HOW-TO: laptop cooler for under 5 dollars!!!!
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 at
4:50 am
This is my homemade notebook cooler that cost me around 3 dollars and some random computer parts I had sitting around the house. This is used on my Asus eeepc1000h but this could be used for most small to midsize laptops.
Tagged with: 1000H • cheap • cool • custom • custom laptop cooler • Eee PC • ghetto mod • homemade • how to • laptop • notebook cooler • sexy
Filed under: Cheap Laptop Used
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cheap, works good, both pluses but i think my alienware would crush that, i have one in the works, an old power supply and 2 160mm fans with 100+ cfm each, the stand is made out of a vcr/dvd combo that quit working a while back, drilled the holes for screws and jig sawed the holes out
I use a leaf blower! Keeps everything cool,but not much good for listening to music!
question though…wouldn’t just connecting to usb make the laptop run more and hotter?
Actually no, because the USB controller itself is constantly receiving 5v of energy within to laptop itself, its like saying if you plugged in a USB mouse it would make your laptop get hotter, but since you can only use 5v maximum its not like you are forcing your computer to work any harder than without the USB device.
Actually, this is not entirely correct. Yes, the USB port has 5V available at all times, but voltage does not create heat, current does. On a disconnected USB port no current flows. When You connect something to the current starts flowing and some heat is generated. Although, in case of USB, the maximum current is also quite small and shouldn’t create too much additional heat. After all, laptop coolers like this one on the whole give you a cooler computer, so it shouldn’t be a problem with USB.
how does your ONE usb cable power the TWO fans?
well because the 1 usb cable is spliced to both fans, so you take the 1 red and 1 black as shown in the video, and twist it together with the two red wires from the two fans, and then do the same with the black wires, just make sure that your set of 3 reds twisted together and your 3 blacks twisted together dont touch each other and you’re set. Hope that helps
thanks, final question, i have a fan that used to be powered by two standard AA (1.5V) batteries, do you know if the USB power will be enough to run it well?
I’m not positive on this one, I’d say you might give it a try because it’s not going hurt. You may just end up with a couple fans that you had to resplice a couple times
I’m guessing the ones you used for the AA batteries are already spliced, so it shouldn’t take long to do some trial and error. The problem is that there’s no right answer for any two different fans because they all have their own specific power needs like ones with LEDs vs “Green” or low energy profile fans.
not under 3 $ more like 10-20 for the fans and usb
If you had the money to buy a laptop in the first place, follow these steps:
1) Walk into Office Depot
2) Find a laptop cooler that’s on sale
3) Buy it
Why go through all that hassle for something that cheap anyway? Not dissing people who make their own stuff, it just doesn’t make sense to me.
well its more fun to make stuff on your own
nice video
if you really look at the black binder it looks like it’s a shocked face saying “Oh, no!” haha
…under $3?
how much is your time worth?
Maybe because were low on cash atm, or maybe becauee people live 2 hours away from an electronic store such as myself.
I just use my laptop in a NASA wind tunnel.
You are lucky with your fans!
I wish i had suc an lot of fans they are realy cool
Is it possible to connect 3-4 fans on 1 usb line?
so i am guessing you wired the fans in parallel (all positive going to the red wire and all negative going to the black wire). as well did you try soldering your wires? and duct tape is good, but dollar store hot glue is pretty awesome too!!
as long as the fans power cannot exceed 5.1 volts (the amount of power the usb port will put out) you should be safe. a 3 volt fan SHOULD be able to take that increase and the fan actually perform even better!
Great video, but unfortunately I’m not a computer builder so I don’t have extra fans. And I got my cooler as part of a pack from Woot.
@lamboix if you connect them in Parallel you can… this will ensure they will all receive 5 volts each. this means not connecting them in a line. instead, connect all the positive wires together to the positive on the usb, then all the negative to the negative on the usb… sometimes a resistor will help as well to regulate the power output. i do not recommend running this too often on battery as it will cut down on your battery life. a small knob that can adjust the speed may help as well.
grab them from hold pc’s only they have more sound and less power then newest fans, but still works perfect.
how did you make the tow fans run togeather with one USB connection…..can you plz reply to my comment…..thank you…..
@satvikjadhav4 I added a comment section within the the video to answer this question at 3:00 minutes. The two fans are run in parallel so you simply splice both the red wires on the fans to the single red wire on the USB cable, and both the black fan wires to the single USB black wire. It’s as simple as twisting together three wires and putting on some electrical tape.