Cooling Pads & Performance

How much of a difference is there between higher end cooling pads and mid-range ones between $20~40? Like is there a significant difference to warrant the extra $50 for something with liquid cooling? I have been looking into these for travel and work, but it seems like it's hard to find any answer that isn't slanted in favor of trying to sell me.

 

It depends on how good the cooling solution of your laptop is. If it's lacking, then an external cooling device can probably help. However, most laptops today already have decent cooling and can operate for extended periods of time, removing the need for these external cooling pads. They just take up extra space. In my opinion, I think pads help by giving bottom exhaust vents some breathing room when used on your lap or bed or simply raising the unit so that airflow is better.

EDIT: I realize I didn't answer your question. Well, of course, in general, liquid cooling is a lot better. The question is, are you willing to pay more for a mere 5c drop of system temperatures?

 

I have only used the USB plug in cooling pad for my HP, and the price was somewhere $20 or less, can't remember! It did a good job, but didn't stop my HP from overheating as they were known for this issue, and I have two HP, both with overheating problem.

If you can afford the liquid cooling, then go for it but read some reviews first!

 

I have experience with a cooling pad that cost me $10 in the local market. I hated to use it. It drained the battery and make irritating noise. It off course cooled my laptop while using it, but there was no point in using cooling pad when I could not use my laptop for than one hour when cooling pad was plugged in (it drained battery so fast).

 

I had a HP laptop with windows vista basically die on me because of how bad of an operating system that was and how taxing it was to the hardware, the thing literally melted in front of my own eyes, yet I was able to extend the life of the thing a little bit by using a cheap targus cooling pad but, as you can imagine, that was not enough to save it so I will say that if you have some serious heat problems consider expending a little more and getting the liquid cooling ones.

I don't know if my case was just too extreme since I ended up even ditching the cooling pad and placing the machine on top of actual ice packs so it could at least run without dying.

 

I have also used usb plug cooling pad. However, I don't have any experience of using liquid cooling. Can you explain on this, for instance, how does it work, how much does it cost, how effective is it.

 

You're asking a wrong person! I don't have any experience using liquid cooling, and in my simple mind, I think of liquid as something that would mess up my computer. Liquid and electronic don't mix, do they? However, you just got me curious, so I will go online and look it up