Laptop cooling pad

[donline]

Hi folks, I was wondering if you could recommend a cooling pad for my 15" Asus laptop?

I'm not looking anything too fancy, just a product that is reasonably priced, quiet and effective.

So far, the following one has been recommended to me:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Master-R9-NBC-U2PT-GP-Aluminium-Moveable/dp/B00EB31P74/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1464011260&sr=8-3&keywords=cooler+master+notepal+u2

Are there any specific brands or products you can recommend?

Also, how exactly do cooling pads work? Say, if the air in the room is warm to begin with, isn't the cooling pad just blowing that same air up into the laptop, or is there some cooling during the process?

Thanks!

 

[athurman]

I have used several of these and I agree that the CoolerMaster are the best. They are relatively quiet (all of them that support active cooling have fans, so like computer fans, you will hear them. CoolerMaster uses good quality ball bearing fans, so OK. Yes, if the ambient air is warm, then it is blowing that same air, however circulating is better than not circulating (think ceiling fan: not as good as air conditioning, but better than stale warm air). I am not aware of products for laptops that use other cooling technologies like Peltier or water cooling. One thing to consider is rather than using the computer's own USB ports to power it, you could use an external USB charger (it's like having someone else fan you rather than you fanning yourself, you're not using your own energy to do it). The downside is that makes it a bit less portable for your laptop.

 

[donline]

I have used several of these and I agree that the CoolerMaster are the best. They are relatively quiet (all of them that support active cooling have fans, so like computer fans, you will hear them. CoolerMaster uses good quality ball bearing fans, so OK. Yes, if the ambient air is warm, then it is blowing that same air, however circulating is better than not circulating (think ceiling fan: not as good as air conditioning, but better than stale warm air). I am not aware of products for laptops that use other cooling technologies like Peltier or water cooling. One thing to consider is rather than using the computer's own USB ports to power it, you could use an external USB charger (it's like having someone else fan you rather than you fanning yourself, you're not using your own energy to do it). The downside is that makes it a bit less portable for your laptop.

Thanks athurman

I'm still not quite understanding why making the air move helps without any change in temperature?

That's a good idea with the external USB charger. Do you know which one I would need? I've been looking on Amazon but there's many different ones and I wasn't sure which spec would be required.

 

[athurman]

OK. Think of it this way. If you are on vacation in a tropical setting and you are in the shade but the air temperature is high, would you feel better with or without a fan blowing on you? The ways of transmitting heat include conduction, convection, & radiation (basic thermodynamics). In this case, you are moving the fluid (air) and thus taking with it SOME of the heat energy.

For a USB charger, the requirements of just two fans is not that high, so you probably have a few USB chargers hanging around that would do the job. Too much power would just not be used, so no problem if you had a higher power USB charger available. The other thing in your use case you should consider is that you will need a long enough cord to plug it into a wall, so maybe getting a USB extension (male to female adapter of sufficient length, say 6 feet, to make it practical. Hope that helps!!!

 

[donline]

OK. Think of it this way. If you are on vacation in a tropical setting and you are in the shade but the air temperature is high, would you feel better with or without a fan blowing on you? The ways of transmitting heat include conduction, convection, & radiation (basic thermodynamics). In this case, you are moving the fluid (air) and thus taking with it SOME of the heat energy.

For a USB charger, the requirements of just two fans is not that high, so you probably have a few USB chargers hanging around that would do the job. Too much power would just not be used, so no problem if you had a higher power USB charger available. The other thing in your use case you should consider is that you will need a long enough cord to plug it into a wall, so maybe getting a USB extension (male to female adapter of sufficient length, say 6 feet, to make it practical. Hope that helps!!!

Thanks athurman

That makes sense now with how the cooling pad works

I'm still not sure with the USB charger side of things... would this be something like this?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-2-Port-Charger-PowerIQ-Technology-Samsung-Motorola/dp/B016LPMFUA/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1464449418&sr=8-6&keywords=USB+wall+charger
(it only mentions phones, tablets in the description)

Or perhaps something like this (USB hub with 10W power adapter)?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-Ultra-Slim-Adapter-Charger-Included/dp/B0192LVM86/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1464449617&sr=8-2&keywords=anker+usb+hub+with+power

Thanks again and have a good weekend