Cooler Master Notepal Infinite Review/Disassembly

[Crimsoned]

Cooler master Notepal Infinite

Heat. We've heard of it. We also heard it's a problem for most laptop users with dedicated graphics cards, more so a problem with little resolution. There are things one can do to lower temperatures, reapplying thermal compound with superior quality, and using a notebook cooler.. However even those are limited, and mileage may vary.

The Break Down of the Design/Disassembly

Here I am reviewing one model of notebook cooler by Cooler Master.
The Notepal Infinite.
The Design/Build
Now Cooler Master claims this design to be great because the cooling surface area is increase by 150% compared to previous coolers. They achieve this by using a aluminum mesh as the supporting surface, and under it a fan which blows air evenly through that aluminum mesh. Sounds reasonable, but is it? Does it have the static pressure, design, and CFM to impact the cooling.
We shall see but first let's take a look at the design/build.

First we have the aluminum mesh, which is great because aluminum has decent heat conductive properties or at least better then air. Also since it's meshed, it will allow air to flow through it with little resistance. The surface has long rubber grommets to help keep the notebook in place, and help to make sure the mesh does not scratch the bottom of the notebook.

Spoiler :

Also we have the elevation of the laptop which is convenient for this typists, and helps with placing the LCD on a even level with my eyes. As well 4 large rubber grommets are present to keep the notebook cooler steady and without slip.

Spoiler :

Now the insides. A few screws later (removal of the rubber grommets both at the metal mesh, and bottom of the notebook cooler are needed to remove additional screws). Here we also see the intake hole at the bottom, top side of the cooler.

Spoiler :

The bottom of the supporting frame, has plastic molding to create the even cooling effect, also we have a look at the blower style fan, which helps blow the air from the bottom to the top.

Spoiler :

Here we have better look at the blower fan, which is installed on the metal mesh.

Spoiler :

Once we remove the black brushed aluminum metal Cooler Master sheet, we see more specifications of the fan.

Spoiler :

And lastly the Cooler Master black brushed aluminum sheet.

Spoiler :

The Performance/Test Setup

Our test setup consists of the Gateway M-6862 which has had it's ventilation cleared of a dust filter.
Specs:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 2.0 ghz 667 FSB
Memory: 2x2gb DDR2 PC2-5300 5-5-5-15
GPU: ATI Mobile HD 2600 512mb DDR3 (stock 500 core/600 memory clocks)
Hard Drive: Hitachi Travelstar 7.5k 500gb 7200 RPM 2.5"

Program ran for results on Load:
Left 4 dead 2, max settings AA=2x, AF=16x resolution 1280x800. Maxes the laptops GPU/CPU.

Results:
Idle:


Load:


Summary:

Overall the cooler performed admirably, and helped reduce temperatures considerably on load. While on idle, it did not make much of a difference but that is understandable as the heatsink's fan was running at slow speed it was not taking advantage of the supply of air delivered by the cooler. Overall I am happy with the notebook cooler and it's results. The build quality is decent, and the price was right ($20.00 refurbished). The cooling is superb as well.

Read The Spoiler concerning the First three comments below.

Spoiler :

Retesting was done, as the first test procedure (prime95) only heated the CPU which caused the Gateway BIOS Control to never increase the speed of the heatsink's fan as the fan control is dependent on the temperatures of CPU/ACPI/GPU. Since the heatsink's fan never increased to max RPM, it never took advantage of the excess supply of cool air provided by the cooler. I too suspected incorrect results the first time when using prime95 only, since I had noticed before substantial temperature decrease when playing games. Thus I did more testing, and concluded the fan control was dependent on CPU/GPU/ACPI temperatures.

[Judicator]

Maybe I'm misreading your charts, but it seems to me that almost all of your NC (No Cooler) temperatures are lower than your Cooler temperatures, which seems to say that the Notepal Infinite is making things worse?

[isavetheday]

Yeah his results show that this cooler increases his temps by 2-3°C over not having the cooler. This must be a mistake, or I don't see why he would of made a review in the first place without just saying this cooler is a pos.

[Crimsoned]

Did further testing, going to have to change my test procedure. Apparently the fan control on the Gateway is triggered by temperatures of the ACPI/GPU/and CPU. Thus the gateway's heatsink fan never went to full RPM speed because only the CPU was on load. For the testing procedure I will have to load up left 4 dead 2 on max settings, which will heat up both gpu/cpu.
Edit: Did the load temperature comparisons with Left 4 dead 2 on max settings. So far the temperature difference is definitely there. I will leave the results for idle the same as before, since nothing is running in the background on both occasions.

I am quite pleased with the results.

NEW results after new/more accurate test procedure.

[Crimsoned]

I apologize for the spam. There's been a critical update.
Read the Spoiler at the end of the Original Post, as well as post #4 by me.

[Judicator]

The new results make much more sense, although the fact that you switched colors between the load and idle temperatures was a little confusing at first.

[Crimsoned]

Bump Me
To See Me

[Penrod]

I recorded this awhile back. Not a stress test by any means. Not scientific. HWmonitor 1.13.0 used. Approximately equal time with and without cooler. With cooler means the laptop is on the cooler master with the fan on high. Without cooler means the laptop is off of the cooler master and back on my wood block. I'm not a gamer, so for average use the cooler master also helps keep temps down.

While perusing and posting this on forum - no cooler:

ACPI
44°C (111°F) (TZS0)
44°C (111°F) (TZS1)

Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo P8400
26°C (78°F) (Core #0)
28°C (82°F) (Core #1)

GeForce 9800M GTS
49°C (120°F) (GPU Core)

WDC WD32 00BEKT-22F3T
40°C (104°F) (HDD)

While perusing and posting this on forum - with cooler:

ACPI
40°C (104°F) (TZS0)
40°C (104°F) [(TZS1)

Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo P8400
26°C (78°F) (Core #0)
27°C (80°F) (Core #1)

GeForce 9800M GTS
45°C (113°F) (GPU Core)

WDC WD32 00BEKT-22F3T
38°C (100°F) (HDD)

[lebob23]

How does this stack up against the NotePal X-Lite - Cooler Master which I bought for 8.58 total

[Crimsoned]

How does this stack up against the NotePal X-Lite - Cooler Master which I bought for 8.58 total

That notebook cooler is directed to the small form laptop (11-13"). It claims to fit 15.4" however due to the design of it I would say it may have problems reaching appropriate ventilation shaft's on many 15.4-+ laptops.
The Notepal Infinite goes more towards the typical size laptop 15.6~..

Cooling wise.. it would depend on the laptop.