The BEST mod I've ever seen....

[@ZacBuilds]

Get an exclusive @Surfshark deal! Enter promo code ZACBUILDS for an extra 3 months free at surfshark.deals/zacbuilds

[@X862go]

Agreed I have a zephyrese g14 and that thing cooks. Selling it for 45wat apu laptop. At least the performance will be more stable, then the heat from RTX anything.

[@ilikegpu]

framework laptops

[@Tailslol]

Good idea the angle but all those angled cooler are known to off center the laptop fans after a while making them noisier and damaging the fans in the end. Better go with a more neutral angle design for long term use.

[@benkayvfalsifier3817]

If you are going to be modding your N-Switch, then I expect you to replace the Joy-Con plastic covers with *wewd.* Otherwise, I will be very disappointed in you.

[@BixxPlays]

i recommend a framework laptop. it might even be the last laptop you buy.

[@WoodwardIII]

For reference, the reason why laptops don’t dump heat into the outer chassis directly is generally so that the batteries don’t overheat, which is a fire hazard. (source: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4TCfol6pMZ8pa8) Edit: In addition, there are also regulations about how hot surfaces can get so that they don't burn you.

[@JanJanJanJanJanJanJanJanJan2]

Also there are regulations on how hot touchable surfaces are allowed to get.

[@latitzouri]

​@@JanJanJanJanJanJanJanJanJan2cooking steak on the back o my laptop go brrrrrrrrrrrrr 😎

[@Dj-Mccullough]

Laptops are limited in the amount of heat they are allowed to dissipate through the chassis outer shell to prevent burns, that particular limitation has little to nothing to do with battery protection.

[@DantePowell]

and you know, you dont want to burn your legs if you had them on your lap. just saying.

[@onyxx300_]

Intel MacBook Pros be like: what regulations?

[@JeffKraschinski1969]

From what I can see, it looks like the Thunderport hub kind of blocks the air intake in the fan as well, so that might be worth a redesign. Also making the top removable so that whenb the fan eventually dies you can replace it without busting apart a glued piece

[@lostapostle76]

Yep. Rule of thumb with fans is at least an inch of space in front of them to allow flow. Only instance I've seen in 40 years of doing support where it isn't involves rifle bearing fans. You don't want rifle bearing fans.

[@PyspherE]

Considering there is likely much more resistance on the push side finding gaps out from under the laptop i highly doubt there is much, if any, flow constriction happening on the pull side where the hub is located. also if the stand is for this particular model of laptop and hes already shown its power limited and not thermo limited then any improvments to airflow are largely moot. would be nice if the fan was more easily replaceable, although an offset phillips driver (looks like a hex/allen key) should probably get the job done in the current config but would still be a PITA.

[@tradingnichols2255]

Noctua fans usually last 10 years plus so....

[@williamBryan-k2e]

I had the same thought and would make this change. I would move the connection hub so that the edge of the hub matches ( or close ) to the edge of the 'projet'. Since the top is at an incline, this would make more airspace for the fan. I do not believe that this would break the looks of the 'project'.

[@techguypaul]

Also some Thunderbolt hubs can get very hot themselves, so then it's pulling hot air onto the hot laptop.

[@jessedemps]

You should get a Framework laptop

[@ZacBuilds]

Just waiting for the Framework 16 to drop!

[@jessedemps]

Thi is the first heart I have ever gotten

[@alexmendiola]

I just got my framework and it's the bee's knees. Plus, better for the environment and I'm not worried about obsolescence!

[@scarecrow5848]

​@@ZacBuildsmake sure you get the AMD version.

[@AdamKueflef]

​@@ZacBuildsSo I'm not the only one waiting to upgrade

[@jamesmuhuhu7987]

What I like about Zac is he goes into detail for things trivial for experienced workers that for inexperienced seems complicated

[@willlucas5150]

Would also be interesting to see how it would compare with all the internal cooling mods and using the body as a heat sink but without the big cooling stand.

[@ZacBuilds]

Ah damn, I didnt even think to run that benchmark. Next time!

[@willlucas5150]

@ZacBuilds not too late. Run the test and update the description

[@willlucas5150]

Sounds demanding lol. Not meaning to be like that. But this is actually a good idea I haven't seen before

[@febrianadji5758]

Idk on Dell But there's a ton of that in MacBook The main problem by solely using the body without external cooling is that you also heats up battery and SSD

[@robertcastillo90]

Yeah, was disappointed he didn't show that. Really wanted to know becuase maybe the big fan isn't worth it for those of us who would be OK with doing all that. Also be careful with pass, I'm not too familiar with that pudy product you used. But another tech ch, jayztwocents, removed the pads from his ram and put paste and it turned out the pad was also there to bridge the gap on the cooler. His issue was it was a huge heatsink which included the ram and was just mm higher on some places.

