I was just visiting the Akihabara section (electronics city) of Tokyo. I came upon a very nice Mac store and noticed many cool gadgets that your readers might be interested in. My specific interest this time are heat sinks for PB G4s and iBooks.
Regardless of what anyone says about how much cooler the PB G4 667/800MHz computers are, they still run WAY to hot for me. I feel it much more than my 400MHz machine which is not a cool puppy in itself. I have no idea what the new 1ghz are but I am guessing they could be hottest PB around. This leads me to finding ways to combat my finger and lap toasting problems.
I’ve taken several digital pictures of the items I’ll mention below.
The first 2 pictures, Brige cover, is a neat way of protecting the bottom of your PowerBook G4 (from scratches) in addition to somewhat cooling it down. It has the same exact color as the PowerBook but it is made of aluminum. It slips on the bottom of your PB and has four rubber discs inside that allow the PowerBook to rest on it. There is a slotted vent on the center bottom that allows airflow from there to the back edge which is open. Their price is approx. US$75
The second set is a cooler situation. It is made by Micro Solution. As you can see, the aluminum heat sink covers the entire bottom of your PowerBook and puts it on an angle. I picked up the PowerBook on display and felt the bottom and the keyboard. It really works well – just slightly warm to the touch. The heat sink weighs around a pound or so. I don’t have any pricing information though.
The third set which I think is the coolest is another heat sink that puts it on slight angle too. It is made from “id”. As you can see, it has massive aluminum alloy heat sink that really cools the PowerBook down. It works the best out of all of them but it carries a hefty price tag – US$225 for the PB G4 and US$165 for the iBook. It is also quite heavy – I’m guessing another 2 lbs.
The last one – PC Cool – is the least expensive and is useful for short term cooling. I purchased one of these – around US$12. I tried other cooling gadgets that the PowerPage mentioned previously with poor results. This pad works pretty good for around one hour and then needs to be set aside to cool down by itself for a few minutes. The outside is of Anti-static plastic which seals in a gel material. It feels like the same stuff that you put into your freezer to put with your picnic food. You don’t need to put it into the freezer (unless you want to). The gel just wicks away the heat from the bottom of the PowerBook.
I’m going back there in a week and a half just to pick up the “id” model and to look at more gadgets. I had lots of fun poking around.
