Friday, June 27, 2014

Laptop Cooling Pads

Why Use A Laptop Cooling Pad?

If you use a laptop computer on a regular basis, you're bound to have noticed just how quickly these things can become uncomfortably hot - especially if you use it balanced on your knee.

Apart from being uncomfortable to use, the excessive heating can reduce the working lifespan of your laptop. Heat is, pretty much, the arch enemy of all electrical and electronic devices. As a general rule of thumb, the hotter they get, the shorter their life.

Fortunately, it's fairly easy to address this (and solve the problem of your knee being toasted at the same time). You can use a laptop cooling pad - they cost just a few dollars, which is a small price to pay when you consider how much your laptop is worth - not to mention the data stores on it.

Different Types of Laptop Cooling Pads

There are two basic types of laptop cooling pads; passive and active.

Passive laptop cooling pads don't use fans. They tend to be flat, hard surfaces for you to rest your laptop on. The flat surface ensures that there is enough space for air to circulate beneath the laptop and to get into the cooling vents unimpeded.

These are usually fine for laptops of lower size and power - or even for more powerful laptops which aren't used for long periods at a time.

No fans means no drain on your battery - and no noise. Passive laptop coolers are often small enough and light enough to fit in your laptop bag so that you can take it with you wherever you go.

Active laptop cooling pads use a fan, or fans, to force additional air into the inlet cooling vents of your laptop. Power is normally supplied to the fan via a spare usb port on your laptop.

These can really lower the temperature of your laptop, and that will make it operate more efficiently (faster) and last longer.

Don't be tempted to go for a cheap foreign import. You'll often find that the fans are a bit noisy - and they tend not to last very long. If, on the other hand, you pick a well known, quality brand, you'll probably find that the fans make a lot less noise than those fitted internal to the laptop itself.

Here's a short list of some of the best laptop cooling pads on the market right now: