was still in transit to the shipper whereas the package had already arrived.
The large size of the Inspiron 8600 meant that it would barely fit on the two-fan cooling pad. The bottom feet overlap over the edges of the pad. The 8600 runs suprisingly hot and the cooling pad is useful. I had been thinking that the Pentium M was fantasy type of cool, but it is still pretty hot running. In the end, there is way more heat than from my nice trusty i7000 which could go without the cooling pad.
---- SUGGESTION FOR FRUGAL PEOPLE NEEDING COOLING SOLUTION:----
The i8600 can be supported by short tubular sections of plastic about one inch or so in height. The added spacing results in a larger air gap so the hot bottom will be cooler. I've already tried this passive cooling approach with various objects such as the cores from used up rolls of scotch tape, using the empty cannisters from 35mm rolls of film, and even a two pieces of wood with holes drilled to accommodate the feet on the laptop's bottom, Because the Inspiron 8600 feet protrude so much, it is good for stability in that a tubular support won't wander around too much.
rkenshin
19 Posts
0
September 23rd, 2003 13:00
My cooler pad is called NIP-2000 Notebook Ice http://www.ssc.co.kr/En_ssc/ssc_product/notebook.htm
I have used it for 1.5 weeks now and I can tell you that the fan is very quiet ..the Dell fans are the loud ones. The surface is aluminium encased and works as an effective heatsink. I currently use it with my i8500 together with i8kfangui. It's very impressive as after 4-5 hours of continuous normal use the HDD stays around 35C and the CPU temp is also around 35C.
JersWork
770 Posts
0
September 24th, 2003 20:00
I have a P4m system and I use one of 2 cooling pads. I have a 4 fan USB powered pad I leave on my desk at the office. This pad has variable speed fans, and an on/off switch and seems to work well under "normal" conditions. The second pad I have is the "heat-sink" style with the thermal conductive pipes, and no fans. It is definitely much more quiet, but it does not keep the system as cool.
For my system, when I am performing video rendering, or a NAV full system scan, neither cooling pad is effective enough to keep the system from getting "too hot". My HD normally hovers around 38-40C, and jumps to 50C or higher during heavy CPU utilization and/or excessive drive access. In this case, I use the Intel Power Mgmnt utiltiyto force my processor into the slower 1.2GHz "Speed Step" mode which helps keep the heat down as compared to the full 2.0GHz processor speed...
Diagon Alleycat
23 Posts
0
September 26th, 2003 17:00
I have decided to use a cooling pad with the Inspiron 8600 all the time because it runs so hot. If the Pentium M chip makes so much heat, I wonder how hot one of the generic laptops using Pentium 4 desktop chips will be. I see some of those sold at the mom-and-pop computer shops and via mail order/websites.
Now, if Dell would make a winterized laptop where more of the heat would come out of the keyboard to keep our fingers warm whilst typing in the crisp winter air.
--
FOLLOWUP:
Now that I've had the 8600 for a few days, it has done nothing to change my impression that it likes to run HOT. Even on the cooling pad, the laptop's fan comes on if the cooling pad is at low air flow. So, now I have the laptop getting a good blast of air underneath and its fan no longer turns on until I run a large CPU load such as one of those distributed computing projects to make use of idle CPU time.
Evidently, the method being used to conduct heat away from the processor could be beefed up in the next laptop version. That's my conclusion since I have enough air on blowing on bottom of the laptop to keep almost the entire bottom cool to the touch. So, if the outsides of the laptop are cool and the fan still comes on, that implies that the method used to transfer the heat from the processor to the outside of the case could need some improvement.
Message Edited by i8600 on 09-27-2003 01:39 PM
Diagon Alleycat
23 Posts
0
September 29th, 2003 18:00
Antec has noticed the cooling pad market and has a stylish 2-fan usb-powered version described at their website at:
http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_cooling.php?ProdID=75004
There is an interesting and detailed review of the Antec unit at:
http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/cooling_devices/antec_nc/
As for the two-fan acrylic cooling pads that I use, I originally purchased them for use with the Inspiron 7000 which fits on them. The 8600 has such a large size that I rest the lower lip against the bottom of the 8600 against the feet rather than having the laptop rest against the lip in a conventional placement. I paid $8 each for them. They are made of acrylic, have a silvered coating, a slide switch to turn the two fans on/off, a short usb cable, and one usb socket (passthrough) so that you don't lose a usb port on your laptop by connecting the fan. I typically connect an external hard drive through the port, so the additional cabling doesn't seem to affect the data lines with additional noise.
