The Dangers of Laptop Stands with Fans

There is some air coming through there and it's really hot in this room and it's helping a lot. I'm gonna test it in four configurations the first one is going to be with the laptop just flat on the table like this. And then I'm gonna run either 64 for 20 minutes to see if it throttles firmly and how hard it kind of tops out at.

The next test is where I put something under the bottom of the laptop and just elevate it off the table without this stand there. Then what we're gonna do is I'm gonna do one test with this flat on the table, why are you gonna do a fourth test cycle where I'm actually going to lift this whole stand off of the table just to see how much of an effect that lack of breathing room under the stand has and then just so you know what kind of laptop we're testing.

This is a Dell XPS 15 it's got an 80 750 H in it which is a 6 core CPU, which I'm just gonna let it do its own boost cycle thing I'm not going to manually overclock it and we're just gonna see to what extent it's thermally from throttles because this is quite a thin laptop so it does it is renowned for temperature issues. I haven't repaired it or anything like that it's just in its stock configuration.

After having looked at the results, that fairly surprising honestly it only makes a very small difference using the laptop stand with the fans inside. In fact, the optimum solution is just lifting the laptop off the table so that the laptop's own cooling can do a better job now I think this can be quite easily explained because the fans don't quite line up with where the vents in the actual laptop are.

I actually miss understood how the laptop stand worked so I used it upside down for the first set of tests and it actually led to quite an interesting test result. So let's look at those, I actually really liked results like this when you use a product not in its intended setup and it actually gives you better results. So if you have it upside down it performs fairly similarly too, if you just prop it up on something although that solution is still the best.

And that kind of shows you that the extra fans in this setup in this badly designed setup doesn't really help you and honestly it just adds noise to the configuration. The conclusion of all of these tests is well apparently old people are wrong having a laptop stand with fans in it doesn't actually help the cooling performance and the reason I think this is the case is because unless the laptop stand is exactly designed for your specific laptop which let's be honest it's never the case.

It could actually interfere with the laptop's own cooling solution and not have venting in the right space. Now I might hear you saying that well, the thing is this is clearly designed for a 13-inch laptop but if you take a 13-inch laptop which thumbs up for the super retro MacBook here and you put it on top of the Dell you'll see that width wise they're the same size so technically it should work right. This should be kind of set up for that.

But I mean just if you look at the old MacBook like it doesn't even have vents in the back, so like what's the point of having fans down there? And another issue I think with this laptop stand is that the air is actually blowing up into the laptop instead of helping pulling air away from it. So it might actually be fighting the laptop's own cooling fan direction.

