Laptop Cooler Pads...

Hi Guys,

I've never thought of getting a laptop cooler pad until last week when my laptop started to get artifacts when i was playing battlefield 2. Yes it was heating up like one hot rock. I've done the mods to it like Artic Silver on the Cpu, i couldnt find the gpu but there's no fan for it or anything. Anyways back to the main problem, I'm thinking of getting a cooler pad but not sure which one to get. I dont like the idea of adding more thickness to the bottom of my laptop on my desk makes it look more cluttered than it is. My laptop is a slimline laptop and i want to keep it that way. Anyway which notebook cooler do you recommend and what should i look for and what to keep away from.
Cheeers

 

ive been thinking of getting one of those too.. so ya, if anyone has any inputm let us know!

 

I've been sorta looking at these too just in case mine runs hot when I get it, I hear that the Targus Chill Mat works pretty well, often running some people's machines 10 degrees cooler with it. It's got dual fans that run off of the USB port with an on/off switch. Right now if you hop on it, Office Max has a $10 off instant rebate on it...brings it to $19.99. A good place to look at reviews of products is Circuit City's site. They have lots of reviews of this product. It appears that this thing is a tad on the fragile side, but I can't imagine it being THAT bad...just don't use it as a frisbee with the dog.

http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=PA248U

They also make a version that has extra USB ports on it:

http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=AWE01US

 

I really don't think there worth the money. They draw power from the USB, the generator noise, they only work on some laptops depending on where everything is located, the Targus one is made of plastic and feels really cheap, they're expensive for what they do, there not really needed because laptops can handle the extra heat, and there are better alternatives.

Rather then hooking up extra assessories that draw more power and making the laptop run hotter. I like to tweak the OS so that it only runs what it needs to run. I turn off every unneeded service (services.msc) and disable every unneeded hardware (Device Manager) such as the 56K modem, ethernet card, firewire, PCMCIA ports, etc. Then I turn off all the pretty eye candy themes and pointless animations (tool tip fade, menu animation, etc), and I'll even resize & recompress my desktop wallpaper. Most wallpapers you download online are big enough for a large print at over a megabyte, so I resize it for my desktop resolution and compresss it just a little so I can't tell.

Then I run a program like Centrino Hardware Control (CHC), and theres others that work for AMD, and I undervolt so the CPU itself runs cooler. If I had the balls I might try using arctic silver thermal paste on the CPU but my temps are already good so I don't think its worth the hassle. The last step after tweaking my OS is to get a passive cooling lap protector. The Lapinator was reviewed by a few sites and all showed it lowered temps a few degrees.

Because the CPU is designed to be able to run hotter then a normal desktop, theres not much to worry about. The main reason for lowering temps should be to protect your lap and control noise. Using CHC, tweaking the OS, and using the lapinator will do that and more. The benifit of going that route is your computer will run more stable, faster, and have more available ram.

 

That's a great tip on the hardware disabling...when my LT comes in I'm gonna have to look into doing that as there will be a couple things I simply won't need running. Great stuff!

I wasn't really sold on getting one myself, after reading many opinions I figured the hell w/ it, I'd rather spend $30 on a nice sleeve or something for extra physical protection...something that'll actually do more good.

 

I had an old Inspiron 5000 once that made a lot of heat. So, instead of buying a laptop cooler, I made one:

I took 2 pencils and put them under the back two feet of the notebook, and then took a small electric fan and put it next to the notebook. Laptop stayed cool and I didn't have any problems

Cost me $.50 (for the pencils )

 

My experience with laptop coolers has been that they are very inexpensive solutions to cooling down a hot-running laptop and DO work and very effectively. This subject is rehashed so often it REALLY should be a sticky subject.

Its not like they are high cost investments, for the few dollars they cost, there's little to lose trying one. This one is dirt cheap, works well and even has variable speed to run nearly inaudible in a quiet room:

http://store.yahoo.com/nexfan03/tunocowi4fas.html

It doesn't have racing stripes, its just a plastic slab to stick under your laptop when heat becomes an issue.

I don't understand why its so hard to imagine one helping cool down the blazing hot bottom of a laptop having some fans blowing air around it. Seems pretty obvious. And the power they consume in miniscule. They are just tiny tandem 5V fans. I doubt those calling them useless have even ever used one.

 

Vindicated-

Its alright for you to power off some hardware that doesnt need to be used. Thats if you want to run the computer like a 486 for internet browsing. Laptop these days are built for speed and more than just internet browsing. I have a high end notebook which has the ablity to run games such as Doom 3 and BF2. Turning off all the crap that is not needed, meaning my notebook would turn out to be a lemon. Yeah its ok if i'm on the move to give it that extra battery life, but like some of us would like to use the full potential of our notebook. When heat becomes an issue then we have to deal with it, by all means that could mean a laptop cooler pad.

bmhome1-
I'd have to agree with you, yes inexpensive solution for notbook cool downs.
Any recomendation of what to buy? and what to look out for?

 

Who told you it would make your system into a lemon? Every aspect of your system will improve, not get crippled. Just take a look at the services that are running, you'll see why you can disable the vast majority of them safely.

My laptop and desktop are definitly not simple kiosk machines. I play the same games you do, I just don't have unneeded devices running in the background eating away at my ram and cpu. Give it a try, you'll see.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/windows_xp_services_2.php

 

I'm going to buy that one from nexfan - that cooler seems to get the area where the others don't - lower left corner and left side in general.

 

For what it's worth, my lappy is the heat generator champion , an Averatec 3250, and for the first 4 months I had it, to keep it running cool I used one of those plastic coated grids (about 11" by 12") you find in the kitchen dept. of stores like Walmart. It worked well. Then I got as a gift, a Targus chill pad - two fans with usb for power - and it also worked well.

So either way I would recommend.

I was in Circuit City two days ago and they had the Targus for $15.

 

Yes, it cools the hard drive, battery, RAM slot along with CPU area.