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Laptop Mods

107K views 252 replies 35 participants last post by  TheReciever 
#1 ·
So, anybody out there doing some modding on their laptops? Post some of your work and some pics, maybe some instructions for anyone who wants to try it aswell!

I'll start with this, as we know, most laptops come with ridiculously small intake vents for their cooling fans. My theory for doing this mod is since the original vents are so small, most of the air going through the system is air coming in through the passive vents on the other side of the casing. That means the air going through the fan system would already have been heated up by every other component in the whole computer, including the heatsink piping that runs through the whole thing. Thus I assumed that opening up the vents would introduce the cooler outside air into the system, with the larger temperature difference increasing the effectiveness of the heatsinks.

After removing the bottom case, what I did was take a pocket knife, and gently pry off the grilles with it. It's a bit ghetto but it will get the job done. After that, I filed off the stubs with a round/half moon file. Position the bottom case with the inside facing AWAY from you. An important thing to remember is that you ALWAYS push the file from the outside of the case, towards the inside. This is so that the filings build up on the inside of the case where how it looks won't really matter. I kept filing until the edges were as rounded as I could get them. Finally I smoothed it all out with fine grit sandpaper, sanding away at build up on the inside thus avoiding ruining the finish of the case.

Here's the end result.


So far it's improved the cooling by a fair bit, and the maintain at 80C without maxing out the fan speed. Next on the list would be an additional widening of the vent and adding some sort of cover to protect the fanblades.
 
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#2 ·
Honestly never thought of modding my laptop.
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I just always left it alone because it was a laptop.
 
#3 ·
HAHA i did the same thing, although far less nice. I had a pair of wire cutters and a big screwdriver on hand . Didnt even take the base off the laptop, just tore into it. Big sharp finger tearing hole over the rapidly spinning fan, nothing at all can ever go wrong with that xD Even took the grills off the rear of the laptop, the ones that protect the heatsink fins.

Then i stripped out the DVD drive to save weight, and installed Xubuntu. Its a nice little portable LAN (Minecraft) laptop right now, and will prob receive some form of new paint/colour soon. Its surprisingly powerful, even manages to run a 3-5 man server on its own wireless network without a huge amount of lag. I love dirt cheap laptops
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Only issue is the grand total of 20 minutes of battery life, but its enough if we need to juggle cords around.
 
#4 ·
They're awesome, I just got myself an uprated power adapter from 90W to 120W. So now with the better cooling I was able to crank up the GPU to 900 MHz for the core, 1000 MHz for the mem on a GT 555M xD, Haven't tried any benchmarks yet but so far the temps top at about 87 C. The same temps as those I on stock clocks before the mod. Just need a way to guard the fan though.
 
#5 ·
I have been modding Laptops professionally for years and its not that bad, it more attention ot detail, voltage mods, skins, vents(as noted), and heatsink adds. I am currently modding my Alienware M11x R2 I added a nice sleek heatsink to the bottom and am still working on triming the bottom cover to accomidate the heatsink etc.... I will probibly start a build log for it bc I am planning to sell it. I will try to post a few pics in a while.
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**NEW**

The PICS I promised:























 
#6 ·
Another Mod of mine, this is my Dell Latitude E6420 XFR. I added lighting to all ports and installed a LED controller with remote control. Also permanately installed a USB 3.0 card, Changed the coloring of the backlit keyboard, Installed a bluetooth pci card(had to do some modding to get it to fit), exteneded a 5v bus, and installed a 16gb Flash drive internally for backups/Restore. Oh yea and added a webcam....
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#7 ·
#8 ·
bobuy00,
i ran into a similar problem with my acer aspire one netbook;
the vents, heat-sink, and fan were not able to provide sufficient cooling,
so i did what any self respecting "computer guy" does and i ripped it apart and built new components.

i built a new heat sink for the netbook out of a copper zalman desktop cpu heat-sink and an entire spool of 60/40 resin solder from radioshack.
i built a new fan unit from a discounted laptop cooler and a directional airflow piece that i pulled out of an old dell desktop unit.
to power the fan i soldered wires from my usb ports. (The fan sucks air in from its edges and pushes it down.)


My home-made heatsink
acrylic case
 
#9 ·
I've got the beginning stages of a laptop mod in place.

Basically, I plan to take my HP DV7-3165dx and modify it.

I have some Valspar white primer and Valspar Aged Copper metallic paint, which I will be using for the laptop exterior and another project (detailed later). I also want to remove the touchpad entirely (I really despise touchpads) and either make a smooth surface or put something in its place. The interior of the laptop I want to either paint or apply a vinyl of mahogany wood trim to it, with the speaker covers painted the same aged copper color as the exterior. The side plates will probably be painted a nice golden brass color. I might experiment with doing a keyboard backlighting and lighting up the ports like a previous poster did.

