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Dry Ice Heatsink? (the super hot computer thread?) :)

L

ljova.com

macrumors member
Original poster
Hi All,

I'm just curious if anyone has ever tried -- or would like to guess? -- if dry ice would make a good heatsink. Even with a KoolSink, my MacBook Pro fans tend to rev up in the New York summer heat. (I have to keep the studio non-air-conditioned and quiet during recording sessions.)

So I'm wondering -- if I put dry ice under the KoolSink, maybe it could work?

Anyone see potential hazards?

Thanks for your opinion.
 
Condensated water could be a problem, it tends to happen in a point where hot and cold meet and it can short circuit your MBP.

But im no expert.
 
Condensing water would be bad.

Dry Ice 'sublimes' (goes from solid to gas, and skips the liquid) but yes, this means it goes away, thus you will have to constantly be replenishing your dry ice. which gets expensive (can't exactly make dry ice in you freezer, so you have to buy it from somewhere).

Dry Ice is cold. Like so cold if you accidentally touch it, you will 'burn' your skin.

You might try something like the Griffin Elevator it allows for airflow under the MBP, even more so than the KoolSink. This allows for the aluminum skin of the MBP to act as a heat sink which is more efficient than transferring heat from the MBP to the KoolSink to the air. The best would be to have a desk fan pointed at the MBP on the Elevator (or KoolSink), but that would defeat the purpose of having a quiet studio for recording. Although, you could always put the computer in a separate room from the recording then have as many fans as you need pointed at the MBP.
 
wPod said:
Condensing water would be bad.

Dry Ice 'sublimes' (goes from solid to gas, and skips the liquid) but yes, this means it goes away, thus you will have to constantly be replenishing your dry ice. which gets expensive (can't exactly make dry ice in you freezer, so you have to buy it from somewhere).
Click to expand...

Interesting - thanks for the tip! I wonder if there are some other sorts of ice-packs, or other items which preserve their cold state for, say, an hour. I was at a party a few weeks ago, where the host had -- instead of ice-cubes -- some colorful things that felt like plastic to the touch, but kept the glass cool.

wPod said:
This allows for the aluminum skin of the MBP to act as a heat sink which is more efficient than transferring heat from the MBP to the KoolSink to the air. The best would be to have a desk fan pointed at the MBP on the Elevator (or KoolSink), but that would defeat the purpose of having a quiet studio for recording. Although, you could always put the computer in a separate room from the recording then have as many fans as you need pointed at the MBP.
Click to expand...

Yes - a separate room! You are brilliant. 🙂 Trust me, that's my *next* studio. Give me a few months. Actually, I'm considering to put my studio inside one of these enclosures, and keep the computers/fans out. If it can reduce 50%-60% of a drum sound, then that'll render the fans noiseless on the other side.

Meanwhile, for now, I give my MBP a deluxe fan-down every 10 minutes or so. 🙂

summer_agenda.jpg

(sorry, UBB code won't let me resize the photo..)
 
ljova.com said:
great! has anyone actually tried it?
Click to expand...

My friend uses it and works pretty well on his Macbook pro. Keeps his laptop cool especially when he does heavy stuff like gaming. He claims he never have any problems with it and has been using it for a year already.
 
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