[@briturner11]

Your content is some of my favorite combination of "computer nerd" and "wood working maker".

[@alannelson3215]

Luckily, I had the same tens of thousands of dollars worth of professional woodworking tools and the years of necessary skills, so I was easily able to follow your instructions on how to build this gadget out of five dollars worth of lumber.

[@GeekOfAllThings]

Given your penchant for customizing, I'd say you should get a Framework laptop 16 when orders open up. Completely customizable IO and all replaceable parts. It'll even have an expansion bay for a replaceable internal video card.

[@feeterican]

I said somewhat of the same thing about Framework and also Clevo.

[@glittalogik]

+1 for Framework. Entirely aside from customizability, their whole take on reusability is SO overdue for the laptop industry. I was sold the moment I saw how easy they'd made it to rehouse the internals into a standalone mini-PC.

[@jonathanzimmer8143]

I just fixed up an old Elitebook 2560p, one of the last socketed laptops. The thing came with 4 gigs of RAM but now has 16, and i5 only kind of upgrades to i7 (2nd gen only😢), but then the peripheral slots are just insane. eSATA, swappable dvd drive, DisplayPort, SD slot, PC Express slot (thankfully there are cool cards for), m.2e X 3- ethernet card, swappable wifi card,also a sim slot and cell card. Dedicated docking port. Oh, and smart card for biz security. It's no Framework, but it is built to stay relevant 12 years later. It does. It crushes at music production. I got this out of the garbage, dude. This mission is loooong overdue.

[@CarbonPhoenix96]

​@@feetericani do not recommend Clevo. I used to work on them often

[@jmwilsoND]

@@feetericanThe 16" framework seems like it could have the specs he needs to replace the dell. But I wouldn't want to go all in on the AMD 7700s which is arriving on the 16. As a prior Asus G55 owner, I've been burned by the MXM hype. Framework seems more dedicated and likely to acheieve the upgradable GPU goal, but I wouldn't bet against history yet.

[@FlameSoulis]

Not sure if you check older videos, but regarding the Dell Dock: you can get right angle adapters to reduce the strain on the USB C port. Additionally, the docks usually have a power button, which can turn the laptop on. In my setup, I 3D printed a side shelf that holds the laptop on the side of my desk, giving me the entire desk for use. So basically, something akin to what you did with the drawer, but more barebones.

[@jvcouk]

I did similar for my XPS 9560 (i7-7700HQ, 1050) a couple of years ago, with some differences: no external fan, I made a thermal bridge from the VRMs to bare heatpipes, undervolted the CPU 0.12V, put fine mesh over the intakes (to eliminate dust), and resting it on a dowell bar near the rubber strip to stop hot air recirculating into the intake. As a result, it only hits around 85'C with a GPU game or CPU-intensive work, and the power delivery stays higher. There were other tweaks, like also using ThrottleStop to improve responsiveness for DAW work. So if you want to improve on what you already have, maybe try undervolting, if your system allows it.

[@EpicBunty]

the mesh would affect the intake enough to raise temps. did you add cuts to the laptop chassis ? removing the mesh will yield better temps.

[@jvcouk]

@@EpicBunty After 3 years, I've still not had dusty fans inside, and the temperatures are not noticeably affected by the mesh (I must have found one that doesn't impede the airflow significantly). Gaming temperature is typically 84C max, and the VRMs don't throttle the system, while sustaining 34x on all cores, or near 37x if single-thread workloads.

[@EpicBunty]

@@jvcouk i see. well the no dust is a big win then and 84c for laptops is decent enough. my pc case has a top mesh, removing which gave me atleast -5c at peak load. top fans are exhaust though.

[@jvcouk]

@@EpicBunty Yep, removing top mesh should be no problem if you use it often, don't have stuff falling in, and have positive pressure in your chassis.

[@jvcouk]

@@EpicBunty Dell designed my laptop as a dust trap that throttled in its default state with normal workloads, which ruined games. The small software mods pushed closer to CPU tolerances (for lower power), and the hardware mods safely improved heat flow, power throughput, and dustproofing. A huge win for me, and my 7700HQ laptop can keep going.

[@christianrobinson4526]

You're my favorite youtuber right now. You woodwork, build computer/electronic/emulation stuff, and longboard. All of which are things I like to do! I've been 30 mph on a longboard, built my own PC, built an arcade style emulator with the big joysticks, and I make some money on the side woodworking. I think you may be my spirit animal 😂

[@ZacBuilds]

Hell ya! That's the best feedback I could get. Hopefully some more of our future projects sync up

[@theumpteenthtime8854]

Dude invented a desktop.

