Svalt Launches New Lineup of Cooling Stands and Docks for Macs

[MacRumors]

Svalt, known for its line of docks designed for Apple's Macs, today launched a whole new collection of 2020 docks and stands designed for Apple's latest notebook and desktop Macs.

The Cooling Stand S, designed for the 16-inch MacBook Pro and other Mac and PC laptops, features silent passive cooling, an ergonomic raised design, adjustable feet, and a design that hides accessories and cord clutter.

There's also a Cooling Stand S Pro, a variant of the Cooling Stand S that comes equipped with a fan for active cooling to complement the passive cooling features. The fan offers dual speeds depending on whether quiet operation or maximum cooling is preferred, and it is user upgradeable.

For the Mac mini, Svalt has a Cooling Stand Mini that offers both passive and active cooling with a built-in dual-speed fan and a design that hides away cords and accessories.

The Svalt Cooling Stand S sells for $179, the S Pro sells for $279, and the S Mini sells for $269, with purchases available now from the Svalt website. All of the stands are modular and can be converted to accommodate other devices with additional add-on accessories.

Svalt also has a new Cooling Dock Model D, which is designed to be used with a MacBook Pro in clamshell mode. It features a sculpted aluminum heat sink and a flexible leaning design for optimized silent passive cooling. The Svalt Dock D can be purchased from the Svalt website for $169, though adding a fan will raise the price.

Article Link: Svalt Launches New Lineup of Cooling Stands and Docks for Macs

 

[Gusjasso]

Is that really necessary?

 

[arn]

Is that really necessary?

Useful if you want to use an external kB and mouse

 

[sinsin07]

$279 for a stand with a fan?
The S mini @ $269 is close to 35% of a base mac mini.
Are they sober?
They gonna have to find their exotic sport car money somewhere else cause that's crazy.

 

[sinsin07]

Useful if you want to use an external kB and mouse

$43 on Amazon.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Useful if you want to use an external kB and mouse

The pricing seems a bit steep, at least for the fan versions. But they’re nicely designed for the most part.

I like the model D, it reduces the footprint considerably and I also like the idea of the block of aluminum providing passive cooling. Heat is a laptop’s enemy, and this looks well engineered. If the fan version isn’t too loud I’d consider it, even at the higher price. Thermostatically controlled fan speed is a nice option.

 

[ColBatGuano]

Useful if you want to use an external kB and mouse

But no good if you like to shove the keyboard/mouse under the laptop when you need more desk space.

 

[Unity451]

So... the model D is just a giant heatsink...? ...for $169? ?

 

[ruslan120]

Doesn’t the MacBook Pro pull in cool air through the sides, and expel hot air through the back? So in configuration D the hot air is being forced downwards?

 

[dogslobber]

Is that really necessary?

Agree that this is snake oil.

 

[jimthing]

Pricing on the Pros is much too high IMO.
eg. Mini Pro, Europe: $325 (£250!), including $55 ship costs. Don't bother.

And without some decent videos showing the NOISE, don't bother either.

 

[Partron22]

Fan driven. It'd work, but I just put a 1/2 inch thick block of aluminum under my hotter minis. Conducts heat away like crazy. Cheap through any metals supply store too. (Barring of course those great big tariffs we have nowadays).

 

[luvbug]

For me: ugly, awkward, and an expensive way to solve a (mostly) non-problem.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Agree that this is snake oil.

For me: ugly, awkward, and an expensive way to solve a (mostly) non-problem.

Believe it or not, fans work. Whether or not this would be worth it depends on how cool you want your computer to run, and probably how much fan noise you can tolerate (though I don’t know how loud it is). Most of all, it depends on how hard you push your computer.

There are some graphs on the website, here a couple for the model D

 

[cerberusss]

Fan driven. It'd work, but I just put a 1/2 inch thick block of aluminum under my hotter minis. Conducts heat away like crazy. Cheap through any metals supply store too. (Barring of course those great big tariffs we have nowadays).

That's interesting. How is the heat transferred? Or is it simply radiated away from the minis? You wouldn't happen to have a picture of your setup, would you?

I really dig this kind of DYI stuff.

