Wanna add another internal laptop fan to your laptop? Here's how!

Yahoo! I just imagined it a few weeks ago, now it's a reality. I am very happy to share that i am successful at installing a 2nd internal fan into my old sager, it's actually quite simple and i'd say doable, best of all, it can be easily removed!, except for a few holes you might need to make. The laptop's heatsink configuration is key to making it work. There are some cons to most users out there but i'd say it's a good option to have.

Here's what i used:

1. Hand Drill
2. laptop fan with housing
3. Old battery pack of your laptop
4. spare USB cable
5. 54mm auger bit ( you can use a different size as you prefer)
6. some double sided tape
7. High Quality Thermal paste
8. Ram heatsinks
9. Some thin packing foam
10.mini PCIE to usb (coming soon!)
11. Caliper
12. Screwdriver

Since almost every laptop has a different internal configuration, it's important to study and plan how to proceed. In principle here's the big idea: "supplement the cold air supply in the laptop, and improve airflow internally." so my solution was like, FORCED INDUCTION! something like a small supercharger in an engine, but i did it in such i way that it's blown onto my gpu heatsink ( which is connected to my CPU heatsink also). I would have hoped for a more powerful 12v turbo fan, but i wanted it to be usb powered so i wouldn't need external power. Good thing i had a spare fan heatsink and housing from an old HP DV2000 which i don't need anymore. Incidentally, i use my laptop just as workstation so it's always plugged in. It's got an old core 2 quad but it's clocked up to 3.72 ghz, hence the need for supplemental cooling ( you can see in my sig all the other mods I've done to my sager). For Autodesk Revit, CPU Core clock is more beneficial than more cores, so this laptop still works well, except for the severe heating.

The QX9300 i have is quite tough, i tripped it from overheating (instant shut down) more times than i can remember, maybe close to 50, probably more, and it's obviously something i'd like to eliminate altogether. at home I have 2 120mm high performance 12v fans set at the bottom of the laptop so i have no problems there. But when i have to meet my consultants for coordination, i need to bring my workstation along, and i don't have an effective portable cooling solution ( i bought 4 laptop coolers already, none of them are good enoughl).and when i do 3d renderings, each scene takes all 4 cores to 3.19ghz - 3.59ghz at full throttle for more than an hour. just Over this past week i rendered about 60 images. You can just imagine what this laptop goes through.

Now onto the procedure, sorry for the long story, i couldn't resist.

1. Work your airflow layout: quick hint: you'll be using the battery compartment for the fan. So that area depending on your configuration will either be pushing or pulling the air out of your system. For mine i used it for pushing more air supply into the case. I made sure the location blows directly onto the GPU heat sink which is also connected to my CPU. Make sure that there is enough air gap on both sides of the fan, i have an airflow meter so i was able to test the optimum gap for my installation. I placed my fan close to the edge close to the widest gap of the rubber feet at the bottom.

2. Prep your spare laptop fan. Cut away unnecessary components, just keep the shroud and the chassis, you need that to maintain air pressure. Cut the fan wiring and connect the positive and negative terminals to a spare usb cable. In mine i just connected the red wires to red, and the black ones to black. Plug it into a usb charger first and test your fan. It will run at full power.

3. carefully open your old laptop battery ( mine is not working, i dismantled it some time ago so i could reuse the 8 pieces of 18650 batteries inside). When done, test the clearances and make sure the fan will fit, and will work with your airflow configuration.

4.overlay your components on the laptop case as you wan it configured. Do the measurements and mark the location where you need to put the fan. Mark the hole center for the fan intake,

5. Remove vital components that may be affected. I removed my laptop cover, cpu fan, heatsink and gpu module. This allows for good clearances and easy cleaning while drilling the holes.

5. fasten/fix the components to be drilled so you'll make a clean hole. Drill a small hole at the center and use your auger bit to make a clean big hole. cut off half of one side of battery case on the side that will connect airflow with the laptop. this is the the air outlet.

6. attach the laptop fans to the laptop battery case with a double sided tape. Be sure to make a good seal to maintain good air pressure coming out of the battery case. You may also put a screen to filter your fan intake.

7. Drill a corresponding hole on the laptop that matches the hole in the battery case. Now think carefully since this is the only part of the process that will be difficult to replace and revert back to original.