[@CrapkinsTheBrave]

My only note is that there are plenty of existing laptop cooling pad devices that have spare room inside their chassis that could fit the dock if you swapped out their fans for that nice one. Many of them even have fan controllers built-in. You would end up with a more comfortable purpose-built device by cobbling something together rather than building it from scratch in this case.

[@michaeldisante5145]

Hi Zac, I have been rocking a MSI Gaming GT72 6QD(Dominator G)-249UK for 10 years now and it has been rock solid. I've upgraded the storage to 6TB of internal SSD storage, bumped the RAM to 64GB and configured the system to dual boot Windows 10 and Linux Mint. I have a desktop that I use for gaming now, but this laptop still performs very well for development duties and general use. If the newer MSI systems are as solid as this thing, hard to go wrong. Another system I have considered is the new Framework 16 laptop. It can be stripped down to a bare chasis with one included tool and everything on this laptop may be user serviced/upgraded. The ports may be configured as desired and there is a dedicated bay for a graphics card. Looks to be well engineered.

[@edwardzooby5548]

I’d like to see the performance upgrade with just the fan, just the improved thermal paste, and then the combination. Awesome build though!

[@ianhaylock7409]

He didn't want you to find out that all the extra performance came from the work he did on the laptop, and not from his laptop stand.

[@tradingnichols2255]

LOL, funny, in another part of the comments he said he didn't even think of benchmarking anything else, "good idea!" That last bit might not be paraphrasing so I put it in quotes, lol. @@ianhaylock7409

[@tradingnichols2255]

We all probably have different laptops, and that putty is a pain if you ever want to redo it so.... all I did was use mx-4 on my gpu and cpu under the cooler And replaced what Asus did with thermal puddy, with really high end thermal pads. I reinstalled my cpu/gpu cooler, and immediately uninstalled, of course my thermal paste was fine, the only thing you can do is use too little and since I normally repaste full sized GPU's I used too much. Cleaned up the edges a bit - that wouldn't have mattered. Checked the thermal pads that they were all indented by the memory a little, but not too much. Refettied as necessary, rechecked for fit. Reassembled. You see, about the thermal pads imprinting, heavy imprints and you may reduce pressure on the CPU/GPU points because the thermal pads are too thick, which could cause their temps to go up or even severely overheat them. When I was done my laptop was flying fast. I mean flying fast. It's still faster than the day I bought it 5 years ago. Curios about what happened, I looked it up online and found out "everybody" talking about how much faster this laptop is, even new out of the box with new thermals. Oh, well at least 2 years later I started in on that performance!

[@Souloux]

I recently finished building a cooling pad with 3 120mm Noctua NF-P12 redux fans and Noctua NA-FC1 fan controller. It works great, can be a bit loud but way better than any previous ones I've owned.

[@ZacBuilds]

Ya most laptop cooling pads are really loud anyways. This 200mm fan is crazy quiet. I should've talked more about it, but you cant really hear it until you get within 12" inches of it and even then it's just a whisper. The built in fans inside the laptop are WAY louder haha.

[@anon_y_mousse]

As far as common, North American woods go, walnut is definitely the best. If you're looking for portability then I'd suggest Framework since upgrading will be easier than with others.

[@ZacBuilds]

I love the whole Framework ethos, but for video editing a dedicated GPU is a big factor. I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the 16" inch version.

[@thatwasonce]

@@ZacBuilds it's up for preorders now

[@FrostKing104]

Dude this whole time watching your channel I've loved that you use hexagons because I'm a CGP Grey fan. Who'd have thought you used them for the same reason. So cool. Hexagons are the bestagons :p

[@cameronkennedy7820]

Designing in external radii to those tenon joints that have about a 5-10% clearance on the internal radii will eliminate the need to do manual chisel work

[@83n80y]

As a tech that fixes laptops, I can safely say that there isn't a flawless laptop manufacturer. All brands have issues and even have some that are lemons. I would say it's more about keeping the vents and fans clean inside, not ever using mechanical hard drives (use SSDs and NVMe SSDs), and doing research on a per model basis based on your budget. Of course, like Zac recommends, having an external cooler will help it run cooler, faster and last much longer. If you're having issues, 8 times out of 10 it's the mechanical hard drive. Replace that with an SSD and you're likely good to go. The other is the 2 times is either the CPU cooler/fan or power issue. The CPU fan/heatsink gets filled with lint and dust. Just clean it out and it'll cool much better. Power issues come from the DC Jack being bent/broken or the battery doesn't hold much of a charge. In either of those power issues those parts would need to be replaced. Of course, there can be other random issues but they're much more rare. They instead tend to be from wear and tear (cracked screen, spilled something on the keyboard, trackpad worn out, cracked plastics/frame). In other words, lemons can happen but unless it's a manufacturing issue it's less likely it's a problem with all of that model or brand. Again, just make sure it has an SSD instead of a HDD and you're off to a good start.

