Cooling a closed laptop in a desk drawer

[fcarvalho]

Hey,

 

I am working on putting together a setup for a home office. I have a Dell XPS 15 9570 and I want to be able to dock it in a drawer and work off two external monitors with full keyboard and wireless mouse. I am worried about the laptop overheating with the lid down and damaging the screen or other internal components. 

 

I know I'll have to have air moving through the drawer and so I am thinking about putting in two fans and a controller to turn on and off the fans depending on the temperature in the drawer.

My questions are:

1)  Will having air flow through the drawer be enough to offset the heat generated by the laptop in the small space?

2) Will keeping the lid closed damage any internals or the screen, even with the fans moving air through the drawer? 

 

Thanks to anyone who can help out.

[W-L]

1 minute ago, fcarvalho said:

Hey,

 

I am working on putting together a setup for a home office. I have a Dell XPS 15 9570 and I want to be able to dock it in a drawer and work off two external monitors with full keyboard and wireless mouse. I am worried about the laptop overheating with the lid down and damaging the screen or other internal components. 

 

I know I'll have to have air moving through the drawer and so I am thinking about putting in two fans and a controller to turn on and off the fans depending on the temperature in the drawer.

My questions are:

1)  Will having air flow through the drawer be enough to offset the heat generated by the laptop in the small space?

2) Will keeping the lid closed damage any internals or the screen, even with the fans moving air through the drawer? 

 

Thanks to anyone who can help out.

Welcome to the Forums!

 

Long as their is airflow through the drawer with a proper intake that passes air over the laptop will work. As for leaving it closed for most laptops it's not an issue but it depends on how the cooling is configured as some will vent between the screen and keyboard when open and may get obstructed when it's closed. 

[TheBean]

if you raise the bottom and have even 1 low rpm fan,  there should be no issues. 

 

or actually get one of those laptop raisers with a fan built in like these: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=laptop+cooling+pad&i=electronics&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

 

also, use a thunderbolt dock to make you life easier. you can charge and have your displays and have keybaord/mouse with 1 cable.