My laptop gets hot, especially on the bottom. It’s funny because I rarely ever sit my laptop directly on my lap, but anyway, I still needed a solution. I’d seen an array of various types and styles of laptop coolers all with their promises and different prices. I simply did not want to spend any, if not much, money to cool my laptop. I decided to build one of my own.

The design is pretty simple. Materials are as follows:

1. section of speaker box about 13-14 inches wide
2. some pc fans, I use 3
3. an old unused PSU
4. toggle switches, i used 3
5. neon lights (optional)

I ripped the fabric off the section of speaker box, you can do this if you want too, some people don’t mind ESD. I drilled holes in various places on the top to allow a draft.

One side of the speaker box had a speaker wire connecting port. This I cut the back plate off, and mounted a fan behind it to act as an exhaust.

The PSU is a 200watt ATX Power Supply. I used one of those cool red shielded toggle switches to power on and power off the PSU and exhaust fan. You can switch a PSU on/off without a mother board by connecting your switch between two wires. The people over at Gideontech have an awesome tutorial on this modification, very well explained, with nice pics.

I built this up in a couple of hours, but its well worth it, the box is slanted on the bottom, so when it sits on a flat surface it’s easier to type, reminds you of the lifters under your keyboard. Also with that slanted bottom, it allows the laptop to sit flat in the passenger seat of my truck.

I used some red toggle switches to switch the power on/off to the main fans and the neons in the box (which currently aren’t working for some reason). The cooler isn’t completely finished, there are some areas that need filled in to seal and help the flow of air, but I’ll get to it eventually. Anyways with some simple electrical wiring, old spare parts, and some ingenuity you can easily make a laptop cooler. Cheers!!

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