Well, I got a new HP dv9700t for college, but when I play games on it or run any intensive task, it heats up to really high temperatures. I don't want it to break, so I'm trying to cool it. I bought a $40 Rosewill laptop cooling pad, but my GPU still stays around 90C under stress. The Rosewill pad has a nice metal slab to take the heat off, but only two puny USB powered fans that don't put out a whole lot of air.

However, I had a dead dual-fan desktop power supply laying around as well as a fan I tore out of a different power supply (replaced it with a blue fan).

I also had another old PSU lying around that I replaced when I upgraded my graphics card. So, with all of these, I built a very effective laptop cooling fan.

Step 1: Do You Need to Cool?

First, you need to make sure you need a cooling device. If your laptop is only ever used for web browsing and document editing, chances are, cooling units won't help. If you play games a lot, then you'll probably want a cooling device, as gaming stresses the CPU and GPU and causes immense heat output which often can't be handled by the single small fan most laptops have.

Use PC Wizard (www.cpuid.com) to inspect the temperature of your CPU, motherboard, and GPU as you play games (I hooked up a second monitor, put PC Wizard on it, then fired up games and watched the temperatures change). You can minimize PC Wizard and it will have a small status/temperature notification at the top right of your screen.

Step 2: Take Apart the PSU!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Computer power supplies (PSU's) have capacitors that can carry a powerful shock, enough to kill you. They hold this charge for a fairly long period of time. If you take apart a PSU, you're safe as long as you don't touch the underside of the circuit board OR any of the capacitors OR any of the metal contacts on the parts...in general, just don't touch the metal stuff on the circuit board. I touched the heatsinks, but those are usually just grounded so no big deal. Wear plastic gloves if you so desire. This PSU was a $13 model purchased from Newegg to power a cheap rebuilt PC. It lasted 3 months before I accidentally bumped into the PC and the flimsy heatsinks touched and shorted and fried the PSU (not the computer, thankfully) and took out my whole room in the process (stupid GFI). Newegg RMA'd it and sent me a new one, but due to the cheapness of the PSU, didn't ask for the old one to be returned. Instead of just throwing it out, I figured I'd salvage stuff from it. The first thing to take are the fans.

Take apart the PSU by removing the cover screws. Then you can take the fan off by unscrewing the four fan screws (usually from inside the PSU case). Repeat for the rear fan if your PSU has one.

If you don't have a dead PSU, you can buy cheap case fans online, buy expensive case fans in stores, or ask people who have lots of computers (they might not give them to you though...). You can also find a dead PSU from said people.

Step 3: Tape the Fans Together

Simple, lay all 3 fans flat (make sure they're all facing the same direction, the side with the plastic tabs and motor cover (usually a label sticker) is the side air comes out of). Make sure the wires are coming out of the bottom of all 3 fans. Then take electrical tape (or your favorite kind of tape, whatever you want) and tape around all 3 fans until they form one big solid fan brick.

Step 4: Solder the Connections

Solder all the black wires together and all the red wires together. Use electrical tape to cover them and keep them from touching. You only need one connector (I used a 4-pin Molex, which is a good choice if you have an old PSU to run the fans with).

Step 5: Power It Up!

If you're using a PSU, you have to jump the green wire to a black wire on the ATX connector. Then plug in your fans, set it next to your laptop, and watch the temps fall.