Does its job wonderfully, but chews up laptop rubber pads
Written: May 23 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cools very well.
Blue light power indicator
You don't lose a USB port from connector.
Cons: It chews up rubber pads with ease.
Short power cable.
Fan needs jiggling out-of-the-box.
The Bottom Line: It really works in cooling your computer and preventing the CPU fan from being an annoyance.
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| tokar's Full Review: Antec NoteBook Cooler 75004 |
I bought this because I like using my laptop in bed, but the laptop gets so hot sometimes that it will just shut itself off.
I bought this for $15 at Staples when it was on sale, and it has been a well spent $15. It keeps my laptop MUCH cooler than before, my laptop never shuts off while in bed, and the CPU fan is rarely on full speed (which is very loud mind you).
You get the unit and it appears to have no cables, and looks like it takes only batteries since there is a compartment that is capped off similar to appliances which are battery operated (such as CD players and radios). Housed in this compartment, though, is the USB DC power cable. The cable is almost 18" long (if you include the connectors, about 16" without. It is of decent length, but I can already see that the rubber shielding is starting to part from the USB end of the cable, exposing the cable inside. This is what you see with cables which are too short and get jerked around a lot.
The DC connector is about 2mm in diameter, while the USB connector has on one end a male (which goes into the computer) and a female connection on the other (so you don't lose a USB port), very nice.
There is a bright blue light on the unit which lets you know when the unit is getting power. It is VERY bright and can illuminate a dark room. Annoying to some, I suppose. I don't mind it.
The unit has two fans, one blows and one sucks. Haha! The unit also has two speeds, low and high, which are controlled by a simple switch which goes left and right. Obviously the fans on high are louder than when they are low. But the sound from the unit is not as bad as a CPU fan, something which sounds like an airplane engine.
Now, when I turned the unit on for the first time one of the fans did not work. I noticed that it was placed a little higher than the one that was working. So I stuck a paper clip in there to push the fan down and it started working. Now, I wouldnt have mentioned this if this was a unique case, but when I mentioned this to my friend who also has the unit he said he experienced the same thing. So in short, if one of the fans does not work, just use something to jiggle it to make it work.
The last thing that I must mention are the holes. There are all these holes and it looks all great, but they are very sharp on the edges. If I made a knife out of the sides of these holes I think I could cut through some bread with some effort. I don't think they are sharp enough to cut your fingers, that is not my concern. They are sharp enough to chew up those rubber pads on the bottom of the laptop. Hey, if you lost all your rubber pads over the months/years, then forget I ever mentioned this (as is the case with one of my laptops). But if your pads are something you treasure then read on. I was playing around with the unit in the first few days and I notice all these little pieces in the holes...I had no clue what they were, but they were very thin and very smooth. It wasn't until I randomly felt the rubber pads that I found out what they were. The holes literally shave the pads. It is horrible.
In the near future I am going to have to call HP to get a set of pads to replace these ones that get shaved, and maybe find something to cover them in the future...electrical tape or something.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tokar
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Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 1 member
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