Introduction

With notebook shipments continuing to increase, it’s only a matter of time before the scale tips and more notebooks are sold than desktops.

With the increased availability of powerful CPUs in a small package, having a laptop doesn’t necessarily mean working with a slow(er) machine. While the power usage of these portable processors is kept low to provide longer battery life, they still give of quite a bit of heat.

The need for extra notebook cooling is twofold. The most obvious is to reduce the heat produced by the laptop, preventing skin burn, secondly, by reducing the operating temperature of the CPU, the internal fan will spin slower and thus make your notebook less noisy. The last depends very much on what fan is used inside your laptop and also what fans are installed in the notebook cooler… if the cooler adds more noise than it reduces, it’s not really helping.

In our article today we take a closer look at seven different products, some have similar design, while others are quite unique in form and function.



Ordered by weight we present you with the following test candidates:



Test Setup and Methodology

The test setup consists of an Acer laptop with the following specs: Acer Aspire 9423WSMiB (C2D-T5500 1.66Ghz/17"/2GB/160GB/DVDRW/VU)



With an IR thermometer we measured two areas of the laptop:

Area A: the enter key, temperature of this area was hottest during load tests, the temperature here was pretty much on par with the rest of the keyboard, also the palm rest next to the touchpad was within a few degrees of A.

Area B: exhaust temperature of the CPU/GPU cooling, the fan exhausts hot air at this end, we measured the temperature of the heatsink fins visible through the ventilation holes.

We used Intel Thermal Analysis Tool to load the two Cores of the CPU, and measure maximum Core temperature.



Each laptop cooler will change the angle of your laptop, we took a picture and eye height to let you see how the angle changes with every cooler installed.

Onto the first candidate ->

Spire PacificBreeze

The Spire PacificBreeze is very compact and lightweight product. Weighing in at only ~250 grams you can take it along without it dragging you down.

Build around 2x70mm fans which pull cool air inside the plastic housing, it pushes cool air under the laptop, its design and size allows for use on different size laptop, 17” was no issue.

This is the top of the cooler, the fans will remain visible during operation, you can also see the air vents at the front of the unit:



The bottom features anti slip rubber feet :



The rear side of the PacificBreeze features 2x USB 2.0 ports, just hook up the included pass-through USB cable and the fans have power. The speed is set using the switch in the middle.



Installed the laptop is at a small incline, you also feel the cool air passing under the laptop towards the front.



At the rear the fans illuminate, even in clear daylight:

Vantec LapCool 5

The LapCool 5 is but one of Vantec many notebook accessories, the unit reviewed here is available in three different colors, red, blue and black.

Weighing in at ~350 gram this cooler is also quite compact and comes with no less than three USB 2.0 ports.



Two fans blow cool air onto the bottom of your laptop, while rubber feet at both sides make sure the LapCool 5 remains in place.



On one side you get all the connectors, Vantec allows you to power the unit with either a small USB connector or power plug. (both cables included)



The other side of the unit has the fan speed controller, a rheobus which allows you to fine tune the speed of the fans:



The low profile of the LapCool 5 keeps your laptop only slightly tilted forward. With 17” laptop, access to the fan control will be harder.

Antec Notebook Cooler

The aptly named Antec Notebook Cooler is our last compact unit in the roundup; it slightly larger as the previously mentioned Vantec and Spire models, but still has a rather small footprint.

Weighing in at 682 gram it becomes borderline heavy to carry around with your laptop; its design is different from the other laptop coolers so far, which tilt your laptop in order to blow cool air under it.

With the Antec model your whole laptop has to sit on the cooler, with no forward tilt action to speak of.

The topside if covered with aluminum for better contact (and heat transfer) so state the specifications; but since most laptop have rubber feet, not a lot of direct contact to be had…



The bottom side reveals the cut-out for two fans, which draw in cool air and blow it towards the laptop sitting on top.



The USB power cable is a pass-through model, allowing you to keep using that USB port; the cable is stored inside the Notebook Cooler:



The power plug and fan speed selector are hidden on the other side, the fan switch is very small and hard to reach when using a larger laptop.



No tilting with this cooler, so your whole laptop sits higher:



When hooked up a bright blue Led indicates that the cooler has power:

Sunbeamtech Notepal

The Notepal from Sunbeamtech is an all aluminum cooler with a large surface area. Available in silver or black color and weighs in at 1138 gram.

The Notepal features a brushed aluminum look with nice company logo in the right bottom corner;



At the back a strip of anti-slip rubber and also rubber feet; two fans are visible here too, which blow cool air under your notebook.



The left side of the unit is unused, just empty space:



At the right side you have two USB ports and fan speed selector, which also serves as the on/off switch. The two LEDs help indicate what fan speed setting was selected.



While designed for 15”, the Notepal works ok with larger laptops, the keyboard is tilted forward, but still comfortable to use.



The ridge at the front which helps prevent the laptop from sliding off, is too high and covers up the audio connectors on this Acer laptop:

Zalman NC1000

The Zalman NC1000 is quite known, wide availability and product name carry far.

