Antec USB-Powered Notebook Cooler

I usually use my laptop in bed and play World of Warcraft which can make my laptop pretty warm. I've had a graphics card burn out on me already and got it replaced.

Anyways, I bought this because I needed some extra cooling power. The lower left hand corner of my laptop can get pretty warm because there's some hardware in that part. Now, it stays pretty cool and comfortable to lay my palm on. (FYI, I have a Lenovo Ideapad).

I also have a MacBook Pro (the old one with just dual core). That one had some serious heating issues. This laptop cooler really helped with that. It doesn't randomly shut off after running because my system isn't overheating.

Some things to note about this is that the fan can be somewhat ... humming loud. It's not annoying and probably no louder than your average laptop fan that is built in. It is powered by USB and that has a USB port so you're not sacrificing a port to plug this in. It has two settings, HI and LO. HI is great for gaming and such on your laptop. LO is great if it's standing idle or you're just doing some light computing (office work etc).

There are I believe, two fans inside. One on the left and one on the right. Always cool air (of course). However, the ventilation holes all over allows the hot air to vent out. The pad itself never gets warm, not even a bit.

The late 2008 MacBook Pro's tend to run hot. I use my model (2.53 GHz with the 9600GT enabled) mostly in clamshell mode with the Apple LED Cinema Display. In this configuration, the fan used to run almost constantly above 3000 RPM. While CPU temps stayed the same, the bottom enclosure and GPU temps decreased between 3 and 6 degrees C when sitting on top of the Antec. The cooler is quiet even on high, and 4000 RPM with cooler is quieter than 6000 RPM without cooler.

The most noticeable difference was running X-Plane. Before this cooler, the fan would spin up to 6200 RPM (max) almost immediately after the application loaded. With the cooler underneath, even after extended X-Plane use, the fan stayed around 4000 RPM. That's good enough for me.

The one complaint I have is the direction of airflow. I think it would be more effective if the air were to blow up out of the unit instead of it being sucked down into it. I tried reversing the fan (took the thing apart) but there must be a diode built into each fan as reversing red/black failed to spin the fans at all.

I purchased this product from Amazon after reading favorable reviews that the cooler does a decent job of keeping the laptop from overheating, and seeing as it was under $30, I figured that it might be a great bargain.

I soon found out that all the reviews were really too good to be true. The problem with my Compaq Presario CQ50-210US that I purchased in July was that it would begin to overheat after 30 minutes. Not only did this make gaming an impossible experience for me, but completing any other task on may laptop: say web browsing, became a rather assiduous task.

But this is not a rant about my laptop; I'm simply giving you the background of my situation. So what would you do if you were in my shoes after having spent $700 on a notebook computer that becomes literally unusable after 30 minutes of activity? Well, look for a reasonably priced cooler, of course!

I usually trust Amazon.com ratings, especially when over 300 people seem to be able to come to a consensus on rating this product 4 stars. I bought this cooler, and I could not have been more disappointed.

Now, the question everyone wants to know: does it cool your notebook? That's the wrong question to be asking. Though this statement may seem paradoxic, keeping your laptop cool and keeping it from overheating are two completely different things. A notebook is perfectly usable at normal temperature or even if it's slightly hot, and all I was looking for was something to keep my laptop from overheating so I could prolong my activity for at least an hour. But nope, it didn't live up to that standard. It did lengthen the time it took for my notebook to get really hot -- by maybe 20 or at most 25 minutes.

All I can say is that I am sorely disappointed with this product. The reason I give it 2 stars is because it's inexpensive and may work better on non-HP/Compaq notebooks. If you choose to buy this cooler, just remember that it's not the best cooler, and it's well worth spending $20 or $30 more to buy a cooler that actually does its job.

Works great, just as advertsed. If you want to extend the life of your laptop get this!

My Toshiba laptop would not stay on for more than short periods of time. I suspected it might be getting too hot. I read some reviews on coolers, and thought this one sounded good, and the price was reasonable. Since I've been using this cooler, my notebook has not shut off prematurely at all. It is not uncommon for this computer to be on 24/7.
The one thing I didn't care for was the blue power on light. It was so bright that it was very distracting. A couple layers of black electrical tape dimmed it enough to not be bothersome, yet still be visible.