[Build Log] IKEA DIY Laptop Cooler

[KamiKatze]

So i am at my parents house but forgot to take my laptop cooler with me. My laptop tends to overheat and shut down while gaming. But since i am staying for a few days i decided to build one my own and share it with you guys.

 

What you need:

 

- IKEA BRÄDA laptop holder

- Fans - I used 2x140mm Fractal Design R2

- Drill with a big drill head (~1 cm diameter)

- A file to remove ridges

- A power source for the fans

- Optionally a USB cable and soldering equipment to make your own power source.

 

- Time

- Creativity

 

 

 

So here we go, this is the IKEA BRÄDA laptop holer which we are gonna use:

 

Then I used the biggest and sharpest drill head that i could find

 

 

 

 

 

Randomly drilled holes all over the place, with enough space in between so that the holer wouldn't get fragile

 

 

 

 

Drilling was easy, the drill wen't through it like through butter; look at that mess!

 

 

 

 

I had to use some force and the drill would've went into the ground so i used a wood plank as protection

 

 

 

 

The drilling left some mediocrely sharp ridges

 

 

 

So i just grabbed a file and took some time to remove them

 

 

Eventually i got bored of it and just went crazy on it and quickly scratched over the entire surface.

 

 

 

The first step is done! Yeehaaw! We successully prepared the laptop holder!

 

On to the fans. Here you have to choose an appropriate way to power your fans. I sadly didn't find anything pleasing, or in the correct voltage range to power my fans, so i had to go with USB. The disadvantages is obviously that USB has only 5 V and i can't control the Volts either (but why would i, 5 V is slow as fuck).

 

Anyways, here are the two big boys that i used, still untouched and looking good!

 

 

I found a old USB 2.0 cable and in order to connect everything i had to do some soldering to get it to work.

 

 

On to Something rather unpleasent, I had to cut the wires of my Fractal fans, get rid of the nice black sleeving, cut out the rpm wire and basically render them useless for other purposes.

 

 

Nontheless i was ready to solder, here some glam footage of my dad's 40 y/o soldering grease

 

 

 

 

This is how i connected the two fans to one wire, using that quick connect, so i could easily change the power source later, if i get my hands on something with more Volts!

 

 

 

That's basically the assembly. Pretty simple should work.....

 

 

 

 

..... and a quick test confirms that everything is working fine

 

 

 

YAY, that was step two of the mod! Now we just need to frankenstein our two pieces together and we should in theory have a laptop cooler!

 

So first i am just laying them out on the laptop holer, according to where my laptop get's the hottest.

 

 

 

 

 

Those zip ties sadly didn't fit through the fan's holes, so i had to use some wire to tighten them down, not the best way of mounting it, but it doesn't rattle.

 

Here you can see that it is actually a tight fit, but when it fits, it sits.

 

 

 

This is pretty much the end product, you can see the fans through the holes

 

 

 

And there she is. Ignore the mess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In conclusion, i can say it does help with overheating and shutting down, but it doesn't actually cool the laptop. The CPU still get's to a toasty 85 °C, but that was to be expected. At least i can play now without having my laptop shut down all the time!

 

Thanks for reading.

 

UPDATE

 

 

 

So as you can see i sourced a power supply. I also had some old AMD stock coolers lying around which i cannibalized aswell.

 

What i did was first cut out the green and a black wire from the PSU's 24-pin and solder them together, which effectiveley is a permanent solution to bridging the two pins. Nowthe PSU will actually turn on when i flip the switch on the back.

 

I arranged the fans so that the 3 small fans with a lot of static rpessure and high RPMs would sit under the hottest spots of the laptop. I zipp-tied everything into place.

 

I cut off every fan heades and sorted the red wires and black wires together and sodlered them into two giant red and black cables, which i connected to a molex lead (which i cut off aswell). With a molex plug the yellow one has 12V, not the red one, so be careful with that.

 

The results are pretty imrpessive. The notebook is cooled much better. The airflow is very high, but so is the noise level. I couldn't bear the nosie if i wouldn't wear headphones all the time.

 

Next step would be to include a controllable resistor.

[Katsu-K1L]

That is pretty frigen awesome man!

[ThyFeared]

Great job!

[Sharif]

Awesome but where did you get those spare fractal fans?

[flibberdipper]

Nice. I just use my desk (dresser) so... My netbook doesn't have any problems with this, thankfully.

[KamiKatze]

Awesome but where did you get those spare fractal fans?

They are lying around since i outfited my Define R4 with bequiet silent wings.

[ForsakenLive]

I was planning to build something similar, I'm getting a USB to 12V adapter http://www.ebay.com/itm/5W-USB-DC-5V-to-12V-Step-Up-Boost-Module-Moter-Wireless-controller-Solar-Charger-/271176652645 5v isn't going to cut it for me.

[KamiKatze]

I was planning to build something similar, I'm getting a USB to 12V adapter http://www.ebay.com/itm/5W-USB-DC-5V-to-12V-Step-Up-Boost-Module-Moter-Wireless-controller-Solar-Charger-/271176652645 5v isn't going to cut it for me.

Oh wow, that looks tempting. But 5 bucks is a lot, relativeley, spaking.

[ForsakenLive]

Oh wow, that looks tempting. But 5 bucks is a lot, relativeley, spaking.

yeah, but when you consider that there are no 12v notebook cooler stands on the market at a reasonable price (not that I've found), it does sound really tempting.

[Erik4boss]

"Bräda" means "plank" in Swedish. Can also be used as "board"

[aom]

you should have made the holes a bit more uniform, my ocd is killing me lol.

Otherwise, great job, you could try using something like a 200mm fan or even higher.

[KamiKatze]

you should have made the holes a bit more uniform, my ocd is killing me lol.

Otherwise, great job, you could try using something like a 200mm fan or even higher.

Thanks!

 

Haha, i started off with a plan to space them out evenly but that would've requiered me to go into the basement and search for a rular, so i just went for it (with measurements, it would've taken ~ 70% longer )

 

I doubt that a 200 mm fan would fit under there but you could definiteley put three 140mm fans or even two rows of 90 mm fans but honestly....

[gylmir]

nice try to cool your laptop.

maybe you next project is to build a new base for it that you screw of the bottom and make a larger one where the fans will fit in.

[KamiKatze]

Sorry for resurrecting this thread but i did some sginificant changes (see OP). 

[FourCorners]

I like how you forgot you regular laptop stand but have spare fractal fans lying around....

[KamiKatze]

I like how you forgot you regular laptop stand but have spare fractal fans lying around....

 

They were spares from my PC.