Filed under: Hardware, Hacks, PowerBook, Rig of the Week
Rig of the Week: PowerBook with USB cooling fan
TUAW reader and Flickr user sninesix posted this snapshot of the USB CPU fan he rigged up to cool his PowerBook. When the original fan died, sninesix found an old fan he had lying around, removed the wires and hacked a USB cable onto it. He then removed laptop's keyboard and positioned the fan just above the CPU. With a USB keyboard connected, he was back in business. Well done! You can watch a video explanation here.
If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. Each Sunday we'll comb through the most recent entries and declare a "Rig of the Week!"
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Willowbeef said 4:13PM on 9-23-2007
Um...how much does a new fan cost?
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yacoub said 4:57PM on 9-23-2007
Not terribly mobile anymore though huh.
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JeffDM said 5:12PM on 9-23-2007
That's nice if you don't ever want to tote it around again. I'm pretty sure that both the keyboard and fan can be replaced with drop-in replacement parts, and make it mobile again.
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Pat said 2:18AM on 9-24-2007
Man that is funny. I was like damn, I wish rig of the week would come back. And i cliked my TUAw bookmark, and bam there it is. Sweet.
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josiah said 2:44AM on 9-24-2007
"sninesix" is Ryan of http://www.viddyou.com - a pretty cool video sharing site that everyone should check out. :)
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Carla J. said 8:57AM on 9-24-2007
OMG!!!! I love apple hardware, but what you can do to it this way is simpley AWESOME!!! Alluminum is outdated now, modern computers should all have aluminum and GIANT PLASTIC FANS WITH NOS LOGOS on them, especilly if their laptops!
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joseph said 8:59AM on 9-24-2007
First, I think "Rig of the Week" is incorrigible. This isn't [H]ard|OCP. But, regardless, what happened to the elegant setups of big systems that looked super sleek or were out of the ordinary. This is just dumb. Who cares that this guy was too cheap to replace the internal fan. It looks like crap.
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stooke said 9:17AM on 9-24-2007
A new fan, official Apple part, costs about $50 - I replaced one this summer. (and my macbook sounded amazing in the last minute of the old fan's life! Like a jackhammer!)
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:: r y a n :: said 3:17PM on 9-24-2007
Had nothing to do with being too cheap as the PowerBook is fully repaired and I'm on a MacBook Pro now. My little fan hack made things work so I could get work done. The fan hack was more about doing something just for sh*ts and giggles.
I only paid about $20+tax at www.ifixit.com for a replacement fan. High five to those people for such a great site and rapid service.
Josiah! Thanks for the Viddyou love. =)
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