As to the other project, I plan to create a woodframed laptop cooling pedestal using two 200mm fans aimed downwards and separated from the laptop case by at least an inch (to allow for air to come between the laptop and the fans). The two fans will be connected to a front mounted fan controller and powered by a DC/AC adapter. The wood frame and legs will be stained a rich mahogany with warm brass accents (which will also serve to disguise the fastening hardware). The part that the laptop will sit on will be perforated sheet metal plate, painted in a satin black .The fan blades will be painted a high shine metallic brass, while the fan frame will be a satin black. I want to add lighting to it as well, as sort of an ambiance of color.

Any suggestions otherwise?
 
#10 ·
It would actually be pretty cool if you got an old smartphone phone and somehow wired it in to be a second screen, or even just stick it in wired to a USB port for power and use it to play movies or tv shows or music as background noise. And naturally the odd game or whatever if your laptop battery is running low. a little mesh strip above the phone would allow you to just use the phones speakers and audio quality shouldn't be horrible. THAT would be an interesting laptop mod! which i might just attempt myself now that ive thought about it.
 
#11 ·
Hmm... while the idea of a separate screen out of an old smartphone would be really awesome, it's really not functional (and I'm a big proponent of functionality... if it has no practical application to the operation of the machine, I don't need it. Appearance mods, of course, do not count).

I was thinking that in the place of the soon-to-be-removed touchpad, I could put in a fingerprint scanner and a pop-up USB hub, though. That could definitely work...
 
#12 ·
It could be practical tho. use it for a tempurature monitor or something. It was just an idea i had that seemed worthy of someone with a name like TheMadProfessor xD Fingerprint scanner isnt something i use, but a pop up USB port would be awesome. More USBs are always good
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by M3nta1 View Post

It could be practical tho. use it for a tempurature monitor or something. It was just an idea i had that seemed worthy of someone with a name like TheMadProfessor xD Fingerprint scanner isnt something i use, but a pop up USB port would be awesome. More USBs are always good
Yeah, but trying to wire a phone into a computer is, for lack of a better phrase, problematic at best for me, as I lack experience in those matters.

Besides, the USB port thing is infinitely more useful, especially considering that laptops are notorious for having a dearth of them, and plugging in a USB hub, while practical, kinda ruins the clean lines of it.
 
#14 ·
well if you wanted to get technical you just pull the + and - 5V lines off a USB port and use that to power your phone, then solder the data pins so you can use it as external storage. heck you could even add in the pop up USB ports beneath it if you wanted. And if you wanted to get really fancy you could make it a cradle rather than an old phone, so your current phone can just dock with your laptop. Then you could use one of the texting from PC apps that exists to use your phone to send messages through your laptop.

Tho a clean functional looking laptop with extra USB ports tucked away untill they spring into view to be used is awesome and most likely far more practical. That said how do you plan to hook up the USB hub?
 
#15 ·
This is one of the best threads I have run into in a long time.
Anyone do anything with the ASUS G series?
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by M3nta1 View Post

well if you wanted to get technical you just pull the + and - 5V lines off a USB port and use that to power your phone, then solder the data pins so you can use it as external storage. heck you could even add in the pop up USB ports beneath it if you wanted. And if you wanted to get really fancy you could make it a cradle rather than an old phone, so your current phone can just dock with your laptop. Then you could use one of the texting from PC apps that exists to use your phone to send messages through your laptop.
That's a pretty nifty idea, but that works best on phones like the iPhone, which has a big powerport to help stabilize the phone.

I have a Nokia Lumia 920, which uses a MicroUSB port for power and data transfer (I am a die-hard Windows Phone guy. I don't like the Cult of Apple, and Android's power consumption and tendency towards being a resource hog just disgusts me on multiple levels). Trying to stabilize the phone on such a small connector just lends itself to headaches and heartaches if the connector snaps. Also, when a particular phone manufacturer decides to switch their port adapters, all that modding is suddenly wasted. I am The Mad Professor, not The Stupid Professor.
Quote:
Tho a clean functional looking laptop with extra USB ports tucked away untill they spring into view to be used is awesome and most likely far more practical. That said how do you plan to hook up the USB hub?
I planned to use this particular tutorial, modified for my particular laptop: http://www.instructables.com/id/Hacking-a-USB-hub-to-add-internal-ports-to-a-Toshi/

The reason why I want to use the void space left behind by the removal of the touchpad is because I figure there will be enough room to add them without really crowding everything else (more than usual, anyway).
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMadProfessor View Post

- SNIP -
That's a pretty nifty idea, but that works best on phones like the iPhone, which has a big powerport to help stabilize the phone.

