Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim Ultra-Slim Laptop Cooling Pad with 160mm Fan (R9-NBC-XSLI-GP),Black X-Slim

This item just arrived today. I had bought a different brand of laptop cooler from Amazon about a year and a half ago. Like this product, it had several hundred reviews and like this was also rated very high (about 4 1/2 stars overall). I tried to look for it but it appears that it's not available at Amazon anymore. I wasn't looking for because I wanted to buy another one. Quite the contrary I wanted to insert a product link and advise people NOT to buy it. It was much heavier and uncomfortable when sitting directly on my lap than this Cooler Master is. I've just plugged this in and right now am sitting in my recliner with the cooling pad in place. I'm truly amazed at how quiet the fan is and how comfortable it is. What's really great about it is that it's so thin that I can barely tell anything's added onto my laptop but it is working well. I know because I happen to be wearing shorts right now as I'm writing this review and it's literally cooling my legs! Another nice, and I think pretty common feature, is that while the cooler runs by plugging it into a USB port, you don't lose a port because the back of the USB plug that goes into the laptop is a USB slot and it works! I have a Canon CanoScan 4507B002 LiDE110 Color Image Scanner that I plugged into it and it immediately recognized and powered it. The scanner is powered solely by the computer's power through USB (i.e., it doesn't plug into a standard household AC power outlet) so the replacement port provided with this laptop cooler is a powered one. That wasn't the case with the previous laptop cooler I had. It did provide an additional USB port but it was not powered so it's use was limited. I have a Dell Inspiron N7010 (17R) laptop that I bought at Costco about two years ago maybe even three years ago, I don't remember for sure. I run Windows 7 Ultimate on it and absolutely love it because the monitor is outstanding High Definition but it runs HOT!!! Just a couple of weeks ago I bought a Crucial m4 512GB 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s with Data Transfer Kit CT512M4SSD2CCA for it to replace the original traditional hard drive that came with the computer and upgraded the RAM from 4 GB to 8 GB by buying two Kingston Technology 4 GB (1x4 GB Module) 1333MHz DDR3 PC3-10600 204-Pin SODIMM Memory for Select Dell Notebooks KTD-L3B/4G and taking out the two 2 GB RAM cards that came with the PC. All I can tell you is WOW, this computer is now a screamer. It's as though I bought a brand new computer that's running 10 times faster than the old one but paid 1/3rd the price of what I would have paid for a comparable new one. Indeed, it would be difficult to buy a comparable new one now because most upper end new Windows laptops are coming packaged with Windows 8. Getting off track there sorry. I thought that replacing the traditional hard drive with the Solid State Drive might help the laptop not run so darn hot, but it didn't make a difference. I don't know, maybe the extra RAM offset it. But it still runs really hot. I am extremely pleased with this cooler. It's simply the most comfortable laptop cooler I could ever imagine and if it continues to work a year from now as well as it's working right now, then, I think, like the New SSD & new RAM i just bought, it will one of the best laptop accessories I've purchased. Fear not though friends: if things go south (i.e., if this stops working as it should) I will come back and revise my review accordingly. One other thing to note: keep a price check on these items. I ordered this laptop cooler on 3/24/2013 for $20.99 from a merchant called "LLYtech" and it was "Fulfilled by Amazon" so because I'm an Amazon Prime customer I got free two day shipping. At the time of this writing (3/27/13) it's selling from a merchant named "Galactics" for $21.01 and is not currently Fulfilled by Amazon though the merchant is offering free shipping but it won't be two day shipping. I also checked and Galactics is a highly rated merchant (4.8 stars over the past 12 months with 47,000+ ratings). I'm always more comfortable buying products that are "Fulfilled by Amazon" though because if there are any problems at all with the order I deal directly with Amazon and not the merchant to resolve them. Furthermore, the return policies for merchants that use Fulfilled by Amazon are identical to Amazon's so that provides peace of mind, especially for electronics. If this thing arrived Dead on Arrival a simple call, chat, or e-mail to Amazon an I'd have a return UPS label immediately and they automatically arrange for UPS to pick it up from you. In summary, unless you hear back from me to the contrary, you can buy this laptop cooler with confidence.

It does exactly what I bought it for. My 15" laptop overheats a lot, as I haven't yet changed the likely melted cooling pad around the processor. Add to that the fact that I often put the laptop on my lap in bed, therefore it's also on top of a blanket, and you can imagine how hot it gets. The cooling pad has so far worked very well; it's kept the laptop cool whether I place it on a desk or on my lap. It's fairly quiet - it's quieter than my laptop when overheating, at any rate. It's extremely light, so much so to the point where I'm not even sure it's 1.4 lbs as the manufacturer states. It feels as light as a feather. If you want a good pad, I would highly recommend this one. I have yet to test it while playing a video game, as that uses the most processing power, so if the pad can successfully keep it cool through that, it would be amazing. So far the most I've used it with is playing movies, and it's been perfect through that, so I have high expectations and hopes for the gaming test. I've also left it on for many many hours at a time and it was fine. I've seen other reviewers mention that it's cheaply built and parts around the USB have broken. I haven't had it very long at this point, just two weeks, so nothing has broken yet. TL;DR: Pros: - light - can be placed anywhere, on fabric or on a desk, and still works - successfully cools an extremely hot laptop - doesn't take up a USB spot as it replaces the one it uses with a port of its own - works fine with extended periods of time Cons: - You have to be careful how you hold it if you're transporting it while its running, as it is a little flimsy so if you hold it in the wrong area, it will push the top part of the plastic (where your laptop is sitting) down and into the fan, creating an absolutely horrible noise, and that could also break the fan.