So if you do want to buy a laptop stand, you're better off buying one that just lifts your laptop off the table and doesn't get in the way of the actual cooling ventilation on the bottom of the laptop so let the laptop do its own thing just with you know less table in the way. Anyway, with that thank you very much for watching I have an Instagram account if you want to check it out it's called Darvid Does Tech Stuff and then I also have a Twitter account which is at Darvid Does So go check those out if you want more of me in your life sounds weirdly clingy but anyway until the next video bye bye.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ennow if you've been to your parents house recently or somebody who's a bit more technologically inept they probably own one of these things which is like a laptop stand with fans in them I don't know if only old people use them but that's the only place I've ever seen them so let's see if they make any difference now before we get into any test results let's just have a look at the actual build quality of this one now I don't actually know what brand this is because it's not branded other than what looks like a beats sticker here but I don't think that necessarily has anything to do with who built this but you get from various manufacturers you get from Coolermaster and such and they're usually the same thing although this one's really well built it's all metal as you can hear and it's very sturdy it's got to what looks like 19 millimeter fans I'm not sure let's just give it a quick measure actually have the measuring tape with me this time so they look like 19 millimeter fans but they could be a different size who they're 18 millimeter fans so unless I don't know how to use a measuring tape to 18 millimeter fans which is not amazing because there are quite small fans they might be quite large but we'll have a look at that a bit later and then over here it's also got a USB hub in it so you have the square USB going into it and the square USB actually powers it as well that's how I'm going to be testing it and then it's got four output ports and I'm also going to do a test on what kind of performance effect this has and it also has a five volt DC power input now I don't have the power cable that comes with this so I can't test it with that but I'm gonna use the USB the square USB to power it as well okay now I've got a laptop over here so that we can just kind of give you a bit of an indication cable just hit stuff there just give you a little bit of an indication as to how noisy the fans actually because that's quite important if they are very noisy there's no point because yeah and it's gonna be super irritating to have it around as you can see I spin up and if I speak quietly over it I don't know how how well you can hear it but they've got they've got quite an irritating hum actually I don't know if this is better but it is really cooling there is some air coming through there and it's really hot in this room and it's helping a lot I'm gonna test it in four configurations the first one is going to be with the laptop just flat on the table like this and then I'm gonna run either 64 for 20 minutes to see if it throttles firmly and how hearted kind of tops out at and then I'm gonna do a test where I put something under the bottom of the laptop and just elevate it off the table without this stand there and then what we're gonna do is I'm gonna do one test with this flat on the table why are you gonna do a fourth test cycle where I'm actually going to lift this whole stand off of the table just to see how much of an effect that lack of breathing room under the stand has and then just so you know what kind of laptop we're testing it with this is a Dell XPS 15 it's got an 80 750 H in it which is a 6 core CPU which I'm just gonna let it do its own boost cycle thing I'm not going to manually overclock it and we're just gonna see to what extent it's thermally from throttles because this is quite a thin laptop so it does it is renowned for temperature issues I haven't repai stood it or anything like that it's just in its stock configuration and then yeah we'll see how much this stand actually helps cool that thirsty six core laptop see and after having looked at the results that fairly surprising honestly it only makes a very small difference using the laptop stand with the fans inside in fact the optimum solution is just lifting the laptop off the table so that the laptops own cooling can do a better job now I think this can be quite easily explained because the fans don't quite line up with where the vents in the actual laptop is now I actually miss understood how the laptop stand worked so I used it upside down for the first set of tests and it actually led to quite an interesting test result so let's look at those I actually really liked results like this when you use a product not in its intended setup and it actually gives you better results so if you have it upside down it performs fairly similarly too if you just prop it up on something although that solution is still the best and that kind of shows you that the extra fans in this setup in this badly designed setup doesn't really help you and honestly it just adds noise to the configuration and the conclusion of all of these tests is well apparently old people are wrong having a laptop stand with fans in it doesn't actually help the cooling performance and the reason I think this is the case is because unless the laptop stand is exactly designed for your specific laptop which let's be honest it's never the case it could actually interfere with the laptops own cooling solution and not have venting in the right space and so on now I might hear you saying that well the thing is this is clearly designed for a 13-inch laptop but if you take a 13-inch laptop which thumbs up for the super retro MacBook here and you put it on top of the Dell you'll see that width wise they're the same size so technically it should work right this should be kind of set up for that but I mean just if you look at the old MacBook like it doesn't even even have vents in the back so like what's the point of having fans down there and another issue I think with this laptop stand is that the air is actually blowing up into the laptop instead of helping pulling air away from it so it might actually be fighting the laptops own cooling fan direction so if you do want to buy a laptop stand you're better off buying one that just lifts your laptop off the table and doesn't get in the way of the actual cooling ventilation on the bottom of the laptop so let the laptop do its own thing just with you know less table in