[@willsside1]

I love your videos on upgrading / hacking your tech! That cinebench score improvement is insane. For new laptops I have my eye on the new framework laptop!

[@ZacBuilds]

Thanks man! And me too, I'm waiting to see what their 16 inch model can do!

[@SoulDragonWithFlow]

Very recently bought a custom MetaBox laptop (Specifically a Prime XR). They are expensive, especially if you ship them outside of Australia like I had to, but this thing is a beast. No issues with thermal throttling as far as I can tell. I use an off-the-shelf cooling pad so I don't know what portable comfort would be like, but I will say they have a wide range of models to suit every niche and you can customise them to your liking with everything from the CPU and GPU, to the Ram, Storage and even the screen. You get what you pay for at the end of the day and I'm personally very happy with my purchase for my needs. Sales rep was very friendly and knowledgeable too. Check them out

[@itsmilan4069]

Cooling pads do work great if your laptop has proper air intake underneath (unlike the one shown in this video where the vents are at the bottom)

[@silversonic1]

Laptop cooling pads do work, just not as directly as you might want. By cooling the shell, it means the air that does go into the inlets isn't being heated as severely while it travels under and into your laptop, meaning the air that goes in can then grab more heat before going out. Not to mention it distances the laptop from other heat, ie your lap if you use it according to its name.

[@johnsondu1896]

Congratulations! You just turn your laptop into a desktop.

[@scarface406]

Cool! you should also try undervolting you cpu and gpu aswell as lowering you're minimum processor state and changing the turbo from aggressive to enabled this should increase the power ALOT more

[@beforedrrdpr]

Would love to see a video on how you come up with these ideas, especially how you know if it'll work or not?

[@ZacBuilds]

Huh that's an interesting idea. Basically I just look for problems I'm having in my own life. "Wish my laptop didnt overheat so badly.....Hmmm, I bet I can fix that with a DIY project" The fun part is I almost never know if they will work or not. It keeps the whole thing interesting from start to finish for me, and hopefully for you and everyone else at home too!

[@MayankJairaj]

Since I am early I'll narrate the same mod I made during the lockdown, it was dirt cheap. but first Laptop rec: I was initially thinking of recommending something like TongFang or Clevo chassis(aka CyberPowerPC, Xotic, Eluktronics, etc) but the since u already have a beefy PC, go for a Framework, they are effortless to repair and you can show us some cool mods related to these! my mod: I bought a laptop table +cooling fan combo (the one with 3 joint plastic legs on each side) de-lidded the bottom panel, replaced paste with the 14watt Cooler master stuff, and for thermal pads I used Gelid ultimate To increase the height I used Pencil Erasers and I used RasPi heatsinks on RAM and SSD The bottom panel rests in a drawer; whenever I need to take the Laptop - I clip it back on. For a hub I use whatever I have, it's called HyperDrive but also one from a brand called Orico both are good. I also used a heatsink on the HyperDrive one as it heats up due to charging. Yours looks way better than my ghetto build but it's cheap

[@ZacBuilds]

I'm eagerly awaiting the launch of the Framework 16! My main problem with their current design is that there's no dGPU. I'd also like something that wasnt crazy chonky so we'll see once it's released. Sounds like an awesome project! Did you benchmark it? I'm curious to hear if it made a difference.

[@MayankJairaj]

@@ZacBuilds oh so a mobile editing station is what u need.. I'd say if the laptop u use isn't cutting it then a gaming laptop would be what u need. The sheer thermal mass of the aluminium can easily power thru most of it. Something like a CyberpowerPC laptop or some OEM that sells TongFang or Clevo would be okay(Cyberpower being the cheapest) something around 2.5k USD would suffice ur needs. Brands don't matter much, you could buy the most desirable brand and it will fail. MSI, Asus, Acer, HP, Dell all fail - just buy what you feel does the stuff u need. Obviously Jarrod's the best on YT for this kinda stuff. But if portability and ease of use is also a factor then u might wanna check out the Mac's. I hate to say this but they are pretty good at what they do - efficiency. I'm sure you are aware of all their downsides, but do give it a thought. . . haven't run a real synthetic benchmark but it defo improved my gaming fps, I went from 43/46fps to a 58/60fps and the temp drop was amazing! Earlier it was 88 °C max and now I can't find a way to make it go above 72°C. And on idle it sometimes turns off the fan, this wasn't possible before, it would run its fan all the time.

