[GoldenHammer]

I don't have any desktop computer, but my GHz PB G4, it always runs at full CPU speed and I like this when it is home with me. The problem is I really feel a bit over heat at the bottom, the second fan always comes up very often and didn't go down until I make the PB to sleep.

I am seriously considering to add a cooling accessory as a long term measure to cool my PB which can make it operates at a good condition. Maybe the target is at the level that the second fan did not come up.

Any recommended cooling asscessory?

Thanks.

[seanyepez]

Well, you could use a CoolPad or PodiumPad.

www.roadtools.com

[GoldenHammer]

Thank you.

I recalled that there is an Al metal sliver color base for PB, it helps to cool the PB and looks matching very well with PB Ti's style.

I didn't not remember that URL link,any idea?

Originally posted by seanyepez:
Well, you could use a CoolPad or PodiumPad.

www.roadtools.com

[issa]

If money is no object, the "Seireidai 4G4" from "id east end" in Japan is a beautiful stand.
http://www.id-ee.co.jp/go/4G4/sr4g4.html
http://www.id-ee.co.jp/go/4G4/sr4g4_det.html (additional pics)
The list price in Japan is 26,800 yen, or about US$224. I have no idea whether they ship to Hong Kong.

I see that MacImports in the States also sells the product, although I don't quite understand their marked-up price of US$349 for the same item.
http://www.macimports.com/macimp/df.html

The earlier version of the Seireidai was a single piece of milled aluminum. It was first released for the PowerBook G3 in 1998, ("WallStreet"), and the size was later changed for the Lombard and Pismo G3's. With the introduction of the PowerBook G4, though, the company changed the design. And the earlier aluminum "slab" does not match the size of the G4.

There are other stands available from Japanese vendors starting at prices around $50 and peaking at around the price of the Seireidai 4G4. Some are made of aluminum or other metals, some feature built-in fans for proactive cooling etc. Sorry I don't have handy links for them. Then there are a few the American entries in the market, including the CoolPad that Sean mentions.

[GoldenHammer]

Thanks for the details... it is really helpful....

Originally posted by issa:
If money is no object, the "Seireidai 4G4" from "id east end" in Japan is a beautiful stand.
http://www.id-ee.co.jp/go/4G4/sr4g4.html
http://www.id-ee.co.jp/go/4G4/sr4g4_det.html (additional pics)
The list price in Japan is 26,800 yen, or about US$224. I have no idea whether they ship to Hong Kong.

I see that MacImports in the States also sells the product, although I don't quite understand their marked-up price of US$349 for the same item.
http://www.macimports.com/macimp/df.html

The earlier version of the Seireidai was a single piece of milled aluminum. It was first released for the PowerBook G3 in 1998, ("WallStreet"), and the size was later changed for the Lombard and Pismo G3's. With the introduction of the PowerBook G4, though, the company changed the design. And the earlier aluminum "slab" does not match the size of the G4.

There are other stands available from Japanese vendors starting at prices around $50 and peaking at around the price of the Seireidai 4G4. Some are made of aluminum or other metals, some feature built-in fans for proactive cooling etc. Sorry I don't have handy links for them. Then there are a few the American entries in the market, including the CoolPad that Sean mentions.

[mcaswell]

Originally posted by GoldenHammer:
Thank you.

I recalled that there is an Al metal sliver color base for PB, it helps to cool the PB and looks matching very well with PB Ti's style.

I didn't not remember that URL link,any idea?

I saw something similar in the catalog for www.cyberguys.com. It's a 1/2" "pad" you set the laptop on, and it has 3 fans which are supposed to draw heat from the computer. Only $23.49 (seems a bit cheap to me... get what you pay for?), and comes in either AC powered (1480740) or USB powered (item #1480745).

--Mike

[Charles Bouldin]

I posted this in another thread here, but here is one idea that helps the cooling issue.

I received an exchange ghz/superdrive tibook from Apple today and it has the same fan behavior as my old machine. In particular, if I place the machine on a wooden desktop and do light work (email, web, typing) the right side fan will come on after about 5-10 minutes and then stay on almost all the time.

