Lap Top Cool Pad

I got this Cool Pad for my Lap Top here are some pics. I shot it with a Lazar Thermometer and it runs 10-12° cooler whit the Cool Pad. The fans can be turned on or off and can be put any where the small holes are. The speed adjustable too. Runs off a USB plug which has a female plug on the end so you do not lose a USB connection. I have the power (for 110 volt) Velcroed to the bottom (so it can be removed), and the extra wire is strapped with Velcro also.
Kim

So can it sit on your lap? If I'm setting it on my lap I'll use a pillow on my lap to keep the heat off of me.

Doc said:

I'll use a pillow on my lap to keep the heat off of me.

Click to expand...

Doc, my laptop overheated because of that when I was in the hospital a few years ago. I set it on the bed instead of the table when I took a nap. The fan in the bottom pulls cooling air into the body of the laptop. Setting it on the pillow blocked the airflow. I was lucky, after it cooled down it started working again.

Jim

I've been thinking of buying that same thing, Guts...I saw one at Walmart the other day. It's so warm here in the summer, and I did lose a hard drive to overheating a few years ago. I set it on a ventilated platform now, but I think a cooler would extend the life of the hard drive, especially in the tropics.

Doc it will set on your lap but it depends on the size one you have I have a large one. They have different sizes for the size of Lap Top.

Karen I looked at a lot of them before I got this one. I liked this one the best because of the the way it could be set up / moving the fans around and price was 30 bucks. do a search (got mine at Amazon) "Cooler Master" here is there link, but shop around if you want one.

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6671


http://www.coolermaster.com/category.php?category_id=16

One of the fans in MY laptop cooler has stopped working.

So I'll be looking to replace it after the holidays.

We recently got our first laptop and netbook, I'm surprised how much heat comes out of these things.

The netbook has vents only on it's sides so it can be set on the lap, or anything as long as the side vents aren't covered. Not counting for any insulation effects.

OTOH, the LAPtop has vents all over the bottom, no way I would set it on anything other than a hard flat surface, unless there is some form of elevation for the unit or cutouts for the vents.


I look at 'add ons' and wonder how much an improvement they actually are and if there is any real benifit, in this case, over simply carrying something to maintain engineered clearances.

Overall, and in (very very short), I don't see this doing more than supplying fresh air to the bottom of the laptop, which is what the internal fans do if the vents are not blocked. I'll save my money.

I suppose there is a percieved need for an apparatus to keep a laptop cool, I heard something about a new malady called LapTop Leg (?), damage being done to peoples laps by long term exposure to the heat generated by a laptop. Duh. Seems to me all thatws needed to avoid this is not setting it directly on the lap via a piece of 1/4 inch ply or even a cookie sheet.

Wart
When I first got this I did a test with the laptop playing a Netflix movie sitting on the cool bad no fans on turned it over and shot it with a laser thermometer. I found the hottest spot and then the next hottest spot and then the third hottest spot (this is a three fan model) I marked them with a piece of white tape and turned it upside down then put the fans in the center of each mark or as close as I could to the hot spots I had marked. after running it again with the fans on. I performed the same test running for the same time and shot it with the infrared laser monitor. As said in my first post it was running 10 to 12° cooler. Where the laptop sets is flat and covered with holes as you can see from the picture, and it's also made out of aluminum which has good thermal qualities. The main reason I posted this was; I had looked at quite a few cool pads and found this one in my opinion to be the best one with adjustable fans adjustable speed running off a USB which as a male and female end. I understand that this is not for everyone. I just thought I'd post it to let you folks on this board see something different. I searched around online looking for cool pads and like the features of this one. They also have a to fan version for the 15 inch laptop and a smaller one for the small notebooks. I think my test with the infrared laser thermometer proved what it was capable of. Thank you Wart for giving your thoughts about the cool pad, It's not for everyone but if you doc your laptop in the same place it just takes one connection look it up. I do agree that you should not put your laptops on your lap especially if you have a blanket that could cover the intake or exhaust of your laptop. I like your idea of the cookie sheet, good tip !!! I like it.
Kim

Wart said:

We recently got our first laptop and netbook, I'm surprised how much heat comes out of these things.

The netbook has vents only on it's sides so it can be set on the lap, or anything as long as the side vents aren't covered. Not counting for any insulation effects.

OTOH, the LAPtop has vents all over the bottom, no way I would set it on anything other than a hard flat surface, unless there is some form of elevation for the unit or cutouts for the vents.


I look at 'add ons' and wonder how much an improvement they actually are and if there is any real benifit, in this case, over simply carrying something to maintain engineered clearances.

Overall, and in (very very short), I don't see this doing more than supplying fresh air to the bottom of the laptop, which is what the internal fans do if the vents are not blocked. I'll save my money.

I suppose there is a percieved need for an apparatus to keep a laptop cool, I heard something about a new malady called LapTop Leg (?), damage being done to peoples laps by long term exposure to the heat generated by a laptop. Duh. Seems to me all thatws needed to avoid this is not setting it directly on the lap via a piece of 1/4 inch ply or even a cookie sheet.

Click to expand...

One of my laptop pc's (the one before THIS one) has crapped and crashed for the blasted 2nd time!

This one had crapped earlier in the year, last spring. i just got it back after it was restored back to factory status (like new).

Took the other one to a firend's house. He looked at it, and it won't reboot!! We've come to the realization that the hard drive has fried again. So either the hard drive will be replace or I weight that against the cost of a new computer, which will be a desktop if I get one.

Slightly longer version:

Unless the heat generating component is in direct physical contact with the case making the case a heat sink cooling the case will have little (if any) effect on the temperature of the component.

Thats why having a heavy aluminum grating for the laptop to sit on really isn't a factor (in cooling, makes for a better place to sit the machine though) unless, once again, the grating is in direct contact with the bottom of the case. And the case would have to be in contact with the heat generating component. From what I can tell case mounting of components isn't a standard practice.

So blowing air on the bottom of the case only cools the bottom of the case.

Cooling the case makes the case able to absorb more heat (and radiate less heat). But cooling surroundings does not increase an items ability to radiate more heat. Far as I know the only way to make an item radiate more heat is to make the item hotter.

This is a long way around to say that cooling the case by 15 degrees does not make the inside of the case 15 degrees cooler. And the stuff you're trying to cool, the hard drive and CPU (ie), may not be one degree cooler, if any.

Measuring the cases temp is not an indicator of what is happening inside the case.

Brings us to convection, air currents inside the case. Moving air through the case is where benefit would be realized. Particurarly air movement through the case in the areas of heat sensitive components. Fart as I can see simply shooting air on the bottom of the case is not going to accomplish this.

Not to say mounting fans under a platform is wholly a bad idea. If the fans were mounted a d sealed to the laptop case in such a manner as to assist in feeding air to the inlets and fan, and to assist in air extraction from the outflow vents, I think that would make a real difference. Building an inclined holder with cut outs and fans is what I plan to do with this laptop.

Darn, just occured to me I could have simply said: Take a house fan, point it at your desktop PC, how much difference do you thin k it's making.? Same theory.

I looked through the Cool thingies website. I may have missed their hard data stating actual measurements of component temperatures with and without their gizmos. I hate to say lack of evidence is evidence, but I think if these things made an actual difference in the operating temps of the actual components they would be touting it. Instead I think they are allowing perception and intuitive reasoning do their marketing for them.

I look at this laptop and I am amazed. I think I couldn't fit the 320 gig HD from the PC in this thing even with the drive stuck into the lid. but they fit a 500 gig inside. Somehow. Same with the mother board. Makes for a nice wrist warmer.