Need to cool my surface tablet outside

dmehling

Member
I have a few questions about liquid cooling and wondering if it is an option for a unique need. I need to be able to use my surface tablet outside, including during the summer when it gets rather hot where I live. I read that about 95° is the highest outdoor temperature to expose a tablet or laptop to. I need to push that temperature limit up by perhaps 5°. I am thinking that a fan alone will not work since it doesn't bring the actual temperature down. I am thinking about some kind of liquid cooling set up. The cold air coming out of the cooler would blow directly on the tablet with a fan. That's my idea in theory but I'm not exactly sure about a couple of details. First, could I use a closed loop liquid cooling system? And secondly, would the air coming from the cooling system be dry? That's probably a dumb question since I would assume it would be dry if it's being used to cool a CPU. Thirdly, is there any environmental or health hazard to doing this, since I would likely be breathing in the cooled air? And in the extremely unlikely case of a leak, where would the coolant go?
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Hi there,

Surface tablets do get hot I'm afraid. Which CPU do you have and Surface exactly? How hot is it running? If it's running under about 80C then no need to worry at all, my Surface Pro 1 runs hot and has been going fine for 3 years now.
 

Geoff

VIP Member
You are talking about two different things here, liquid cooling and then using chilled air. Are you talking about using air from an air conditioner to blow air inside the tablet? Or are you talking about using a liquid cooler with an air conditioner cooling the radiator?

In either case, you're talking about a Surface Tablet that has no way for you to open and install aftermarket cooling into. 95F is only 35C, and as Spirit said his CPU gets to around 80C with no problem. Is the tablet going to be in direct sunlight as well?
 

dmehling

Member
I'm sorry if I did not explain the situation clearly enough. I have a Surface Pro 4 and I am having no issues keeping it around 40°C. Rather what I was talking about was using it "outdoors" when "outdoor" temperatures are above 95°F (and only using it in the shade). I was asking about a purely external cooling system that would blow cool air on my Surface, not inside of it. Is there any reason why I could not use a liquid cooling system and have it blow on my tablet?
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah the above and the fact you'd need to install it directly onto the CPU. I don't think simply having it touch the back of the Surface is going to really do what you want. You wouldn't want to open your Surface, trust me.
 

dmehling

Member
I guess I didn't quite understand how liquid cooling works. Apparently it's not the solution I'm looking for. But here's another related question. If I my tablet was a foot away from a large fan, would that work to keep the tablet cool enough if the outside temperature is 100°F? From my understanding of outdoor fans, they make you feel a few degrees cooler, but they don't actually reduce your temperature. So in the case of the computer, would a fan make any difference? My goal is to be able to use my tablet outside for about 30 minutes when the temperature is 100°F.
 

Geoff

VIP Member
I guess I didn't quite understand how liquid cooling works. Apparently it's not the solution I'm looking for. But here's another related question. If I my tablet was a foot away from a large fan, would that work to keep the tablet cool enough if the outside temperature is 100°F? From my understanding of outdoor fans, they make you feel a few degrees cooler, but they don't actually reduce your temperature. So in the case of the computer, would a fan make any difference? My goal is to be able to use my tablet outside for about 30 minutes when the temperature is 100°F.
Liquid cooling would not be able to achieve temps below ambient. The same with an outdoor fan, it will not be any cooler than ambient. Since you are outdoors, I can't think of scenarios where you could reliably create cool air to blow on your tablet. I think you are overthinking this, 95 degrees is hot but it's not tablet-melting temperatures.
 

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
A fan will help move heat away from the tablet however you will not reach better than 10oC delta ambient and more likely 20 - 30oC ambient. Even then, at 70oC, thats fine.
 
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