Top Cooling pad for mx17 ?

Hey guys i've been looking all over the net now looking for a good Cooling pad suited for my alienware mx17 but i really don't know what to buy!

Most of them have a big cooler(i read it's better to have 2 seperate ones for air circulation. or some of them don't have coolers on the upper part where the vents are..

To be honest i don't really care about the price as i didn't see any going above the 50€ tag.. I'd just like to know which one is best for performance - i don't really care about the decibels

Maybe a cooling pad in alluminium with vents on top would be great.. I either find plastic with coolers or top or allumunium with coolers in the middle lol..

Anyone have experience with cooling pads? This is my first laptop and it starts blowing pretty hard when gaming hehe

Greets!

 

I've ordered the Zalman ZM-NC3500 for my Alienware 17, i should receive it next week, if you can wait, i'll post comments about it when i'll be able to review it

 

I would recommend the cooler master notepal U3. I have one. It's all aluminum with 3 adjustable fans. By adjustable I mean you can move them to where ever you need them. I have an AW17 and I put all 3 fans right on top across where the venting on the AW17 is. It's perfect. Also only cost me 30 Canadian dollars. Great cooling pad.

 

Well if I was going to buy a Cooling pad, I would definitely grab the Cooler Master U3. It has 3 adjustable fans and I've heard from quite few people if works great with alienware laptops.

Cooler Master NotePal U3 Laptop Cooling Pad

 

+1 to this, I love my u3, and if you look for a deal they are out there. I got mine for 9.99 after rebate. The three fans can be moved around so its perfect for a m17x place the fans right where the vents are on the notebook.

 

I agree on the U3. It fits the m17 perfectly and as previously said you can move the fans around under each vent.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4

 

I also have to say the U3, I've had it for over a year now with no issues. I believe it's the best cooling pad on the market and fits the M17 perfectly. It has exceeded my expectations and I always use it.

 

how loud are the fans compared to the m17x fans running full blast? Just curious

 

Awesome i'm glad this topic popped up, looking to get my new alienware 17 a cooler. Also very interested in the noise levels. I would imagine it would quiet down the system noise levels? Thus being more quiet overall?

 

I'm hoping so. I'm looking to quiet down my system while folding which taxes the system 100%. My r3 currently sounds like an airplane revving up for takeoff.

 

Recently I made a small research on the topic and as show here the result was the same all over the places I checked - CoolerMaster NotePal U3.
I'm going to buy mine in a week or two.

I wanted to asked how much temp drop do you register? I'm looking for results at least 5C..

 

5c might be asking just a bit much.

 

Damn.. that wasn't the answer I was hoping to get
Oh well, only time will tell

 

Yeah i saw stumbled upon that zalman nc3500 when doing research... it looks nice too but i don't know about the big fans as it's centered. I think it's better to have 2 or 3 vents centered on top. The Notepal U3 everyone is mentioning really looks awesome and perfect for an alienware ! Do you guys think i should take the 17" or 19" model? As alienware laptops are a bit bigger than regular laptops?

 

I don't think there are different models. It's one model that can be used for laptops from 17" to 19" max. (And if I remember correctly the box says from 15" to 19", but all the reviews that I watched stressed the fact that the 15" laptop just slides off the cooling pad because it's rather small for it).

 

grab the u3 as it comes with 3 fans compared to the 2 that come with the u2.

 

I'll probably go for the U3 as it looks perfect for an alienware. But let me know how your zalman is doing!

 

Well here is a review of the cooler master u3 with the M17x. It's in french, but it should give you a good idea on how well it fits.

Cooler Master U3 Review with Alienware M17x

 

i personally use the U3, its a great pad you can even keep it on ur lap if your adventurous.

But let me tell you, some the issues i think it has, i constantly feel that my laptop slips of the pad, also the fans dont really do any justice as far as i think apart from pushing in more dirt at times. its my opinion and i think a lot of other people feel the same

 

U3 is awesome. I love mine. The biggest thing I love is, the way fans are installed, they can not only be moved around for best results but can also be replaced with any standard 80mm fans. Stock fans are quiter than alienware m17xr4/m18xr2 fans. If positioned properly, 5c difference is achievable.

I personally have tried 8000rpm+ server fans running off 12v adapter, they are super loud but make almost 20c difference. But these fans also push crazy amount of dust, so I put these aside and out stock ones back in.

 

What is your positioning? Right underneath the actual M17x fans?