the way anyway with that thank you very much for watching I have an Instagram account if you want to check it out it's called darvid does tech stuff and then I also have a Twitter account which is at darvid does so go check those out if you want more of me in your life sounds weirdly clingy but anyway until the next video bye byenow if you've been to your parents house recently or somebody who's a bit more technologically inept they probably own one of these things which is like a laptop stand with fans in them I don't know if only old people use them but that's the only place I've ever seen them so let's see if they make any difference now before we get into any test results let's just have a look at the actual build quality of this one now I don't actually know what brand this is because it's not branded other than what looks like a beats sticker here but I don't think that necessarily has anything to do with who built this but you get from various manufacturers you get from Coolermaster and such and they're usually the same thing although this one's really well built it's all metal as you can hear and it's very sturdy it's got to what looks like 19 millimeter fans I'm not sure let's just give it a quick measure actually have the measuring tape with me this time so they look like 19 millimeter fans but they could be a different size who they're 18 millimeter fans so unless I don't know how to use a measuring tape to 18 millimeter fans which is not amazing because there are quite small fans they might be quite large but we'll have a look at that a bit later and then over here it's also got a USB hub in it so you have the square USB going into it and the square USB actually powers it as well that's how I'm going to be testing it and then it's got four output ports and I'm also going to do a test on what kind of performance effect this has and it also has a five volt DC power input now I don't have the power cable that comes with this so I can't test it with that but I'm gonna use the USB the square USB to power it as well okay now I've got a laptop over here so that we can just kind of give you a bit of an indication cable just hit stuff there just give you a little bit of an indication as to how noisy the fans actually because that's quite important if they are very noisy there's no point because yeah and it's gonna be super irritating to have it around as you can see I spin up and if I speak quietly over it I don't know how how well you can hear it but they've got they've got quite an irritating hum actually I don't know if this is better but it is really cooling there is some air coming through there and it's really hot in this room and it's helping a lot I'm gonna test it in four configurations the first one is going to be with the laptop just flat on the table like this and then I'm gonna run either 64 for 20 minutes to see if it throttles firmly and how hearted kind of tops out at and then I'm gonna do a test where I put something under the bottom of the laptop and just elevate it off the table without this stand there and then what we're gonna do is I'm gonna do one test with this flat on the table why are you gonna do a fourth test cycle where I'm actually going to lift this whole stand off of the table just to see how much of an effect that lack of breathing room under the stand has and then just so you know what kind of laptop we're testing it with this is a Dell XPS 15 it's got an 80 750 H in it which is a 6 core CPU which I'm just gonna let it do its own boost cycle thing I'm not going to manually overclock it and we're just gonna see to what extent it's thermally from throttles because this is quite a thin laptop so it does it is renowned for temperature issues I haven't repai stood it or anything like that it's just in its stock configuration and then yeah we'll see how much this stand actually helps cool that thirsty six core laptop see and after having looked at the results that fairly surprising honestly it only makes a very small difference using the laptop stand with the fans inside in fact the optimum solution is just lifting the laptop off the table so that the laptops own cooling can do a better job now I think this can be quite easily explained because the fans don't quite line up with where the vents in the actual laptop is now I actually miss understood how the laptop stand worked so I used it upside down for the first set of tests and it actually led to quite an interesting test result so let's look at those I actually really liked results like this when you use a product not in its intended setup and it actually gives you better results so if you have it upside down it performs fairly similarly too if you just prop it up on something although that solution is still the best and that kind of shows you that the extra fans in this setup in this badly designed setup doesn't really help you and honestly it just adds noise to the configuration and the conclusion of all of these tests is well apparently old people are wrong having a laptop stand with fans in it doesn't actually help the cooling performance and the reason I think this is the case is because unless the laptop stand is exactly designed for your specific laptop which let's be honest it's never the case it could actually interfere with the laptops own cooling solution and not have venting in the right space and so on now I might hear you saying that well the thing is this is clearly designed for a 13-inch laptop but if you take a 13-inch laptop which thumbs up for the super retro MacBook here and you put it on top of the Dell you'll see that width wise they're the same size so technically it should work right this should be kind of set up for that but I mean just if you look at the old MacBook like it doesn't even even have vents in the back so like what's the point of having fans down there and another issue I think with this laptop stand is that the air is actually blowing up into the laptop instead of helping pulling air away from it so it might actually be fighting the laptops own cooling fan direction so if you do want to buy a laptop stand you're better off buying one that just lifts your laptop off the table and doesn't get in the way of the actual cooling ventilation on the bottom of the laptop so let the laptop do its own thing just with you know less table in the way anyway with that thank you very much for watching I have an Instagram account if you want to check it out it's called darvid does tech stuff and then I also have a Twitter account which is at darvid does so go check those out if you want more of me in your life sounds weirdly clingy but anyway until the next video bye bye