Cooling Your Laptop, or Your Lap?

A number of companies cooling pads that are supposed to reduce the heat of the laptop. You put these pills in a laptop, and in general, a connected USB cable to send power to a fan, which draws heat from the computer.


Basic Antec cooling pad.
The idea is that if you can cool a laptop will last longer. In theory, that makes sense, the heat destroys the electronics, and laptops are prone to running hot. The only problem is: It is difficult to find evidence supporting the claim.

Antec, which makes power supplies and computer accessories, recently introduced three new models to its line of laptop cooling pads, which will also help prolong the life of a laptop. But when I asked the company for the evidence supporting this idea, Veronica Feldmeier, a spokesman for the company, not quoted. Instead, she sent me a document that merely repeated the statement - that a cooling device will also help prolong the life of a laptop battery.

Belkin, which makes similar products, and makes a similar claim about its usefulness, did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Sheila Watson, spokeswoman for Hewlett Packard, said that "although we do not consider laptop cooling pads as needed, some users like to use from the point of view of convenience." Colin Smith, a spokesman for Apple, I went to a document available on the website of the company, recommending that users put their laptops on flat surfaces, instead of pillows or other soft surfaces, such as knees.

Kyle Wiens, iFixit co-founded a company known for its tear product called Apple - the dismantling of the new products to explore their dell laptop batteries depths - said in an interview that the laptop runs cooler, less often moves the fan with what the aging of the fan. To replace a fan yourself, Mr. Wiens charges $ 50 to $ 75 for parts. However, while his entire office runs on Apple laptops, no one uses a cooling device, he said.

Ken Colburn, the founder of Data Doctors, computer repair and data recovery company in Tempe, Arizona, said his company had "evidence of heat from the surface with different products that claimed to cool laptops and found none of them had a real impact. "He tested several models of Antec, he said, and found that they reduced the temperature of two different laptops around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. But that does not mean that the laptop will last longer, he said.

"The main reason to buy these devices is in the comfort of the user," said Colburn.

Meanwhile, new cooling pads are the Antec Mini for $ 15, and of basic (just a bracket with holes), $ 20, and the designer, for $ 25. To update the legs may be a small price to pay. Or, you can always save your money and put your laptop on a table. Anyway, the laptop goes to live ordinary lives, and nothing else.