Notebook Coolers
Vantec LapCool, Continued
Conclusion
Both notebook coolers go about their actual duty quietly and reliably. If you place your laptop on soft surfaces (the sofa, a pile of paper), they really do let you avoid those pesky heat build-ups.
But the Vantec's power supply makes it unsuitable for couch use. That begs the question: what sense does such a cooling solution make for desktop use? Basically, both of these products reflect the completely avoidable fact that many notebooks are constructed fairly disastrously from a thermal point of view.
Notebook cooling solutions may just find a market here in the medium term, as many desktop replacement notebooks operate in the upper zone of thermal acceptability. Our recommendation: don't even consider a "hot" notebook in the first place.
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Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.