There seems to be no escape from this, but I have found a workaround. I got a 12" by 12" by 0.5" granite tile from a hardware store (Home Depot in the US) and put that under the tibook. The tile fits between the rubber feet, so there is direct granite<>metal contact. This makes a marvelous heat sink and reduces the time the fan is on by 90%. In fact, in light use, i.e., cpu usage <~50%, the fan essentially never comes on.

I have concluded that it is the insulating surface (wooden desk) that causes the fan(s) to come on (and stay on). Since the granite tile was $9, I consider this a reasonable solution.

So, my conclusion is that these fans just tend to run more than in previous machines.

You can get an idea of this scheme from someone who tried something similar earlier. See

http://lonestar.texas.net/~jsavidge/passivecooling/

I wish I had a better solution, but this is cheap, gives me a quiet system in my home study, although it is not portable.

In my experience, anything like a coolpad or other schemes that just let air circulate under the tibook are NOT sufficient to make much difference.

Another clever idea is described at
http://www.climator.com/passivecooling.html
this is a laptop pad that contains (more or less) a solution of salt water, or something similar that melts at 28 C. You put this under the laptop and it melts like a block of ice and soaks up heat. Pretty clever, and I received a nice email for Cyberpet describing how this works. I also found a long technical paper on the net that has graphs of temp/vs. time for a laptop with/without the cooling pad. I've ordered one and once it arrives from Sweden, I'll let you know how it works. The thing is $45 US or 43 Euro.

[issa]

Charles' solution of the granite tile is a good one. I've also seen friends in Tokyo use a cheap aluminum block that is sold here for defrosting fish on. A surface that dissipates heat well is a good way to go.

Like Charles, I work at a wooden desk and find raising the rear of the TiBook a little goes a long way to helping it run cooler and makes for an alternate solution. My own ultra-hi-tech approach is to employ a pair of fat erasers under the back "legs" (rubber bumpers) that raise the rear about 7/8" along with a thin sheet of hard rubber under the front edge that raises it ever so slightly.

Note that my Rev.A TiBook became hot on a wooden surface almost as quickly without these same "lifters". The difference was that the Rev.A didn't have the proactive cooling blowers (fans) the latest generation have, so the entire machine would get very hot to the touch before the much louder single fan would finally kick in and then run like crazy for a long time. Then again, even my Pismo before that would get quite hot on my desk if not raised. And I've found a need to raise the 'Book off my desk since the first PowerBook G3 (WallStreet) was released in 1998. Didn't notice a problem with my 3400 before that, but of course that generation still had the pop-down back legs that lifted the rear of the unit off the desk, as did the PowerBook 500 series that preceded it. (Never bothered owning a 5300 or 1400, although the 5300 also had the pop-down legs.)

I wouldn't bother buying a stand with fans in it, if only because the fans in all such products I've seen to date make as much noise as the TiBook's fans anyway. And, especially when given some air or a good smooth surface that dissipates heat underneath, the proactive cooling system in the latest generation TiBook does a good job keeping the unit running cool.

[Charles Bouldin]

Originally posted by issa:
Charles' solution of the granite tile is a good one. I've also seen friends in Tokyo use a cheap aluminum block that is sold here for defrosting fish on. A surface that dissipates heat well is a good way to go.

Interesting. The "quiet gigabook" is becoming something of an obsession for me!
The link to macimports.com is interesting, because they show a tibook stand (http://macimports.com/macimp/kamas.html) that I have never seen before. Despite saying that this is "steel", it sure looks like 6061 aluminum to me. This stand should provide a very reasonable heatsink, and if you attached heat sink fins on the back surface, it might work very well indeed.

In doing a looking web searching, I've found that Titanium is sexy for a laptop, but it has a very poor thermal conductivity, TEN TIMES lower than aluminun. This means two things (1) the Albooks will probably do a better job conducting heat our through the case, (2) if you add heat sink metal to a stand or anything on the back side of the Tibook, there is no reason to fool around with anything fancy like copper or silver(!) since you'll be limited by the lousy Ti thermal conductivity.

