Today at Staples I saw a product called a Chill Mat, upon which you put your laptop. It has a fan that dissipates heat from your computer, and therefore helps to keep your CPU from heating up. It also increases your battery life.
That’s what the sales rep said. My question: Is this product for real or not? I think it costs ~$39.00
My brother has one fo these, or one like it. I imagine it just helps to cool down the case of the laptop and move the hot air away from it and cool air towards it. I mean, if your laptop regularly overheats and shuts down or something you’ve got bigger problems.
The only way I can imagine it extening battery life is if you have it plugged into the wall, and your laptop doesn’t need to run its internal fan. But if you’ve got it plugged into the wall, you can just plug you laptop into the wall, and if you’ve got it plugged into your laptop it’ll drain the battery faster… :smack:
So yeah, I’d give it about the same rating as a solar powered flashlight, sure it works, but why bother.
I just recently bought one, and it is extremely effective. If you use your laptop on your lap often, and your laptop heats up after prolonged use, you will want one of these. It keeps my laptop much cooler during prolonged use.
I bought the Targus PA248U.
I use the unpowered iLap. It holds the laptop off your lap so the heat can dissipate. Works great: my lap stays comfortable and the laptop doesn’t get as hot. Dunno if it’s extending the battery life tho’…
Thank you for your input, folks. Decided I’d get the one xash linked to at amazon.
(I think my $39.95 price in the OP was erroneous. $29.95 is probably more like it, and amazon beats that.)
I bought myself recently a laptop cooler with two fans, but I only paid 20 Euros (roughly 20 Dollars), so look for different models before you spend 39 Dollars.
But yes, it works at cooling the laptop better, and thus prolongs CPU life and battery life, too, because high temps. (and it can get very hot in normal laptops, esp. if the ambient temp. is already warm) lower the life expectancy of the battery and all other computer components. (You should also remove the battery when you have it plugged into the power outlet, to avoid the heat and unnecessary charging, which is also not good for you battery - but you probably know that already.)
Next time I buy myself a laptop in a few years, I hope watercooling systems - that are now common as DIY kits for PCs - will be commonplace for the standard notebooks. (I’m also hoping the promised fuel cell -which burns pure alcohol and has the same size as the battery, to run the laptop where there is no power to recharge the battery - comes soon to the market.)
Take it back. Based on the reviews at amazon.com,
I bought the aluminum one with 2 fans.
My SO uses the same one that Xash linked to. It makes a huge difference in the temp of the outside of the laptop case. Without it, the case becomes to warm to hold. With it, it’s just slightly above room temp.
I don’t know much about battery life vs operation temp, but I do know a lot about capacitors. For the larger capacitors in a computer, the rule of thumb is that every increase of 10°C decreases the life by 1/2. I’ve worked in the industry for 12 years, and used to work for one of the larger manufacturers of that kind of capacitor. Heat is a HUGE issue, and too many computer component manufacturers (ie motherboard or video card) use the cheapest components they can find.
I have no doubt that what you say is true. I was going to get the unit xash recommended, but I ended up buying the one at…
…because after looking around I found the complaints people made about the other one — it’s made of plastic, the power cord snaps off easily and the things tends to fall apart. Everyone who bought the sturdier aluminum one was a lot happier, it seemed.
The theory is the same for both units. One just lasts longer.