8. Once done with the cutting and drilling, make sure to remove all debris. TAPE OFF THE POWER CONTACT TERMINALS ON THE LAPTOP USED TO CONNECT TO THE BATTERY. A SHORT CIRCUIT HERE COULD DO MAJOR DAMAGE.

9.Add the copper RAM heat sinks to the areas where air will pass through heavily. Do this while the heatsink is still removed but be careful not to deform the heatsink. If you install them after repasting you'll risk getting bubbles and airgaps between heatsink and cpu/gpu.

10. Repaste cpu and gpu. Replace gpu heatsink and fan, connect all wires, plug the usb cable connected of the added fan to test it. make sure airflow is good. Make adjustments as needed.

11. If you have a mini pcie to usb card, install it also. you'll want to have this if you want to have a 5v usb to power internally your laptop without tapping/splicing into the other wires. This allows your 2nd fan to be a low key sleeper.

12. Strategically place packing foam inside laptop to make good path of airflow.

13. close off the lid and test. You're Done!

I'll post an update in the next few weeks, some trimming and filing still has to be done to the holes as well as repaint the stainless fan shroud black, repaste with IC diamond, add the mini pcie to usb, rewire internally, test the best foam divider configuration.

Pros:
-Definitely Much better cooling especially when mobile, probably 7-10 degrees lower than without, even with cheap thermal paste. I'll make a proper comparison once i get my new tube of IC Diamond next week.
-No more external laptop cooler.
-maintains look of the laptop (except for the battery of course)

Cons:
-When on battery, the laptop fan will have to be removed
-noisy when plugged in (2nd fan runs at full power through USB)
-a few holes in the case

Here are the photos:

 

Nice lifespan extension bro. Any temp improvements?

 

hehe i'm not sure if it's gonna extend the lifespan since im always pushing it to the limit, but it's definitely more functional now. I haven't made any controlled testing but i'm able to use it the whole day without my 2 12v fans, considering it's about 33 degrees C at noon here in my country. That even with some cheap thermal paste ( deep cool brand). The repasting with that alone brought it up by about 5-7 degrees coming from IC diamond. My observation with IC Diamond is that it tends to harden when sustaining high temps, in about 2 months it starts breaking down and lose performance but i get the lowest temps with it. I hope to finish up this project soon and do the controlled temp testing with another tube of IC diamond.

Today i rearranged the copper heatsinks and i think i got the better config, it cools down faster after rendering. I also did some cosmetic improvements. Can't wait to hide the cable inside.

 

Nice mod! It would be interesting if you could reverse the fan's airflow (so it pulls air out instead of pushing it in) .

You could reduce fan noise by using a simple resistor or connecting the fan to the laptop's own fan connector (so both of them run at the same speed).

 

This is very helpful - very interesting mod, you could improve it more if the USB can be attached to inner power source.

 

Thanks Jotm, i'd like to try that sometime also, i actually considered it but it's way more difficult and i'd need to make more holes. I also thought that if i used it as an exhaust it might create a vacuum in the case and make it harder for the main fan, but i'll never know until i try. I did another mod today that really made a big improvement, I simply isolated the intake of the main fan from the 2nd fan using a ring of foam, this way the main fan always takes in fresh air, the 2nd fan is now focused on taking out the heat from the gpu heatsink (and the cpu as well since theyre connected) that air in effect then ventilates out of the whole bottom cooling all the other components as well. I did some testing and quite surprisingly idle temps went down to as low as 36C which is even lower than with my 2 12v fanswhich was just 39 with ic diamond. At stock i remember the coolest i got was 42 with ic diamond. All that air probably creates so much turbulence as well.. I'll post a photo of the changes i made today to better illustrate. I'm quite excited to get my hands on a better thermal paste because it really is working quite well, i just want to know how far it will go.

 

Yes that's on it's way as well i'm ordering a mini pcie to usb adapter that fits in one of my mini pcie slots that's supposed to be for a 3g module. I wanted to order that since last year because i wanted to connect my main fan into that usb power source to make it run at full power but found out that the laptop's fan speed sensor doesn't allow it so i had to scrap the idea, that's actually the precursor to this one.

Here's a photo of the item, i wanted to make the changes i make reversible as much as possible so i didn't want to hard wire it to another source, im out of reach o warranty or support on parts here in my country so i have to be very careful with what i do hehe.

