The BEST mod I've ever seen....

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You should get a Framework laptop

For reference, the reason why laptops don’t dump heat into the outer chassis directly is generally so that the batteries don’t overheat, which is a fire hazard. (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS_MVDoaIoM) Edit: In addition, there are also regulations about how hot surfaces can get so that they don't burn you.

From what I can see, it looks like the Thunderport hub kind of blocks the air intake in the fan as well, so that might be worth a redesign. Also making the top removable so that whenb the fan eventually dies you can replace it without busting apart a glued piece

Would also be interesting to see how it would compare with all the internal cooling mods and using the body as a heat sink but without the big cooling stand.

Given your penchant for customizing, I'd say you should get a Framework laptop 16 when orders open up. Completely customizable IO and all replaceable parts. It'll even have an expansion bay for a replaceable internal video card.

Not sure if you check older videos, but regarding the Dell Dock: you can get right angle adapters to reduce the strain on the USB C port. Additionally, the docks usually have a power button, which can turn the laptop on. In my setup, I 3D printed a side shelf that holds the laptop on the side of my desk, giving me the entire desk for use. So basically, something akin to what you did with the drawer, but more barebones.

Your content is some of my favorite combination of "computer nerd" and "wood working maker".

I did similar for my XPS 9560 (i7-7700HQ, 1050) a couple of years ago, with some differences: no external fan, I made a thermal bridge from the VRMs to bare heatpipes, undervolted the CPU 0.12V, put fine mesh over the intakes (to eliminate dust), and resting it on a dowell bar near the rubber strip to stop hot air recirculating into the intake. As a result, it only hits around 85'C with a GPU game or CPU-intensive work, and the power delivery stays higher. There were other tweaks, like also using ThrottleStop to improve responsiveness for DAW work. So if you want to improve on what you already have, maybe try undervolting, if your system allows it.

Cool! you should also try undervolting you cpu and gpu aswell as lowering you're minimum processor state and changing the turbo from aggressive to enabled this should increase the power ALOT more

My only note is that there are plenty of existing laptop cooling pad devices that have spare room inside their chassis that could fit the dock if you swapped out their fans for that nice one. Many of them even have fan controllers built-in. You would end up with a more comfortable purpose-built device by cobbling something together rather than building it from scratch in this case.

You're my favorite youtuber right now. You woodwork, build computer/electronic/emulation stuff, and longboard. All of which are things I like to do! I've been 30 mph on a longboard, built my own PC, built an arcade style emulator with the big joysticks, and I make some money on the side woodworking. I think you may be my spirit animal 😂

I recently finished building a cooling pad with 3 120mm Noctua NF-P12 redux fans and Noctua NA-FC1 fan controller. It works great, can be a bit loud but way better than any previous ones I've owned.

That a lot of nice thermal mods, I never had good experiences repasting my XPS17 9710 (I tried MX5 and GC Extreme and thermals were worse until I switched to Honeywell PTM, that made a huge improvement), but pretty awesome to see the before and after, and considering that Intel/Dell boosts these CPUs to over 100W (at least in my experience with the XPS 17 9710), the fact you can get it to power limit throttle is kinda amazing

I'd like to see what you could do with a framework laptop, especially when you upgrade one because of what you'll do with the old board.

As a tech that fixes laptops, I can safely say that there isn't a flawless laptop manufacturer. All brands have issues and even have some that are lemons. I would say it's more about keeping the vents and fans clean inside, not ever using mechanical hard drives (use SSDs and NVMe SSDs), and doing research on a per model basis based on your budget. Of course, like Zac recommends, having an external cooler will help it run cooler, faster and last much longer. If you're having issues, 8 times out of 10 it's the mechanical hard drive. Replace that with an SSD and you're likely good to go. The other is the 2 times is either the CPU cooler/fan or power issue. The CPU fan/heatsink gets filled with lint and dust. Just clean it out and it'll cool much better. Power issues come from the DC Jack being bent/broken or the battery doesn't hold much of a charge. In either of those power issues those parts would need to be replaced. Of course, there can be other random issues but they're much more rare. They instead tend to be from wear and tear (cracked screen, spilled something on the keyboard, trackpad worn out, cracked plastics/frame). In other words, lemons can happen but unless it's a manufacturing issue it's less likely it's a problem with all of that model or brand. Again, just make sure it has an SSD instead of a HDD and you're off to a good start.

Cooling pads do work great if your laptop has proper air intake underneath (unlike the one shown in this video where the vents are at the bottom)

I’d like to see the performance upgrade with just the fan, just the improved thermal paste, and then the combination. Awesome build though!

As far as common, North American woods go, walnut is definitely the best. If you're looking for portability then I'd suggest Framework since upgrading will be easier than with others.

I love your videos on upgrading / hacking your tech! That cinebench score improvement is insane. For new laptops I have my eye on the new framework laptop!