Broke today. One of the fan blades broke today and now it wobbles. Not horrible, but it needs to be replaced. Purchased the item in June 2013. I think this product works very well at what it is designed to do: Keep the destruction of excess heat away from your laptop. I use my laptop most often ON MY LAP. That is where this falls a wee bit short and how I ended up with a lopsided fan. The top surface of the cooler is metal. That is great! The bottom of the cooler is plastic that flexes. That is not great. That plastic flexes so much that if I shift to answer the phone, or pet the dog, or somehow my leg ends up against the bottom of the cooling pad in the middle of the pad, underneath the fan itself, it will cause the plastic housing to flex and to hit the fan blades and make a horrible sound. And evidently, as I learned today, it can end up snapping off one of the fan blades itself. The truth is some items should almost be considered to have a limited life and you cannot get upset when you have to replace them. Things like these cooling fans are one of those. Handheld vacuums are another. They are relatively cheap, they perform a much needed function, but they wear out and need to be replaced. Now, if Coolmaster put metal on the bottom of this thing like they do the top, it would probably not have a housing problem such that it would break the fan. But past cooling pads have broken for me at the USB connection to either the pad itself or the notebook computer, and so if the housing held up, I might still end up with a broken cooling pad at some point. That said, for less than $20, and for a year and a half of excellent service, I will buy another one and ordered one today. I'd be willing to pay $10 more if they put metal at the bottom of the housing and I could probably squeeze another year out of this, but evidently they've decided plastic is the right material for this pad, at least on the bottom.

Works great, cools effectively, not too noisy. Looks beautiful on my desk, and is shaped just right to actually give me a bit more desk space back for my mouse to go under. However, note that it lacks an on/off switch. Therefore I also bought "Cable Matters 5Gbps USB 3.0 Extension Cable with On Off Switch with Data 1 ft" along with this item and then it's perfect.

PROS: * Very effective at doing what it's supposed to do -- cool your laptop. the large fan blows a lot of air upward, and my Macbook goes from piping hot without the fan to only mildly warm with it. * Doesn't tilt your laptop upward. I personally find that many laptop stands tilt the laptop too much, forcing you to push the screen back as far as possible. This one keeps your laptop flat on your lap. It also has two little legs that flip out if you do want to tilt your laptop when using it on a table. CONS: * CORRECTION: As Mark Demon accurately pointed out, I was too quick to criticize this cooler for taking a USB slot and not giving one back -- the USB plug is a pass-through with male on one end and female on the other, so it does not use up a USB port. Mea culpa, I admit it. * Flimsy construction. After using this for only a couple weeks, the anchor keeping the cord attached to the case came loose. And if you put any pressure at all on the fan, it will scrape against the upper portion of the case and grind to a halt. The lightweight case construction I can live with, but the lose cord anchor is not excusable -- you shouldn't have to repair a product like this so quickly and after such light use. And since it's only $20, it doesn't make sense to send it back to have it fixed. So, big ding for this one. UPDATE: Since this is a cooling stand for a LAPtop, it is not unreasonable that it should work on someone's lap (as opposed to a table). I therefore stand by my criticism that the slightest pressure on the fan makes the fan grind against the case. I am using this on a Mac Air -- hardly a heavy device -- and if my legs are not spread apart the weight of the Mac alone -- no heavy hands on the keyboard -- makes the fan grind against the case. A few half inch plastic spacers between the interior front and back sides around the periphery of the fan would solve the problem without interfering with air flow, so I still ding this as a basic design flaw. * No rubber pads on the stand to keep the laptop from slipping. It's fine to have no rubber pads when the stand lies flat, but since the stand IS able to operate on an angle, there is nothing to keep your laptop from sliding forwards if you do so -- no rubber pads, no flip up obstructions, nothing. This is a really lazy design flaw. UPDATE: If you look at another Cooler Master unit -- the Cooler Master NotePal Ergostand Notebook Cooler R9-NBS-4UAK -- you can see how this problem has been effectively addressed with both built-in rubber pads for greater friction, plus removable bumpers at the front. * It would be nice to have a speed adjustment for the fan...I've used other Cooler Master laptop stands and they have them. This isn't so much something wrong as something that would be nice to have. Overall...it's a decent cooler. I give it 3 stars because it DOES do a very good job cooling, and I'd give it 4 stars if the cord anchor didn't come loose.