[@elfedorausado]

If I understand correctly, you added small heat sinks from raspberry Pi directly to components inside your laptop, and use it docked with the bottom panel of the laptop removed? I also understand that you add the panel back when you need to take the laptop with you… if so, do the added heat sinks fit with the panel on?

[@dirkth8556]

MacBook pro m2 is crazy efficient and you can directly use that cooler because it’s also full aluminium

[@emanueleg_457]

In my opinion there is a way to improve this project: by placing a frame of sponge or memory foam that is placed under the laptop to prevent the air from escaping and forces it into the PC's dissipation system.

[@watercannonscollaboration2281]

That a lot of nice thermal mods, I never had good experiences repasting my XPS17 9710 (I tried MX5 and GC Extreme and thermals were worse until I switched to Honeywell PTM, that made a huge improvement), but pretty awesome to see the before and after, and considering that Intel/Dell boosts these CPUs to over 100W (at least in my experience with the XPS 17 9710), the fact you can get it to power limit throttle is kinda amazing

[@flat_stickproductions209]

It's so wild to see my PTM experiment has made it this far. We talked about it in Discord then I purchased some from a sketchy Chinese shop and the PTM revolution was born.

[@TigonIII]

The only modification that would make this even better would be to take inspiration from the IETS GT600 laptop cooling pad, which is to make a foam lining all around the top (where the laptop will be resting), which traps air above the fan and beneath the laptop, creating a high air pressure pocket, which will try to escape at the point of least resistance, which will be the laptops air intake. The GT600's design have proven that this lets you gain a 15-20 (some even say 30 depending on the fan speed etc.) degrees celsius reduction in heat.

[@madisondavis954]

As a former pc tech (which admittedly has been a few years) a large portion of what we got in for repair were Dell computers. If my memory serves me, it was like almost 50% of all repairs were Dell. Personally I think HP makes good high end laptops and I have a soft spot for Asus.

[@LeftyRoadster]

That's really interesting to hear! I currently work as a consumer level pc tech (like general public, not for a business clientelle). I find that Dell's come in a fair amount, but the majority of the repairs I see are Lenovo's. A lot of broken hinges on their yoga style laptops. I wonder if you worked with more professional clients where Dell laptops are more common?

[@MayankJairaj]

that just tells you what sells in ur area

[@sklungofunk]

"laptop manifacturers are lieing to you." 12 cores phones manifacturers:

[@TheOmegaRiddler]

I'd like to see what you could do with a framework laptop, especially when you upgrade one because of what you'll do with the old board.

[@ian3314]

Thats awesome! Love the look of it and that magnet into the cupboard is soo slick.

[@ToolShow]

Super cool project Zac! The magnets for the drawer mount were a nice surprise.

[@ZacBuilds]

Haha thanks you! I've been trying to incorporate bonus features into all my projects now.

[@ad.i]

18:09 YEAH, FRAMEWORK. I have had a few problems with this thing, but not only is their customer support god tier, but the damn thing is so open that I'm usually able to fix it myself with just looking at the internals.

[@secondnikos]

Very nice outcome! Got some usefull ideas! Same situation with my XPS too. Quite a lot of problems. Switched to Thinkpad; quite pleased with it so far

[@ZacBuilds]

Definitely considering some other Lenovo devices!

[@RisingRevengeance]

I have quite a few thinkpads that I really like. The ones I use daily are my X1 Carbon(gen 4) and a T450s, both are a few years old but still work well and are solid af.

[@RB-pc7tg]

I just did this last night to my MacBook airs. But I used 20mW/k 3mm thermal pads instead. And it worked like a charm as well as it won’t be messy like thermal putty

[@joshuascholar3220]

I use a cheap HP gaming laptop that has had nothing but overheating problems. I've replaced the thermal paste many times (I do it every time the laptop freezes up, presumably from heat). I finally tried replacing the paste with PMT7950 phase change thermal pads. They're hard to work with, but they improved the laptop as much as I could have hoped for.

[@AliYassinToma]

Barely thicker than a phone 💀💀

[@TigTex]

That Noctua thermal compound that you've used suffers from pump out really quickly. Make sure to monitor those temperatures because I expect them to degrade a lot in the following weeks/months. Consider using reliable stuff such as PTM7950. Undervolting the CPU and GPU might also give you a measurable boost in performance due to a decrease in thermal output

[@tristanwegner]

Yes. With the flexing happening in a laptop from regular use, I expect the movement between the case and the cooler to pump the compound away to the sides.

[@bobbybyrne1899]

The new Framework 13 or 16 would be my choice for a new laptop

[@ZacBuilds]

Waiting on that 16 to drop!

[@r65]

Lenovo high end laptops are just incredible. I'm rocking a P52 and a P1 and they're just amazing machines all around. Great 3D capability, ideal for CAD, 128gb of RAM and i7 processor just chews through any and all tasks with no issue whatsoever. And pre-owned, they're a steal at about 500 bucks or so.

