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I'm planning to create my own cooling pad for my MacBook Pro (2011).

Which is the better airflow direction - is it preferred to suck air away from the MacBook, or blow it towards the Mac?

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Are you not able to just put your hand under your mac book to judge which way the air is flowing? Then replicate this with your stand – iTom Dec 5 '11 at 20:38
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@iTom Recent MBP models have no holes for fans on the base of the device. – Daniel Beck Dec 5 '11 at 20:39
@Penn Please mention exactly what MBP model you have. – Daniel Beck Dec 5 '11 at 20:40
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If there are no holes there and your just trying to cool the metal my assumption would be to blow air at it, as this would be directed. – iTom Dec 5 '11 at 20:47
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Don't "fight" any existing fans. To cool a surface it's important to move air ACROSS it, vs just blow AT it. Doesn't matter much whether you "suck" or "blow" (if you'll pardon the expression). – DanH Dec 5 '11 at 21:40
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Assuming the case underside of the laptop is a smooth, nonperforated plane, you should ideally force air onto the center of the plane and have a second plane mounted beneath it so that the incoming air is forced to pass over the whole surface to escape at the sides. Inverting the flow gives greater inequalities in distribution due to the computer not being circular, in/outflow having an area and possible different levels of obstruction in different directions.

The most important thing would be to make sure the airflow is approximately the same everywhere on the surface you want to cool, and to make sure the cooled surface is as large as possible.

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great tip. I'm not to sure what you mean about this. "have a second plane mounted beneath it so that the incoming air is forced to pass over the whole surface to escape at the sides" – Pennf0lio Dec 6 '11 at 17:01
@Pennf0lio He means to have another sheet of metal (or plastic or whatever) that is the same size as the laptop base mounted below the bottom of the laptop about a quarter-inch (or ~4mm) below the bottom to make sure the moving air stays near the surface of the laptop. Put the fan in the middle of this sheet of metal, blowing up. – CajunLuke Dec 6 '11 at 17:42
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