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Review on Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad - Strongest Laptop Cooler for 17.3 inch Laptops, Enhanced Heat Dissipation, Colorful Lights, Adjustable Mount Stand, Temperature Reduction by 20-30 Degrees by James Salem

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Solid but not great...

To get straight to the point... Here's the thing: 1. Depending on what kind of laptop you have, yours will be Mileage really vary. I think even AFMAT would agree here. I just bought an Alienware X17 R1, it's Alienware's newest and thinnest gaming laptop and possibly the most powerful of them all, so despite the "Cryo-Tech" cooling architecture it gets seriously hot. There are a few things that keep this cooler from peak performance for my particular laptop: A: On the Alienware X17 R1, Alienware places its vents on the bottom of the laptop at the top left and right (closest to the monitor hinge). . and has air vents on the right and left sides of the laptop (total 4 fans) and on the right and left back panels of the laptop. Considering where the bottom panel vents are located, the vents are not ideally placed over the radiator's "heat trap" (cavity) and therefore it takes longer for some of the warm air to vent because the vents are partially through the AFMAT seal track (it is a plastic path that the seal connects to). With that in mind, I would argue that SOME 17-inch laptops perform better than others, and that the vast majority of 15-inch laptops should sit above the cooler's heat sink. Also keep in mind that depending on the design of your laptop (e.g. where the heat pipes and fans are located in your laptop) this will have a direct impact on how well this cooler will work for you. The sealing concept, if you don't use fans, you're actually trapping warm air underneath your laptop! Sometimes I want to run my laptop on my cooler for everyday use and don't want to turn on the cooler. I don't want to be punished for this by trapping warm air under my laptop. THIS SHOULD BE A BIG CONSIDERATION FOR YOU. If you're like me and don't always have your laptop fans on but like to leave your laptop on, this might not be the best choice for you. I wouldn't say the AFMAT fans are very loud BUT THEY ARE LOUD and more than loud THEY HAVE AN OBJECTIVE SOUND even at idle/speed 1. To me that's poor design and a missed opportunity for an air cooler over $60. Fans for laptops are already loud enough, you don't want to duplicate them, you want to minimize noise with maximum cooling (maybe I can think of another one of my own). I would like a heating engineer to design something and use very quiet fans with efficient airflow. AFMAT can slightly improve the design of this cooler.2. I think the manufacturer makes some STRONG claims about heat dissipation, but the truth is that your mileage will be VERY different from the claimed temperature drop. What you need to me more than just lowering the temperature is a CONSTANT TEMPERATURE. In other words, if the temperature drops just 3 degrees without getting much hotter, then I consider that a win. I've had many laptop coolers over the years and the physics are true, you get as much cooling as you don't stick a piece of ice under your laptop (DO NOT DO THAT!).3. Finally, I think that for some laptops, like my Alienware X17 R1, a flat cooler with a big 200mm fan would actually be better. I say this because my laptop has "ribs" at the top and bottom of the bottom bezel. This not only elevates the laptop slightly to allow air to flow from below, but also helps "duct" air in and out of the bottom of the laptop. Kudos to Alienware for taking the time to think about thermal dynamics. Finally, there is one really cool thing AFMAT did with this laptop cooler. The AFMAT includes small "fins" (they even have strips of 3M tape on the back) that you can attach to the back of the AFMAT, so if your laptop has rear vents like mine; Hot air from your laptop fans will not be drawn back into the AFMAT. The fins actually help separate airflow from your laptop and laptop cooler. I haven't run any tests to see how well this actually works, but I believe it makes a significant difference. TEMPERATURE DROP: To be honest, I didn't see the drastic temperature drop that AFMAT claims, but honestly, I have to. more testing. AFMAT Foam Blower Fan Dust Filters prevent hot air from escaping by reducing dust accumulation in blower fans, so I believe you could achieve better heat dissipation without filters. Having said that, I haven't tested this, but I don't suspect it will help much either (but should help if you want maximum cooling). I'll keep testing, but I think you can expect a few degrees of heat reduction when the AFMAT fans are running at full speed, and your laptop's temperature during gaming shouldn't rise too much either (so you'll want to be more consistent with slightly lower temperatures) . ). ). By measuring temperature drop this way, you can measure your laptop's peak heat during intense marathon gaming (or other CPU-intensive tasks) without the cooler, and then measure temperatures with the cooler at maximum fan setting. I think this is the best way to measure the temperature instead of just sitting the laptop idle on the cooler and waiting for some miraculous temperature drops that won't be there. Conclusion: If you are thinking about buying this cooler, I recommend you to check if your laptop has air vents on the bottom of the laptop. If so, look at where the vents are located and imagine where the laptop will make contact with the cooler. You want to radiate heat away from your laptop and NOT TRANSMIT HEAT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE LAPTOP. If you want your laptop to just sit on top of a cooler and not necessarily run the fans, DO NOT BUY THIS COOLER. All you're doing is trapping the heat on the bottom of the laptop, and the hot air has nowhere to go. For my laptop, I would literally improve airflow by letting it sit on a table. If you plan to use AFMAT fans all the time, this cooler will do. In my case, Thermaltake's 200mm RGB laptop cooler is actually the best option. It probably won't cool as well as this thing, but I also don't have to worry about hot air getting under the laptop when the AFMAT fans aren't on.

Pros
  • Cooling Pads and External Fans
Cons
  • Can't remember