[@tjesnaps]

This was a breath of fresh air! Great to see someone thinking outside the box ;)

[@ZacBuilds]

Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

11:50 For more heat transfer, you should have sanded the heatpipes and apply the putty right on the bare copper of the heatpipes. Oh, and btw, your thunderbolt module ruins the effects of your fan. Even more when you consider that 200 mm fans don't have much static pressure... 🙄

[@Zockmock]

Have a look into framework laptops. I think you'll really like them.

[@ZacBuilds]

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the Framework 16!

[@Zockmock]

@@ZacBuilds yeah and I think it's gonna be great. Linus showed it a couple of days ago but I think you already know that 😄

[@mehokodro09]

Opening the service panel on your laptop doesn't void your warranty. In fact, in the US, it is illegal to deny your warranty if warranty stickers are torn or broken, according to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975. This was reinforced by the FTC in a 2018 case.

[@sameerakhtari9962]

I was about to ask that did noctua paid every youtuber to use their big fan xD then you made logo hider xD ..love to see that you are using this product because of performance , not for money . Also love to see that you are now in tech too..

[@ZacBuilds]

Haha one day maybe, but for now I'm paying out of pocket like everyone else. I just like their products and their color scheme is a good match for walnut :)

[@GreedoShot]

good thing you added that dock to pre-warm the air you're sending to your laptop

[@weksauce]

Go framework.

[@philippenielsen9936]

Definitely any of the latest MacBook Pro models. Unless you absolutely need a Windows-native computer. I have to say I like your video flow and the fact you always end with an introspective post-mortem analysis!

[@avici0182]

Came here to learn how to cool a laptop, ended up knowing a bit about woodcrafting, CNC and 3d printers. Subbed!

[@sorkmine]

What you need is to build a fanhouse of some sort that funnels the air into a hose or something similar. Then you 3D print a hose2 adapter. Voila! You now blow air through the entire laptop which will cool it effectively.

[@arthurkineard7356]

I have used eluktronics laptops for the last few years. It is custom built laptop company. Less expensive than big names for comparable performance. No bloatware. The case will be larger; I am sure for cooling. I like mine and have not had any issues. They do not offer inexpensive options. I think $1200 is were they start in price. Regardless if you are looking for a desktop replacement this is a good option.

[@Rock_Appreciator]

I did this on an old dell, but just reapplied paste, added 2 small heat syncs on a couple uncooled chips, and cut vent holes into the bottom. Didn't even use a cooling fan but I saw ~12% increase in performance.

[@mikeycage1587]

In a perfect world, you are right, wood being glued together with a good wood glue, like titebond, is just as strong as one solid piece but people aren't perfect. You would have been better off using at least 3 dowls for added security. Anyway, carry on... I love what you are doing.👍

[@hyde8118]

I think your setup would look more complete if you will use L-shaped USB-C connector, so cable will be looking more neat outside of the dock

[@charginginprogresss]

8:30 "Those don't really work" They work by lifting the thing in the first place. Improving airflow. Even if they do nothing else. I keep my laptop on my lap so I know what I am talking about xD

[@greybuckleton]

I own the same laptop. It needed a re paste and more importantly a re torque from new. If you read the Dell maintenance manual they don't torque the heat sink in a star pattern, crazy. Otherwise it's been great tbh and parts are still available direct from Dell. That being said, how many customers are really willing and able to crack open a $2000 laptop and re paste the heatsink, not many I imagine. The Macbook Pro of the same era had the exact same issue.

[@Ph3arrt3]

Well in my experience MSI doesn't allow you to open the case without voiding the warranty. On the other hand, Asus does allow you to open the laptop just so long as you don't remove the heat spreader assembly, so you are allowed to do your own upgrades to RAM, SSD's, and M.2's. As they are using liquid metal instead of thermal paste there shouldn't be any need to remove the heat spreader so for some time beyond the life of the laptop. I have an ASUS Strix G15 and it has laughed at everything I have thrown at it. It's an option for you to consider from a fellow Canuck.

[@wilkuuu4016]

Cooling pads work, but 1. you need to get a good one which is not ending there, becouse you need 2. - get a correct one for your laptop to match intake wents. Properly taken cooling pad can lower temps by 10 degree C.

[@fragalot]

VPNs do not allow you to surf the web anonymously. VPNs give you obscurity not anonymity. They can only obscure your activity from your ISP, and all activity will be seen from another location of the VPN. The rest of the internet can still see your activities. The moment you login to any online service, email, social media, amazon, app, etc you're being tracked, logged, and profiled. It doesn't matter what your IP address is.