One thing I have not yet seen, but I have been thinking about is doing something like starting with the Kamas stand and adding a Peltier cooler on the back. This is really an extreme solution, but it would be totally silent and is the only way I can see to really solve the problem. The funny thing is that this would probably require something like 10 times the power consumed by the tibook since Peltier coolers are extremely inefficient.

[bigbwana]

Has anyone ever had the titanium handle that attaches to the back of the Tibook and then when it's flipped over it becomes a stand for typing.. a model of it can be found here..
http://www.devdepot.com/description....code=HTIHANDLE

[Over Achiever]

Originally posted by bigbwana:
Has anyone ever had the titanium handle that attaches to the back of the Tibook and then when it's flipped over it becomes a stand for typing.. a model of it can be found here..
http://www.devdepot.com/description....code=HTIHANDLE

That would be the cyber3 Tote and Tilt Powerbook handle...i've heard that it works marvelously to raise the rear of the laptop up.

That is a good price tho'. Here it is directly from Cyber3

http://www.themacshoppe.biz/ti_tote.html

[GoldenHammer]

Thanks all for the suggestion, I would probably go for a quiet passive solution to keep my PB slient.

GH

[GoldenHammer]

I think this is the best solution in term of performance, slient and style design matching with the PB G4, though pricy, it is worth as a long term investment with the PB G4 for the next many years of usage.

[Charles Bouldin]

Well, I got my climator laptop pad (www.climator.com). I now understand how this thing works. It is a flat plastic bag (two compartments) about 1/4" thick. The bag is filled with a solution of "Glauber's salt", i.e., hydrated sodium sulphate. This solution/gel/eutectic (not sure which is the best description to use) melts at 28C (82F) and it has a large heat of fusion (takes a lot of heat energy to melt). As your laptop warms up, the pad changes from feeling like hard block of ice to something that gradually turns mushy. The bag is filled with the glauber's salt so that it retains shape as the solid<>liquid phase change occurs. The heat of fusion of this material is very high, so that the "ice" takes a long time to melt; it didn't melt completely in my first 5 hours of use. As they advertise, you leave your laptop sitting on the pad overnight and when you come back in the morning the pad has refrozen.

This device does not stop the fans coming on, but it delays them and helps them turn off quicker. The main weakness it has compared to the granite solution discussed earlier is that the thermal contact is not as good, although the heat capacity is much higher.

[djc6]

Thanks Charles! I went to home depot and bought a 12x12 granite tile. I've been using my 1Ghz powerbook for about an hour and have yet to hear any fans! Before using the laptop for just 5 mins would kick the right one one.

[dagmar]

Those here in the US might want to check this out at compusa: it seems to be a ribbed aluminum cooling pad, but I'm not sure of the size. I'm guessing it would fit under the 15", anyway. It sounds very similar to the much more expensive solution available in Japan and at Dr. Bott

http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...t_code=296199;)

The product id is 296199 if you just want to search the site.

[SuperGroove]

I purchased a iCurve from griffen technologies two weeks ago. Great purchase, and in situations like watching a DVD or burning CDs does not cause the fans to turn on.

At $40, it's a steep price for a sculpted piece of plastic, but the silence is bliss.

[SwarmyCurve]

I am about to buy an iCurve for my Titanium model Powerbook. Does it look goofy on the iCurve since its best for 12" ibooks? Also, how is it that it doesn't just topple over..? Thanks!

[adamflybot]

I'm also looking for something like this to go with my new 12" powerbook. I figure one of these stands will be needed to help out with the heat concerns people are having.

I'm torn between the iCurve and the Kamas powerbook stand. There is a big price difference between the two, but I just really like the looks of the Kamas. Plus you can adjust the stand's angle. You can't do that on the iCurve because its just a peice of plastic.

Which one of these would be best for cooling down a powerbook? I'm guessing the iCurve because there is more open space.