Coming from someone who has bought many of these, I never really noticed a positive change in temperatures out of most of them. Maybe 1 or 2 of the coolers actually lowered the temperatures, but only by a couple of degrees, really nothing to get excited about. Coolers in my opinion are good for three thing's - 1. Laptop elevation 2. Preventing heat from building up, while using on your lap 3. Preventing bottom laptop heat from getting hotter. Buy one if it's affordable and if you need it for the three thing's I listed above. Try to avoid the more expensive ones, They're not worth it.
Unless one is an idiot no. But if you obstruct the fan with bedding, carpet, your lap or anything else. And you can't remember not to do so. Then yes it'd be a big fat reminder that you're trashing your laptop & maybe even help a little.
I don't think the answer is an absolute yes or no, I would be inclined to say it depends on the environment. In the summer, temperatures in my apartment easily reach 30 degrees Celsius, and without air conditioning a cooling platform would certainly help if the computer is run for hours doing demanding tasks (games for example). I'm also convinced that either a small desktop fan or a room fan directed towards the notebook would be enough in very hot days. Last but not least temperature control in notebooks is meant to safeguard the the hard drive as well. I would also avoid using these plastic dust protectors for the keyboard as the keys themselves are indirect ventilating shafts dissipating the heat coming from the computer body.
It is definitely possible to run into heat problems like "palm rest gets annoyingly warm", "bottom gets too hot to rest on legs comfortably", etc. So when shopping for a notebook you can spend some time looking into the cooling aspects. Especially if you know you will be using the device in a warm climate, on your legs, you are sensitive to such things, etc. Good reviewers will actually take temperature measurements of palm rests, bottom, etc under various conditions. As for the "coolers", I've never tried the active kind but I did for awhile use the passive lap pad type. The later worked fairly well for keeping legs more comfortable, but was kind of awkward.
I prefer undervolting, it is much more effective and it is for free. I tried Zalman cooler for 50 bucks, it lowered temperature by 2 degrees, undervolting 10 to 30 (load/idle). My Lenovo E525 AMD A4-3300M had default voltage 1.1250V@1,9GHz at load 72C changed it to 0.9875V@2,0GHz at load 62C. It is nicely quiet during a common usage.
Sorry to rain on the parade of those definitive naysayers here! – it really depends on how efficient – and\or where the cooling fan is sited. I have an MSI laptop and the fan is located in a rather dumb place - the opposite end of the 'cooling' bar from the CPU. The effect of this is that my CPU often reaches 60+ celsius – despite me rarely using the laptop for more than 2 hours. So for me, a plugin Cooling Mat to assist the inbuilt fan is necessary (Also acts as a laptop elevator) In summer, (30+ temps) I actually use a small desktop fan as well! (I should add that I use my laptop as a 'desktop')
Certain games, for example, can overheat your laptop over time = crashes. You'll need some extra cooling, but it could just be ice packs under your laptop. I use a Cooler Master pad because it received good reviews. Ice packs are more effective, but you have to keep changing them. Another option: Go to your computer's Advanced Power Settings (Win 7) -> Processor Power Management -> Maximum Power State, and reduce those figures. They are set to 100% by default, yet I didn't notice a performance hit when I reduced them but my laptop stayed a bit cooler.
No... what really is necessary is to clean the dust from the heatsink and apply thermal grease. Using a good (not necessarily a expensive) cooler is definitely recommendable and a plus IMO.
I voted yes. I use two laptops. One is a sager gaming lap top. I has four fans on the bottom. When those fans run on high it does a good job of keeping it cool, but I still use a kalman cooler. I was care ful to be sure which direction the fans on the cooler blew air up to the laptop. This way the laptop fans are getting a positive air pressure. On my Think Pad, I don't use a cooler as it would be hard to carry it. But I've noticed sitting on a desktop it still gets warm. So my solution is to prop the sides up to let air get underneath it better. I've measured a ten degree temp drop at the fan exhaust by doing this. I think anything you do to help keep heat down, is worth it. Pete
Sometimes it can be. On an old Dell laptop, it would overheat and crash in summer with a particular game - despite cleaning out dust etc. A laptop cooler prevented the laptop from crashing. Fairly simple.
Also the use of a cooler (in other words, the lower temperature) will benefit the use of the turbo boost feature that is part of i5/i7 CPU's...
Honestly, not sure. I still have not decided whether it's necessary. I have bought them before but usually after a couple times of use, I found them to be a bit of an inconvenience and so mostly left them to dust. Some can even be 'noisy'. This thread is making me question myself whether I should take them out again....
I don't have any need for them. If your laptop runs too hot without one, probably the cooling vents are clogged up with dust which restricts airflow, and need to cleaned .
i saw it recommended on the internets when searching for ways to keep my laptop cooler during gaming. it worked for me, but I suppose different laptops may react differently. just use something like Core Temp, or another temperature measuring app to test it for yourself.
Also some laptops have better cooling than others and at the ends it depends on how hard you push your CPU and what is the TDP of the CPU.
I purchased the cheapest Zalman Laptop cooler available. Yes, the cooler probably wasn't necessary, but I purchased it anyway.