 

well i will be trying this baby out ZALMAN Ultra Slim, Ultra Quiet Notebook Cooler Model NC2000NT,it should be just the right size to for the Alienware 17. And it just looks nice and is pretty slim, and it should be alot easier to carry around than my CM SF-19, that things a beast

 

I'd recommend the Zalman NC2000, it's the one I have. I've found that it lowers temperatures on the GPU by nearly 15degC when idle (not sure about the difference at load, I've not tested that). I also find that less dust accumulates in the laptop when using the cooler. This is because the dust seems to collect in the cooler, and thereby 'filters' the air, and less dust accumulation in the laptop. You can also use the cooler on your lap, if it's positioned correctly. I shift my laptop to the front of the cooler, overlapping the front the cooler by 1 inch - this gives the best cooling performance. It has an indirect air flow to the bottom of the laptop, so it's more like a constant positive air pressure to the underside of the whole laptop, so the air is not turbulent like it would be if the fans were placed directly under the laptop, and this lack of air turbulence is what I think makes this cooler have such good cooling performance (turbulent air is harder for the laptop intake fans to re-direct efficiently through the cooling fins of the heat sink). That's my theory anyway!

This is the one I have:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zalman-NC20...ie=UTF8&qid=1376805718&sr=8-1&keywords=NC2000

EDIT: the cooler's still going strong since 2008, so lots of longevity, just use cans of compressed air to clean out the dust from the cooler every few months.

 

At the moment I'm using my friends ZM-NC1000 and I have to say that I really am not satisfied with it! I have been using it with 3 different laptops and in my humble opinion it doesn't make any difference.
Plus it is so hard to clean up.. So I'll be going for the U3 cooler soon.

 

Yep, it's not an opinion if you know that it's not making a difference, so it's obviously not working for you, but could be because it's the small version that is applicable only for 12 and 15 inch laptops. I find them easy to clean with a can of compressed air.

 

Yeah, I guess it makes a difference if it's a bigger version, but I have been using this cooler with a 15" and a 13" laptop as well and still I don't find the temp drop I'm looking for. It's not bad, but I think you can get a better option (in the face of the U3 cooler).
It's very sturdy - I'll give it that; build quality seems a loot better than the U3 ones, but we shall see

Never tried cans of compressed air, maybe I'll

 

Hehe i ordered the U3 should arrive tomorrow, watched the video you posted and i'm convinced. don't think i'll find much better. I'm still worried about the dust as my room is old and dusty a little.. Can i not damage the fans when blowing with compressed air? I did that one time on my graphic card in my desktop and a slice of the fan broke.

 

You just have to be careful when you blow your fans out and not use extremely high pressure air. Another feature of the u3 is that you can modify it with different fans if you choose. I might get some 120mm super quiet high pressure fans at some point and see if I get even better performance while also bring super quiet.

Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013) using Tapatalk 4

 

Getting a Dell Alienware M17x Extreme Cooler - Quad Akasa Fan cooling, gonna let you guys know.

 

Got the cooler. Well it looks a bit homemade as if they have used a IKEA laptop stand and drilled 4 holes correctly for an alienware and siliconed 4 fans underneath it.
BUT the akasa fans run extreemely silently. Will note back how good it works
Need to repaste and close all airgaps internally, do a new test of heat, then turn on the fans below.

 

Guys i'm very happy with the notepal U3 But anyone else having issues, my fans keep running even when i shut down my laptop?

 

That is because it gets power from the USB port. You can disable this in bios

 

You cant pretty much use idle temperature as a measure.
If tinkering with HWinfo you can do pretty much the same. You dont have full fan speed aka fan help until way above idling temp.

How good the cooler is you can only compare when fans in computer runs full on and the cooler helps. T
Mine does a terrific job cooling the CPU and GPU, but it tilts the computer a bit much for normal usage.
During gameplay it doesnt matter much for me so i use it then and for benching normally.

The perhaps biggest plus on a cooler is that it will stop plenty dust and you dont have to open your computer all the time to clean it.
Lets face it, low from table and high speed on internal fans sucks in everything.

 

Any update? Am interested in a review since I looking at the same one for my A17.

 

Well from using this for a while now.

Pros:
What it does good is cooling the computer. It is also quite quiet.
Another very positive, and the reason i bought this is that it runs from the wall socket via an adapter since my dual GPU and OC'ed CPU uses quite a bit of my total power and I didnt want to add load to it. (you can probably do this with any tray using an 5V USB socket charger, like some cellphones have now with removable cable)
Since it is about same size as the computer you can pretty much carry it inside the backpack since the computer fits on the inside of the tray when turning it around.


Cons:
Problem is that it is just a bit to small for the 17 inch, making the computer fans miss slightly on the tray-fans. To get maximum cooling I have to move front end of the computer up on the front edge of the tray to move it slightly towards me and hit the openings better. I only need this for heavy bench-marking.
Add that it makes an angle for the computer when using it. I can feel it in my arms when using it a bit much during gaming etc, since its not sitting at an angle im used to work with, making your wrists bent backwards when using it. Its typically left hand that is the problem since gaming makes you move the right to the mouse.
Also, and i dont know if other pads have this, but you cant use a filter for the air. It would not ruin cooling much since the 3 akasa fans can easily give enough air for the computer, and the fans probably could move air through filters to. This now makes my computer take in more dust since the akasa fans again moves more air than my inboard fans.
It does not look to fancy.

 

Thanks for the review.