 

Hi Jotm, can you can clarify whether putting that resistor would make the main fan run at full power? that's what i'd like to do but i'm afraid to tap into that circuit because im thinking it might damage the sensor. Is that possible? i don't know that much about electronics and circuitry, but basically my goal would be to make both fans run at 100% all the time, the main fain still follows the thermal switch, so it takes it even longer to start up the main fan because of the lower temps. It would be nice if i could do all my renderings at a higher clock speed. If i can manage that and render at 3.6 ghz i wouldn't need to invest on a water cooling kit DIY, but that would still be interesting. Im already more than halfway through planning it.

 

This ring of foam made a big improvement.

 

Nice mod, very creative. I like how you mounted it inside the old battery housing.

 

Thanks! That bettery used to be just a compartment where i store the stock t9800 cpu and a tube of thermal paste just in case the cpu dies on me because of the overclock. I used to think i could change it on the go because the internals on this laptop are easily accessible. I'm just lucky also to have some spare junk to use for this mod, the only thing i bought here was the 54mm auger bit and double sided tape.

 

That's the idea - so no more external cables. I have a question regarding the mPCIe a little off topic - Does it exist a mini PCIe splitter? so to be able to mount 2 mPCIe devices into one port?

 

No, the main fan would run even slower . A resistor (or better yet, 1-3 diodes) would reduce the voltage from the USB to the fan so it would rotate slower. But if the noise doesn't bother you, then there's no need for that.

I think the only way to make the main fan run at maximum speed is to connect it to the USB 5V also - instead of its own connector...

 

Hi Viper, I tried looking it up but i can't seem to find a mini pcie splitter. which cards are you planning to add? i am not an expert on this though but i'll try my best to help you out.

 

Thanks Jotm, i see, i tried powering the fan before solely by USB, but the mboard sensors force my laptop to shutdown. Another option i have but haven't tried is to reroute the fan't power supply but keep the sensor plugged in, i just worried that doing so might fry some circuits. I will need an expert technician to assure me of that rewire, and that it will last.

Anyway, looks like i still need to pursue a water cooling system for my setup or perhaps there might be a more practical option out there for us DIYers hehe.

 

Did this mod a couple years ago to a dv6000. Here's what I did: 1) Use a soldering iron to melt to points on your cpu fan wire (the black and red leave the yellow wire alone that is your sensor) and wire that to your new fan, They should now be wired in parallel and they will both adjust there speed to your temps. 2) Make your new fan pull air out from the laptop it will still cool your heatsink mod plus it will create a vacuum in your laptop which will keep air from trapping heat.

 

Have you considered cutting a grill in the back beside the other fan exhaust so the hot air can exit the chassis out of the back?

 

Hi Mr Guvernment, I am consciously doing my mods making sure i don't make any unsightly permanent cuts on the chassis, that's particularly the reason why i limited my mods to the areas of the battery pack (which can be replaced) or some areas which will be concealed anyway. But currently, after many weeks of testing, my machine runs quite cool without an external cooler, even with cheap thermal paste. I am still holding off purchasing IC diamond because i am currently installing a removable water cooling kit (Cooler Master Seidon 120m, chopped up hehe) and frequently repasting. In all, my mods are quite productive, with my temporary setup i even got up to 4.25 ghz @ 1.46 volts but currently working at 3.99 Ghz @1.40 Volts. Without the watercooling Kit the system runs at 3.72 ghz without overheating, thanks to the modded 2nd fan. I already got my internal mini pcie to usb card so my wire previously dangling outside are now internal. I'm just a bit busy now but i will be posting an update soon with photos.

 

Posting photos of the last piece of this sproject, the mini pcie to usb 2 card. I got the 2-port version so i could connect my mouse's bluetooth dongle on the other socket, and the other usb port to power the 5v fan. everything is bolt-on and removable.

bere are the pics:

View attachment 111375 View attachment 111377

working on the watercooling block and i think i found a good way to mount it securely and with no long-term damage to the other components, and of course removable. Will post details in another thread later on.

feel free to post questions and suggestions. Temps to follow after the water cooling mod, i'll do a comparison vs stock, vs modified air cooled vs water cooled.

thanks