adding bluetooth and cooling for a laptop

[Negative Zero]

looking for a few option, and maybe a lil advice for my Dell Inspiron 8600, so i figured i'd turn to the most knowledgable & helpful people i know! (yeah yeah, i know flatery will get me everywhere!)

now that my life has settled down (after the wedding and the new house) i finally have time to play games again. i've noticed that my Inspiron 8600 gets REALLY hot when i play (currently NFS: Underground). the little GPU fan is going crazy! what options do i have for keeping my laptop cool, short of adding an AC unit to my room?

also, through sheer ignorance, i neglected to explore bluetooth options when i purchased my laptop several months ago. now that i'm older and wiser i'm thinking of adding it in. short of buying a PCMCIA bluetooth card, what are my options? and if the only option is to buy a card, which would you recommend?

thanks in advance,
~NegZ

 

[cybertalus]

Can't help you with the Bluetooth stuff. I guess I'm just a little too distrusting to go for wireless networking.

On the cooling issue though, there are a number of laptop cooling pads available. There's basically a pad with fans in them that you set your laptop on and they move heat away from it. I haven't tried them out myself.

There should be a few listed on this page. I've ordered from Cyberguys before and they're a company I'd order from again.

 

[Negative Zero]

yeah, i've seen those cooling pads, supposedly Antec makes a good one. but i'm a little concerned coz i use my laptop with a port replicator, which means it no longer sits flat on the desk, and i'm concerned about how the cooling pad will affect the connection between laptop and PR. also, it would obviously raise the height significantly which would likely make typing unconfortalbe at best.

~NegZ

 

[cybertalus]

Yeah, I wondered about the height thing too. I also wondered if the cooling pad would sit up high enough off the desk or table to generate enough airflow to make a difference.

Unfotunately with a laptop there's not much else you can do to cool it besides using a device to draw heat away from the bottom. If the heat is a problem when you're trying to set the computer on your lap, you might try setting it on a towel or a blanket. That worked for me with my laptop. Just be sure not to cover the fan vents.

 

[Raevynn]

Cooling - Your pretty much limited to the cooling pads mentioned above... Unless your fan in your laptop is going bad, in that case replacing it *might* help.

As for bluetooth... I have purchased the following USB adapter from Belkin. It works fantastic:
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProd...=&Section_Id=200583&pcount=&Product_Id=134431

Hope this help....