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ceramic tile for macbook pro cooling pad

D

dchen720

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 23, 2008
99
4
i looked around, and the most effective cooling pads are aluminum pads, with or without fan, using conduction to cool,, and some cooling pads, such as ilap and koolmaster, etc... could cost as much as 40-50 bucks,,

i wonder, if i can buy a piece of ceramic tile, put it on my desk and under macbook pro, to use it as a cooling pad, since ceramics are pretty good conductors, and coolers,,,

like right now, i am using a steel cover from my old pc. i put it under my macbook pro.. it tils the macbook pro a bit,, ,it cools the macbook pro a few degrees.. i think...

i wonder if it's a good idea,, anyone got suggestions??? advice ?? opinion??

there's actually a patent on this.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4682269.html

it uses ceramic as a medium to cool electronics...
 
I use my 17" 2.33 c2d from before 8am until 5:30-6:30pm on a poorly conductive, insulative cublcle desktop without cooling problems. What kind of apps are you running?
 
bplein said:
I use my 17" 2.33 c2d from before 8am until 5:30-6:30pm on a poorly conductive, insulative cublcle desktop without cooling problems. What kind of apps are you running?
Click to expand...

just normal computing... not any pro apps...
it sometimes go over 70,, i just want to keep it low, to extend the battery and other parts life a little bit....
 
dchen720 said:
i wonder, if i can buy a piece of ceramic tile, put it on my desk and under macbook pro, to use it as a cooling pad, since ceramics are pretty good conductors, and coolers,,,
Click to expand...

Misconcieved -- ceramics are actually very poor conductors and are used as insulators. Think of a cup full of hot coffee. The metal cup will have a burning hot handle, the ceramic cup's handle will be comfortably cool. Also think of the heat shield tiles on the Space Shuttle -- ceramic, not metal.

A ceramic tile will insulate whatever surface its on from the heat of the MacBook, but it will do next to nothing in the way of conductive cooling.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Misconcieved -- ceramics are actually very poor conductors and are used as insulators. Think of a cup full of hot coffee. The metal cup will have a burning hot handle, the ceramic cup's handle will be comfortably cool. Also think of the heat shield tiles on the Space Shuttle -- ceramic, not metal.

A ceramic tile will insulate whatever surface its on from the heat of the MacBook, but it will do next to nothing in the way of conductive cooling.
Click to expand...

that's exactly what i am confused about. Should I look for a good conductor? like the steel cover from my old PC case. Or a good insulator???

like, a ceramic tile under the macbook is always gonna be cold. wouldn't it act like a heat sink? so that the heat from macbook pro can dissipate faster?
 
CanadaRAM said:
Misconcieved -- ceramics are actually very poor conductors and are used as insulators. Think of a cup full of hot coffee. The metal cup will have a burning hot handle, the ceramic cup's handle will be comfortably cool. Also think of the heat shield tiles on the Space Shuttle -- ceramic, not metal.

A ceramic tile will insulate whatever surface its on from the heat of the MacBook, but it will do next to nothing in the way of conductive cooling.
Click to expand...

That's what I was going to say..ceramics are used as insulators. Good if you're trying to trap heat in, like for a kiln or to keep it out like the space shuttle, but it won't cool your computer.

For a while I had my MBP on a wide steel plate and as the metal heated up I supposed it conducted some of the heat away. I would imagine that more exposed surface area combined with a fan would be beneficial.
 
Just set the computer on the desk. Apple designed it to work without having some contraption to place it on, so stop worrying about 2C and enjoy it!
 
Why not just buy a Griffin Elevator? Not that expensive at paired with a mouse and ext. keyboard you get a better ergonimic correct setup.
 
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