I'm lukewarm about the Antec Notebook Cooler.
Written: Nov 03 '09
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Pros: It did keep my computer somewhat cooler, you can buy it for very cheap.
Cons: Needs more and cooler air, noisy, some design flaws, broke after eight months.
The Bottom Line: R.I.P. Antec Notebook Cooler. I barely knew ye.
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| chelledun's Full Review: Antec Notebook Cooler |
I like nearly everything about my Dell Inspiron 1525 except for one thing - it gets extremely, inexplicably hot with more than a half hour's consecutive use. I have found this to be true with other Dell's I have owned as well and have attempted to solve the problem with a series of laptop coolers.
For the past eight months, until it inexplicably ceased functioning, I have been using the Antec Notebook Cooler in an attempt to meet my laptop cooling needs. In terms of both function and, apparently, longevity, I have found this cooler to be fairly mediocre and I won't be purchasing the same model again.
Nuts and Bolts
The Antec Notebook Cooler looks like pretty much every similar laptop cooling tray on the market except for some reason, it is shaped like a squiggle instead of a square. In other words, it doesn't cover the entire base of the laptop but sort of swoops in leaving open areas along each side. The entire top is covered with holes. It is designed to accommodate all standard sized laptops.
This cooler, like most notebook coolers, works via a USB cord which can be plugged into any port on a laptop. The other end is a small round plug which must be plugged into the cooler itself. When both ends are plugged in and the computer is turned on, the cooler's fans turn on automatically. I didn't realize it for a while, but this Antec model offers a high setting as well as a low one. I'm not sure why anyone would want to use the low setting when the goal is to keep the computer as slow as possible.
Mr_chelledun bought my Antec Notebook Cooler for me at Staples. I'm not exactly sure how much he paid, but I see it is now available for just $20.00 from Amazon.com.
My Experience
This product is intended primarily for use on a hard surface. However, I have also used it on my lap as I haven't yet found a product which is intended specifically for that purpose. During the eight months my laptop cooler was functioning, I used it an average of two to four hours per night.
My Antec Notebook Cooler performed moderately in terms of cooling. It performed best when the area immediately surrounding the cooler was kept wide open, leaving it able to circulate air freely. I could then feel the slightly cool air gently wooshing out of the holes on top and it did seem to slow the overheating process quite a bit. Still, after about an hour of use on either the table top or a lap, my laptop would become uncomfortably warm both on the top and bottom. I think this cooler should have generated a little more air, or a little cooler air, or both.
Aside from functionality, there were several very annoying things about this laptop cooler. First, for as little air flow as it generated, the cooler made a lot of noise. Mr_chelledun hated sitting next to me on the couch when I was using it because I would have to turn the TV volume up a notch or two to compensate for the whirring noise made by the fans. Second, the squiggly shape, while sort of cool-looking, did nothing to add stability to the computer sitting on top of it. Third, the USB connecter was rather crappy. The small round end that plugs into the laptop just never fit quite right and constantly cames unplugged.
Ultimately, the poorly crafted USB plug was my cooler's demise. Eventually and abruptly, the plug completely stopped staying plugged in, leaving the cooler unable to run. While I received some sort of warranty along with the product, I had misplaced it during the eight month lag. I was ready to move on to a new (and hopefully better) cooler anyway.
Overall . . .
I would not purchase another Antec Laptop Cooler. The cooling benefit provided by this product was simply too minimal to compensate for the noise, poor design, and various other annoyances associated with it.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): unknown
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