I have a Nokia Lumia 920, which uses a MicroUSB port for power and data transfer (I am a die-hard Windows Phone guy. I don't like the Cult of Apple, and Android's power consumption and tendency towards being a resource hog just disgusts me on multiple levels). Trying to stabilize the phone on such a small connector just lends itself to headaches and heartaches if the connector snaps. Also, when a particular phone manufacturer decides to switch their port adapters, all that modding is suddenly wasted. I am The Mad Professor, not The Stupid Professor.

- SNIP -
I planned to use this particular tutorial, modified for my particular laptop: http://www.instructables.com/id/Hacking-a-USB-hub-to-add-internal-ports-to-a-Toshi/

The reason why I want to use the void space left behind by the removal of the touchpad is because I figure there will be enough room to add them without really crowding everything else (more than usual, anyway).
I was thinking an actual cradle with a locking mechanism, more like a car mount than an ipod dock. Not overly well expressed, my fault. The phone would be locked in and then the plug would just be a plug, not a structural mount of any kind. And most phones run off a standard cable (Micro USB these days) so you just open up the laptop and swap out the end that goes into the phone should you get one that doesn't have a standard port.

Looks like a good guide, just watch where your solder goes. Adding internal ports isnt complex, but finding room to house the new ports is the biggest problem. Given a nice big space like where the touchpad used to be makes that a cakewalk. Do you plan to have it sit flush to the palm rest and pop up when needed? because that would be more complicated but cooler.
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by M3nta1 View Post

I was thinking an actual cradle with a locking mechanism, more like a car mount than an ipod dock. Not overly well expressed, my fault. The phone would be locked in and then the plug would just be a plug, not a structural mount of any kind. And most phones run off a standard cable (Micro USB these days) so you just open up the laptop and swap out the end that goes into the phone should you get one that doesn't have a standard port.
Ah... gotcha...

And now you have me thinking about it... JERK!!!
tongue.gif

Quote:
Looks like a good guide, just watch where your solder goes. Adding internal ports isnt complex, but finding room to house the new ports is the biggest problem. Given a nice big space like where the touchpad used to be makes that a cakewalk. Do you plan to have it sit flush to the palm rest and pop up when needed? because that would be more complicated but cooler.
That was my exact plan.

I figure a 2x2 bank would be ideal, that way I can wire one set of two to be non-powered and the other set to be powered, should I decide to go that route. I probably won't, but it's always an option.

The plan for how they conceal would likely be a pair of spring loaded "doors" under which will be mounted the ports. A pivot point will be on the long edge behind the ports and the "doors" would be held closed by small push latches (y'know, those "push to close and push to open" latches).
 
#20 ·
copy and pasted.

Was bored so I thought I'd post up my laptop. Figured it might be a nice change from buying/upgrading advice threads?

Sorry for the bad picture.















I could afford a 1k+ laptop but, I couldn't afford all the money up front but, i bought an almost decent laptop, an Acer 5920G with a, T5250/2gb DDR2 800/8600m GT/no HDD. Then when i got some money i installed a WesternDigital "WD10JPVT" 5400 RPM 1Tb hdd and windows 7, then got a 4GB stick of DDR2 800 bumping me up to 5gb. I then got an HD4670 DDR2 which ran at 90-110c then I side graded to an Nvidia GT 240m DDR3 and finally a T9300 and AR9380 wifi card.

When I upgraded my CPU I did a PPL mod and over clocked the T9300 from 2.5ghz at 800mhz FSB to 2.95ghz @ 947mhz FSB, my ram went from 667 (chipset limitation) to around 700mhz. I also did some cooling mods, which apparently helped.
biggrin.gif


EDIT: my GT 240m is overclocked too
biggrin.gif
coreclock:550 @ 673 MHz | memoryclock: 800 @ 1003 MHz


I'm pretty happy with those temps. This is under some casual use and gaming. Gpu under furmark hit 85C after about an hour or so.

Well since i couldn't afford one i built one as i could afford/find the parts.
biggrin.gif
All i could really do now is a 1-2TB drive/SSD, a battery and or Better screen with higher Res, a friend with the same laptop installed 1440x900 screen with better image quality.

So far I can play games like, dirt 2, mafia 2, BatMan AA, BatMan AC at medium/high-high at a good 40-50 fps.
 
#21 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMadProfessor View Post

Ah... gotcha...

And now you have me thinking about it... JERK!!!
tongue.gif


That was my exact plan.

I figure a 2x2 bank would be ideal, that way I can wire one set of two to be non-powered and the other set to be powered, should I decide to go that route. I probably won't, but it's always an option.