Weighing in at 1190 gram the NC1000 is build for 15” laptop size; it has a heftier price tag, averaging between €35~40. Available in brushed aluminum silver and black look.



The bottom reveals rubber feet and two fans that circulate air:



Left side of the cooler is unused:



At the right side we find two USB ports, power button and fan speed controller:



Despite its 15” size; it can be used with 17” laptops. Your laptop is tilted forward, but less than with the Sunbeamtech Notepal.

Revoltec RNC-3000

First introduced at Cebit 2008 this year, the RNC-3000 is a 17” notebook cooler, the only model in our roundup with 3 fans installed actually!

Available in black and silver this unit is going on sale for ~€40; weighing in at 1381 gram, definitely not a lightweight!



The bottom reveals all the goodies, three fans, rubber anti-slip strips and two plastic containers.



No connections at the left side;



The action is on the right side, were we find two USB ports and the on/off switch. No possibility to adjust the speed of the fans on this model.



Powered by USB cable which is included and hidden in the right compartment:



The left compartment is empty but can be used to store an USB stick for example, as shown in the photo below:



The first full 17” notebook cooler in our roundup, quite a different view, the size matches up perfectly with the Acer. The front ridge is low enough to keep audio connections free.


(ignore the fingerprints, this was a showroom model from Cebit)

Zalman NC-2000

The most expensive unit in this roundup also weighs the most, at 1426 gram and €55~60 price tag the Zalman NC-2000 is the big brother of the NC-1000.

Also available in silver/black color it has a few different features compared to the older unit.

Looking at it from the front, the difference is hard to see, especially if you don’t put them next to each other so you can see the size difference.



The bottom is slightly different already though; yes again 2 fans and rubber feet:



But a hidden compartment is there now for the USB power cable, and the rear feet can be flipped outwards to increase the incline of the NC-2000.



On the left side Zalman put one USB 2.0 port:



The other is on the right side, next to the power button and fan speed controller:



The Acer fits perfectly on the NC-2000, in the photo below the default feet configuration was kept, with minimum tilt forward for the laptop:

Test Results

In our 24°C test room we ran a 40 minute burn-in test with the Acer laptop with each notebook cooler configured at different fan speeds, as well as turning the fan off.

To no surprise the results without extra cooling are worst, however they are not that far off some of the smaller coolers. Noise was measured at close distance of 5cm, the result room ambient noise was ~36dBA according to our dBA meter, with the laptop running the meter registered 37.8dBA;

So here are the results:



Exhaust temperature and Area A results are pretty much in line with the CPU load temperature; So better CPU temperature equals cooler palm rest too!

Temperature wise the Zalman NC-2000 prevails, performing better than the other notebook coolers by ~5°C. Also worthy of note is that the fans don’t always help much as you’ll see in the result chart, sometimes results without fans are better/on par compared to those with the fans running.

Almost all units cooled even with their “fans off”, except for the LapCool 5, but even with fan speed @ high that cooler doesn’t do much with the Acer.

The noisiest fans are the flashy blue LED lighted in the Spire Pacific Breeze, at 48.6dBA that unit is way too loud and even with the fan speed at low it remains too audible to be used in a quiet environment. The Zalman units remained very quiet, even with fans at high speed; the Sunbeamtech Notepal also did very well here. The Revoltec with 3 fans at full speed was only ~2dBA noisier, not very audible.

Conclusive Thoughts

Notebook cooling effectiveness will depend on your laptop size and model, we tested here with an Acer 17” model, if we use a different brand/model we’ll end up with a different result chart; so don’t rely on the temperature results too much here, unless you happen to have the exact same laptop.

The noise readings and laptop orientation of each cooler do play a repeatable role; noise wise the only trouble maker is the Spire PacificBreeze, even with the fans set to low they are too noisy; and in the off mode, you might as well just prop a book under the end of your laptop for the same cooling effect.




The Antec Notebook cooler is ideal for 15” size laptops, if you like the fact that your laptop will sit higher on your desk. With the 17” Acer that notebook cooler was ineffective and too small.

The LapCool 5 from Vantec didn’t do much good cooling wise; it does add 3 USB ports to your laptop which is a good thing and its fans don’t make too much noise. No matter the size of your laptop this unit will work. But it will depend on your laptop’s cooling layout how well it will cool.

Of the four aluminum coolers the Zalman NC-2000 sets itself apart in the cooling department; noise wise none of the units was noisy and even without active fans they did a good job of reducing CPU load temperatures. If we add price to the equation the Zalman NC-2000 becomes less interesting and the Sunbeamtech Notepal becomes our cooler of choice if you don’t have any in/out-put situation at the front of your laptop. The Revoltec RNC-3000 is quiet and affordable for being a 17” cooling solution; and with its brushed aluminum look rivals the Zalman units.

We can’t call out one winner, as each product has its benefits and drawbacks, also pure performance wise the results are directly related to what laptop you will be using; we hope the pictures, noise data and preliminary temperature results will help you decide which product is best for you.

We like to thank Antec, Zalman, Revoltec, Spire, Vantec and Sunbeamtech for letting us test their products; thank you for reading!