 

[Partron22]

It plain old radiates to tabletop and air. The Al block probably weighs more than the Al Mini frame, so it sucks a lot of heat. It does get pretty warm, but passive diffusion and convection are enough to lower the Mini's case top temp by 20 or more degrees. Temp without Al block was about 95F on top. Now it runs 70-75F. Machine is too old for me to be comfortable opening and cleaning (2009), but with big heatsink. I don't have to. Those old ribbon cables need to be treated with respect. The most I'll do anymore is a yearly blowout of assembled case with a shop vac. It's run happily and cool now for 6+ years, so I'm not about to perform any drastic cleaning. Oldest Mini is 2005, with a somewhat thinner and wider heat sink (1/4 X8X8). I cleaned that once while swapping memory, but It's still cool (10-15 watt idle draw) and running like a champ after 15 years. Cooling does seem to be important, and being nice to
Those skinny interior plastic cables is too. Of course, neither of these Macs face WiFi or internet anymore. I have others for that.

 

[nicho]

It plain old radiates to tabletop and air. The Al block probably weighs more than the Al Mini frame, so it sucks a lot of heat. It does get pretty warm, but passive diffusion and convection are enough to lower the Mini's case top temp by 20 or more degrees. Temp without Al block was about 95F on top. Now it runs 70-75F. Machine is too old for me to be comfortable opening and cleaning (2009), but with big heatsink. I don't have to. Those old ribbon cables need to be treated with respect. The most I'll do anymore is a yearly blowout of assembled case with a shop vac. It's run happily and cool now for 6+ years, so I'm not about to perform any drastic cleaning. Oldest Mini is 2005, with a somewhat thinner and wider heat sink (1/4 X8X8). I cleaned that once while swapping memory, but It's still cool (10-15 watt idle draw) and running like a champ after 15 years. Cooling does seem to be important, and being nice to
Those skinny interior plastic cables is too. Of course, neither of these Macs face WiFi or internet anymore. I have others for that.

I'm very tempted to do this for my mac mini 2018. Funnily enough, I was browsing taobao soon after buying a mac mini 2014 to use as a file server and it started recommending random blocks/cubes of metal to me. I wonder if this is a fairly common practice.

 

[Partron22]

I just happed to have the metal, and knew aluminum was a great heat conductor. It's pretty much set and forget. I like the thick block better, but either seems to work.

 

[CJM]

With the stuff advertised on here I sometimes wonder if the admins are living on Cloud 9. What value do you think you are getting by spending $200+ on a stand?!
Find something for a quarter of the price on Amazon. Job done, go treat yourself to a nice meal or two.

 

[skitidetdu]

Still use my original iCurve from time to time. Much prettier than these.

 

[Jeaz]

Trivia - Svalt means cool in Swedish.

 

[bernuli]

With the stuff advertised on here I sometimes wonder if the admins are living on Cloud 9. What value do you think you are getting by spending $200+ on a stand?!
Find something for a quarter of the price on Amazon. Job done, go treat yourself to a nice meal or two.

Well, this site does not run on passive cash flow. I don't see much value in having users click over to Amazon to buy a block of metal. And for me I'd rather see an ad for something I think might be overpriced VS something I immediately click BUY because it is such a great "value".

That said I am probably going to get more than one of these stands and maybe 1 dock from Svalt. http://www.svalt.com

Good to see new accessories coming to market! I am on Cloud 9!!!

 

[ignatius345]

Useful if you want to use an external kB and mouse

But you don't need to pay through the nose for a stand like this, by any means. IKEA sells a perfectly usable one for well under $10 -- and basic aluminum ones abound on Amazon in the $20 range.

A MacBook is designed to be used on a normal flat, solid desk, so it's pretty absurd that anyone "needs" an add-on fan either.
[automerge]1579817422[/automerge]

With the stuff advertised on here I sometimes wonder if the admins are living on Cloud 9. What value do you think you are getting by spending $200+ on a stand?!
Find something for a quarter of the price on Amazon. Job done, go treat yourself to a nice meal or two.

Try 1/8 the price. Or just put your laptop on top of a few books and spend the $200 on twenty months of 2TB iCloud storage quota.

 

[LeeW]

I mean its a solution and many have a paranoia about the heat so I expect the price won't deter too many.

 

[Vjosullivan]

Believe it or not, fans work.
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There are some graphs on the website.

Are you saying that they have graphs on their website that show that their products work? Well, that's convinced me! ?