I don't remember where I bought mine for $8 each plus a flat small postage fee, but here is a different source of those cooling pads so you can check out the description and picture at least:
http://www.hardwarecooling.com/product_info.php/cPath/33/products_id/226
Also mentioned in the thread was the passive aluminum cooling pad which had heat pipes to conduct the heat to a large thermal sink where the heat can then be radiated away. I am not sure of the model mentioned, but I've seen the one at CompUSA which is identical to the one described and pictured at:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/extremepcgear/notebookcooler.html
The advantage of the CompUSA one is that it cost $29.95 at CompUSA and $39.95 on the internet Yahoo shop. The cooling pad does NOT contact the bottom of the laptop, so any cooling effect has to occur from the laptop radiating through the 1/8 inch air gap between the bottom of the laptop and the aluminum cooling pad.
As for hot laptop stories, here is one about the Swedish scientist whose laptop got so hot it burned his lap.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/22/1037697857595.html
Message Edited by i8600 on 09-29-2003 12:51 PM
DreamU
12 Posts
0
October 3rd, 2003 18:00
Diagon Alleycat
23 Posts
0
October 4th, 2003 19:00
So, once again, it goes to show that the more expensive solution (Antec) is not necessarily the best overall solution when compared to the much cheaper acrylic cooling pad which also has two fans like the Antec but doesn't restrict the fans inside lots of stylish plastic casing.
As to how much is cool enough? Well, it seems that for the 8600, there is a lot of thermal resistance between the case and the hot parts inside. The internal fans can still come on even though the exterior has been cooled by the cooling pad fans to the point where the case bottom is either cool or slightly warm in certain specific areas. At that point, I know I've cooled the case as much as could be done.
SUGGESTION:
Maybe in future Inspirons, Dell can pioneer the innovation of a new laptop case design feature: heat transfer mount. What this "heat transfer mount" could be is a metal area on the bottom of the laptop case to which the heat pipes are connected. This area would have a set of screw holes or a "lip" to which something like an external heat sink or fan could be attached to provide extra cooling. This type of heat transfer area would get around the thermal resistance of the exterior plastic case. It might even allow for Dell to sell a better type of dock which had built-in cooling fans to take advantage of the thermal transfer area.
As laptops get bigger and become desktop replacements, a thermal transfer area may actually become necessary in order to not have too large a cooling fan inside the laptop's case.
Message Edited by i8600 on 10-04-2003 01:41 PM
Diagon Alleycat
23 Posts
0
October 27th, 2003 03:00
Okay, finally remembered the online store that I bought the acyrlic cooling pad. I can't quite recommend this pad to 8600 users as it is just a bit too small. However, the place sells a larger cooling pad with more fans that is physically larger.
Dual Fan Acrylic Notebook Cooling Pad: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/nexfan03/dufannoco.html
Four-Fan Notebook Cooling Pad: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/nexfan03/tunocowi4fas.html
Picture Four-Fan Cooling Pad: http://store4.yimg.com/I/nexfan03_1762_1939847
vwaddict
14 Posts
0
October 27th, 2003 20:00
I got mine on ebay for 6 bux, a hot setup puttin out 40 cfm, which keeps my 8100 soo much cooler especially when running heavy games that heat up my ram. I looked around alot for a decent setup, it also has a high speed usb through port so you dont lose the 2 ports you have on the back. this was a steal from hardcore cooling. They have some homepage not sure what it was , just look on ebay, thats my advice...Here is the software to see how hot your comp is running and controlls the fans. Without the fans i would be running at the 60s, with the fans it dropped about 10 degrees to 50, but now the cooling fans stock on the 8100 rarely come on, and thats also because i have the software to turn the fans on earlier at 60. well worth the investment.
http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html
rubinlinux
15 Posts
0
June 9th, 2004 04:00
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/laplogic-lappads-review.html
these passive insulation pads (if you just dont want to burn your lap, but dont care as much about the laptop itself)
There are some other comments regarding this issue on
slashdot.
Message Edited by rubinlinux on 06-09-2004 12:47 AM