The plan for how they conceal would likely be a pair of spring loaded "doors" under which will be mounted the ports. A pivot point will be on the long edge behind the ports and the "doors" would be held closed by small push latches (y'know, those "push to close and push to open" latches).
hehehehe well its your mod, make it how you want!
thumb.gif
and the spring loaded doors are a nice touch, should give the mod a high end feeling. That plus the paint job and the cooling pad basically requires you make a build log for it. because thats gonna look sweet when its done!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdoublejj View Post

copy and pasted.

Was bored so I thought I'd post up my laptop. Figured it might be a nice change from buying/upgrading advice threads?

Sorry for the bad picture.
I could afford a 1k+ laptop but, I couldn't afford all the money up front but, i bought an almost decent laptop, an Acer 5920G with a, T5250/2gb DDR2 800/8600m GT/no HDD. Then when i got some money i installed a WesternDigital "WD10JPVT" 5400 RPM 1Tb hdd and windows 7, then got a 4GB stick of DDR2 800 bumping me up to 5gb. I then got an HD4670 DDR2 which ran at 90-110c then I side graded to an Nvidia GT 240m DDR3 and finally a T9300 and AR9380 wifi card.

When I upgraded my CPU I did a PPL mod and over clocked the T9300 from 2.5ghz at 800mhz FSB to 2.95ghz @ 947mhz FSB, my ram went from 667 (chipset limitation) to around 700mhz. I also did some cooling mods, which apparently helped.
biggrin.gif


EDIT: my GT 240m is overclocked too
biggrin.gif
coreclock:550 @ 673 MHz | memoryclock: 800 @ 1003 MHz
I'm pretty happy with those temps. This is under some casual use and gaming. Gpu under furmark hit 85C after about an hour or so.

Well since i couldn't afford one i built one as i could afford/find the parts.
biggrin.gif
All i could really do now is a 1-2TB drive/SSD, a battery and or Better screen with higher Res, a friend with the same laptop installed 1440x900 screen with better image quality.

So far I can play games like, dirt 2, mafia 2, BatMan AA, BatMan AC at medium/high-high at a good 40-50 fps.
Awesome! That's a really clean looking grille mod there, and building a laptop up to that level of performance sounds like it must have been fun! also liking the future plans, but unless you actually need/use your DVD drive id take it out and drop it into one of those HDD caddys with your TB hard drive in there, and then put an SSD into the main slot.
 
#23 ·
Has anybody ever tried electroplating silver onto the copper heatsinks? It's 7% better at transferring heat and laptops suck when it comes to cooling, so every bit counts.
biggrin.gif
I can try replacing the thermal paste from the crappy old stock stuff with Arctic Silver's wonderful compound, which certainly should help, as would enlarging the vents. I just get worried when Speedfan shows 45 degrees or more for the CPU and GPU when I'm doing nothing more than playing music.
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by M3nta1 View Post

hehehehe well its your mod, make it how you want!
thumb.gif
and the spring loaded doors are a nice touch, should give the mod a high end feeling. That plus the paint job and the cooling pad basically requires you make a build log for it. because thats gonna look sweet when its done!
Oh great... I'm horrible at keeping everything up to date. But I guess I'll give it a try...
Quote:
Originally Posted by M3nta1 View Post

AAAH double post!

Quote:
Originally Posted by CynicalUnicorn View Post

Has anybody ever tried electroplating silver onto the copper heatsinks? It's 7% better at transferring heat and laptops suck when it comes to cooling, so every bit counts.
biggrin.gif
I can try replacing the thermal paste from the crappy old stock stuff with Arctic Silver's wonderful compound, which certainly should help, as would enlarging the vents. I just get worried when Speedfan shows 45 degrees or more for the CPU and GPU when I'm doing nothing more than playing music.
I'd love to do electroplating, but given that I live in an apartment complex, there are regs regarding the storage of potentially toxic chemicals (mainly that you can't). Electroplating solutions fall under that category, so no electroplating, no anodizing, nothing. More's the pity...
 
#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMadProfessor View Post

Oh great... I'm horrible at keeping everything up to date. But I guess I'll give it a try...

I'd love to do electroplating, but given that I live in an apartment complex, there are regs regarding the storage of potentially toxic chemicals (mainly that you can't). Electroplating solutions fall under that category, so no electroplating, no anodizing, nothing. More's the pity...
Yeah I can see why an apartment complex would have an issue with people electroplating stuff in the living room. Toxic chemicals, toxic fumes, heck if they reported that on the news I'd assume someone had a meth den goin on.

And you got this, between every coat of paint or two coats of paint plenty of time to snap a picture and show off how your handiwork is coming along! same with the cooler, that is gonna look sweeet!
thumb.gif
 
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