[@shenaniganshop3309]

If you used foam that fit around the edge of the laptop working as a gasket to force all the air from the fan through the laptop your cooler would work much better. Llano and iets make laptop coolers with a foam gasket like that and they legitimately lower temps by 20 degrees or more.

[@asdsad17]

you can buy heatpipes online. just stack it on the existing pipes and bridge to the heatsink. can also buy those thin ssd copper heatsink. just stick it on the heatpipe for thermal mass.

[@mi-rek]

You can try 3D-printing a replacement for the back cover - a frame to attach the big fan and manage airflow. Then add many small ram coolers along the heatpipes, on gpu ram, and vrm. This turns laptop in a strong and power efficient home-computer.

[@bakerfx4968]

Lol “because I’m a sick fuck” caught me off guard and made me laugh haha

[@ZacBuilds]

I have a problem and it's called cramming too many computers into my desk 😂

[@bakerfx4968]

@@ZacBuilds it’s only a problem if it negatively impacts your day to day life, I think this does the opposite! Haha

[@GeekOfAllThings]

@@ZacBuilds That sounds more like a superpower than a problem to me.

[@LemonGarageYT]

If you add a foam seal to where the laptop sits it force the air to go through the laptop.

[@themistermaniacal]

hey as a fellow lefty the scissors will work better in your right hand because your grip will pull the blades together

[@shoichikiseragi8450]

if your looking at laptop options id really recommend the framework brand laptops they are a bit new but the customize-ability and potential their laptops have is astronomical

[@PaulBeetge]

3D print the stuff. Or at least parts that can crack. Like the hexagon grid. Slot it in the wood with a special cut and glue it in place.

[@hashirmuhammad5279]

Tucking every piece of Electronics in your Drawer, Damn a Great Idea!

[@CAceDubz]

I clicked on this video randomly but funny thing is, I was building my own laptop cooling pad. Kind of overkill tbh but it has a built in active USB Hub (but only 2.0) , QI charger, audio system, and ofc remote controlled RGB Leds, along with its 12mm fan I have placed under my laptops' cooling intake vent ofc. I also have an aluminum case in my laptop, don't know if its worth doing what you did but at the very least im replacing the thermal paste. Cheers

[@daneverdier1950]

I have an inspiron 3780 I think it is from dell and never had any problems with it. I replaced my i5 with an i7 and maxed out the ram to 32gb. It is unfortunately plastic so I can't make the back a heatsink but I did redo the paste on the dies and added some thermal pads to connect a few components to the heat pipes. Long story short, not all dell laptops are bad.

[@yariktelyashenko3774]

Why did you use this mud instead of the thermal gaskets? They are solid-state and will work fine for memory cooling (they are used in normal video cards). I think you should enlarge the air slots so the stand will SIGNIFICANTLY help the main fans. It's also worth making a recess for the station, as it's not a bad way to obstruct the air intake. Nice project, keep up the good work!

[@polarissilvertree]

Some posters have mentioned Framework. I wonder if that is the best choice. Framework and other modular designed laptops like Primebook allow customization from their modular-design ecosystem of components (which arguably require more tinkering to even source replacements for). It may or may not be ideal for your penchant to tinker. Given the level of customization you really want to do -- I would look deeper into the gaming ecosystem esp if GPU's are a must. Many of these boutique builders are NA-based and highly customizable. Names like System76, BLD by NZXT, IBuyPower, Xidax, Digital Storm, Origin, etc... Cool stuff!

[@noble_lime]

Why everyone thinks it's good idea to cool laptop with the bottom panel(it will heat your lap if place on it and also battery but you can put insulating tape on it)

[@JoelAz909]

The problem isn't buying a Dell, it's buying an XPS (or Inspiron). Stay in the Latitude line (and of the very bottom models) and you'll do much better overall. Also add the pro support warranty and you'll have a much better experience there too. We insist on it for all our business clients.

[@KeebHoard]

Your experience with Dell computers matches my own!

[@caner2970]

I had a nerdgasm thanks bro. Started with K5 pro, even I saw throttlestop. Kudos

[@omar.r.d9016]

I started thinking to do the same for my laptop ,nice mod

[@the_blue_dragon_bd]

I thought the pads on the bottom of the laptop was to prevent shorting of the board in contact with the metal shell so it's now a shorting Hazzard unless the shell is plastic which I assume not

[@lukazdravkovic6297]

Great work, thats truly amazing! But i have to disagree with that the laptop cooler's don't work, because in my case my laptop fan is in the middle, and it has a huge vent opening, so one 120mm fan in the cooler is pushing air in the laptop fan, and inside, additionally cooling the ram and cpu, it is able to cool it about 10°C lower than without the cooling pad.

