Best notebook cooler for lap / Best protective case

I've been looking around and have seen a ton of products for notebook coolers. They come in all shapes and sizes with all kinds of ports, fans, lights, etc.

What I'm looking for is function. Specifically, if I have a cooler for my laptop, I want to use it in my lap. While I have this slab in my lap, it may as well serve a dual purpose and give me a mouse pad surface for gaming without a table/desk.

Does anyone have ANY recommendations for a good notebook cooler, powered or unpowered, that has semi-good performance and a mouse pad area?


While I'm in the accessories department, I may as well ask about a case as well. I am a bit iffy on the use of a backpack/carrying bag for my laptop. I would not feel safe with my laptop leaving my hands without knowing that it is safely secure in a case that someone could sit on and still not damage my laptop. Something with an external lock would also be of interest.

Is there such a product designed with laptops in mind? A kind of "laptop briefcase" of sorts?

 

I haven't seen any laptop cooler + mouse pad, usually laptop coolers are placed on a desk and the laptop above it and mouse goes on the desk :/

I've read great things about the Vantec LapCool4 as a portable cooler for your lap since it can be folded. If you want to try the cooler as a mouse pad try and find one that's alot larger/wider than your notebook so the extra space can be used for the mouse.

What you describe is a messenger bag, depending on the size of your notebook and the amount of time you'll carry it you might not want to get it. 15.4"+ notebooks appear to go better with backpacks so the weight is distributed on your shoulders not one shoulder + hip on messenger bags.
Heres a thread about notebook backpacks/messenger bag manufacturers and reviews.

Kensington/Targus are supposed to make great locks for notebooks.

 

Does anyone have any kind of recommendation for a larger notebook cooler?

All of the coolers I have seen online are much smaller than the specs on my laptop, and my main function for the cooler will be lap comfortability while cooling.


Any experience at all?

 

There are few on the market. I didn't trust any that let my notebook sit on two tiny corners of the cooler and risk my notebook slipping off. (Tryed one just to see). Get one that will support your entire notebook and that has fans.
I went a slightly different route. I bought an iLap and a Vornado Zippy fan.

 

I think what you need are one of them lap desks along w/ an underneath-laptop cooler. Don't know if you're looking for portable options (i.e. using your PC @ the campus courtyard) or for home, but I'd imagine there are options for both available -- try some office supply stores and Wallyworld.

As for a larger notebook cooler, I got a Bytecc cooler which seems to work OK, but has abominable looks and sounds equally bad. Since most of these coolers work off relatively small fans, do expect all of them to make a decent amt of noise unless many reviews say otherwise.

 

I think we need a laptop cooler with adjustable fans, so that you can alter the position of the fans, so that they correspond with the air vents on your laptop.

just dreaming.

regards.

John.