My laptop is the HP Envy-14 Beats Edition (model number 1260se)and it's been giving me problems with overheating for months now. I sent it back to HP for repairs, and they returned it without doing ANYTHING to fix the problem. (Thanks, HP...) Then my warranty was over almost immediately so I couldn't even yell at them to fix it. I had been using CoreTemp to measure the temperature of my CPU, and it usually hovered around the high 70s/low 80s Celsius when it was idle, and it passed 85 Celsius under half load. I don't even know what it would have done under full load, since it crashed somewhere around 85 every time. Even before it got this bad (i.e. bad enough that I couldn't bring it past half load) I would burn my fingers whenever I played a game. So I started looking at cooling pads. I wasn't 100% sure a cooling pad would do anything, since the air intakes are on the back of the laptop and the fan is on the right side. (I did later find hidden documentation on HP's website stating that there are vents on the bottom to make a cooling pad useful in just this kind of situation, though! I wish they had TOLD me that when I sent them the computer...) Looking at cooling pads, I began to get irritated for a couple of reasons. For one thing, every product seemed to be bragging about supporting 17" laptops. I have a 14-inch laptop with a 14.5-inch wide screen, and I didn't want something sticking out a lot around my computer! Also, almost every product seemed like it forces the user to have their computer on a slant. I will NEVER understand people's obsession with having keyboards on a slant. All slanting has done for me is give me carpal tunnel. When I use a keyboard for a desktop computer, I ALWAYS un-slant it, and I didn't want my laptop to be slanted without the possibility of un-slanting it! This cooling pad fixes everything. Despite the fact that it does claim to be able to support a 17-inch computer, it sticks out less than an inch on each side of my 14-inch computer. And it is NOT slanty, which I really really appreciate. And, most importantly, it fixes the overheating problem. At rest, my CPU is now around 55 degrees Celsius, and at half load I haven't seen it pass 72 Celsius. These numbers are MUCH more similar to what other owners of this same laptop have posted on forums. I don't know why mine was hotter to begin with, and I don't know why HP didn't fix it or at least give me advice, but at least now I can use my computer again without worrying about it crashing. I haven't tested it yet under full load (i.e. gaming or video editing) but I will try to remember to update this review once I do. :) UPDATE (8.19.12): This probably still doesn't REALLY count as full load, but I was playing Minecraft multiplayer last night and I decided to open up CoreTemp. I left it open for a few minutes while I played, and when I checked it again, the max temperatures were 76 and 78 Celsius. So that's pretty impressive, especially considering that those were my idle temperatures before. Hooray! :D UPDATE 2 (11.18.13): Over a year later, it's still working great. It got a little dusty at one point but I cleaned it out with a can of compressed air. My computer has not crashed once since I started using the cooling pad, and my CoreTemp values are still consistently much lower than they were without the cooling pad.

I often use my laptop sitting in bed, and of course, that totally blocks off the air vents on the bottom. I looked at a bunch of cooling pads before finding this one, trouble is, most other ones are only meant for desk use. So many others are setup in a way that would get bunched up or totally blocked off by sitting on top of a blanket. Before I found this, I actually bought a Targus Lap Chill Mat Jr for 15.6" Laptops- AWE73US (Silver/Gray) . I returned that one because while it had the perfect shape, it just hardly moved any air at all. This cooler is totally perfect... it has air vents all around the bottom and the sides, so even if the bottom gets blocked (like by a blanket) it still pulls in plenty of air from the side. It's actually so open all around, that it really could even be a good passive cooler, if you just trying to free up the vents. But the fan is huge, and it totally moves a ton of air. You can actually feel cool air blowing out from between the laptop and the frame. Actually, sitting in bed with the laptop/cooler on my lap, it actually chills me a bit through my pajamas! Not really a con... but a little unexpected It's definitely not silent. If I'm playing a game or some music, it gets drowned out easily. But once I turn the sounds off, then you can really hear the fan pumping out all that air. It might be nice if it were adjustable, so at least you could turn it down without having to unplug it. My Sony VAIO normally runs around 51-52 celcius at idle, and playing games usually gets it to around to 64-65ish. Ive seen it get as high as 75 if I have no cooler and the bottom vents get blocked. With the cooler on, idle actually doesn't change at all (I guess the built in fan does a good enough job already?) but the fan does drop the load temps significantly! About a 10 degree drop while gaming. The USB cord is ambidextrous, it can be run easily to either side. I think the plug is way too big, but whatever, I'll live with that considering everything this has going for it. Some people might wish it had a couple extra USB ports built in, but for me, I don't even use all the ones I have already anyhow, so it doesn't bother me. I love it. If you're like me, and looking for a laptop cooling pad you can actually use on your lap... this is totally perfect.

Quiet, effective and does not block units below it from cooling when not in use. I use this with a gaming laptop over a home theater receiver, and it drops the temperature of the ram, CPU and GPU by more than 10 degrees centigrade, which equates to a longer service life. There's no dust filter, but it has good air flow, very low noise, and is easily cleaned.