[@calvinaluma]

i am sorry i dint get to your channel earlier... i love your content and the hard work and love you put to it

[@w2ed]

Just finished watching, like the end result, but I had one more thought to improve performance: makingvthe part of the stand that touches the laptop a metal heatsink with the fan, and using something that can act like thermal paste as the part that the laptop actually sits on. The rest of your idea is great as-is, your post-mortem is accurate, BUT while the wood was great for mockup and support, I'm not sure how well it acts as a way to get heat away from the case in comparison to something like Copper or Aluminum. I felt similarly for the Switch Mod: The plastic might be alright for protoforming, but to help collect that heat, that outer metal back you used should have hit some sort of metal heatsink to compliment the cooling of the fan. That all being said, This project, along with your desk PC, is giving me ideas for my hardware, ESPECIALLY my Macbook Air (2015, with the SSD upgraded to 1Tb) and recent PC build (Ryzen 3600 that I am contemplating upgrading to 5600). I wouldn't recommend the switch to Macbook due to not having worked with the latest Macs using Apple Silicon, and I would probably stick with Dell given the company's warranties and hardware builds since their shells will likely continue to be similar in materials to Apple's (NOT the same, but not cheap, either.) That's why I'm not tossing out any suggestions for new laptops - but because if what I just discussed and suggested, is why I would suggest paying attention to build quality and materials.

[@Dtr146]

Screw all the wood stuff and the laptop cooler. Just The thermal paste. And if you were feeling really frisky. You can replace it with liquid metal and just make sure you put nail polish in foam around everything.

[@Dirty_Bear22]

Gotta ask, why nail polish and not proper conformal coating? They are practically the same price.

[@AsaEditz]

That insulation is for not shorting the motherboard

[@ferna2294]

You might have just helped me solve an issue with a Dell Precision. Thank you!

[@mikemcdonald5147]

WOW That's impressive can't believe its that big of a difference.

[@razersharkz3330]

improve it by placing foam gaskets so that air is forcefully entering the laptop insteade

[@matthewgumabon7498]

I have the XPS 15 9510 (i9 11900h, RTX 3050Ti) and yeah as expected it thermal throttles hard. The internal cooling is just nowhere near robust enough to handle those parts at even close to full load, so thermal throttling is inevitable. Repasting the CPU and GPU and improving airflow with a cooling pad can help dissipate heat a bit faster but it doesn’t fix the terrible default power management settings out of the box. By far, the biggest performance boost I saw was from using ThrottleStop to better control power usage between the CPU and GPU. The i9 default behavior is to boost up to max as soon as a load hits, using a massive amount of wattage and causing faster thermal throttling. Unfortunately, you cannot use ThrottleStop to undervolt without some serious BIOS modding… but you can still use it to control CPU TPL wattage limits. Clamp the CPU at 45W and only allow short turbo boosts up to about 65-75W. This makes the CPU less power greedy and thus gives more wattage for the GPU to use for games (but only up to 45W by Dell’s design). Still throttles like crazy, but it ends up with significantly better scores on benchmarks on 3DMark, and I didn’t need to do any significant mods or BIOS hacking.

[@PsycoFlipside]

I modded my 2016 XPS 9550 in a similar way because back then, VRMs in XPS's didn't have a heatsink and the laptop couldn't run any games for more than 5 minutes. Temps massively dropped but what ended up happening is that the rubber feet melted and made a hell of a sticky mess

[@nolan6137]

I have a foam rubber ring around a high output fan that shoves air through the laptop keeping it very cool.

[@matthysloedolff]

Great video, Zac. I am also not a big fan of Dell. Had a work Dell computer and since day 1 it would either throw a blue screen of death, freeze up randomly, become very light randomly, or sound like a jet taking off when not really doing computationally strenuous tasks. I now have an HP laptop for work and I'm happy with it for the most part. The one major concern I have is the shell feels a bit too flexible for my liking. Think iPhone Bendgate.

[@denvera1g1]

The nice thing about the US and i beleive Canada is that you dont void the warranty unless your actions cause the warranty claim.

[@alk3myst]

Man checking out your vids tonight. Nice shop and woodwork.

[@vladyslavmrynskyi6297]

If you going to void your warranty, better do it with style) Use liquid metal next time. For me it dropped temps by 10 degrees.

[@EpicBunty]

A small suggestion if you can accommodate that. I like how you improve your design continuously, like adding those parts to raise the laptop a little bit for better cooling but I would just love it you did a before and after of that small improvement, just for everyone to understand how much, if at all, that effects the performance, which leads me to the second part. you shared no temperatures, big missed opportunity there. you should have shared temps, clock speeds and power consumption on the before and afters. Great job nonetheless.