Antec USB-Powered Notebook Cooler
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 List Price: $45.99 Sale Price: $21.97 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Eligible For Free Shipping 
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Product Description
Keep your cool or, rather, notebook's cool. Overheating laptops are a bigger problem than most people realize, as heat reduces system stability and harms the lifespan of your electronics. To combat this problem, you need the Antec Notebook Cooler! Increasing the cooling your laptop gets can help it last longer, and may reduce or even eliminate system crashes. Perfect for all netbooks and notebooks that have an available USB port. Antec is a leading producer of desktop parts including cooling systems. This Antec 75004 Notebook Cooler is a dependable extension of their line. So keep you and your notebook cool.
Details
- Protect your valuable investment and reduce heat-related instability
- USB-powered cooler with pass-through connector included
- Draw power from any USB port without losing use of the USB port
- No batteries or power adapter needed
- AQ3 Antec Quality three-year warranty
Rating
The cooler sits under my 43 cm (large monitor) Macintosh Powerbook. The Powerbook is often on for 8 to 10 hours a day and keeps everything very cool. The cooler powers from the left-hand USB port. The pass-through USB plug enables the USB port to be used by a printer and other peripherals. There are two fan speed settings, high and low. I only run on the low setting. A good, solid, cost-effective choice.
Rating
I purchased this notebook cooler not too long ago and it works very well. Lightweight, durable, and does what its meant to do. Bottom of notebook stays at a pretty stable temperature and does not overheat and there are vents to let the heated air escape which is sucked in thru the 2 fans. I especially like the way you can store the USB cable in the little storage compartment. I have a fairly large laptop and the given surface area fits well. I’d recommend a notebook cooler and as my first notebook cooler purchase i’d recommend it.
Rating
An online tech board’s topic dealing with excessive heat eminating from the DishNetwork vip622 HD receiver/dvr combo pointed me to a sale on this Antec cooler.
As luck would have it, the Antec perfectly receives the four pads of the satellite box, which conveniently offers a USB port in which to plug the Antec.
Within hours, it appears to have dramatically cooled the satellite receiver/dvr combo that sits within component furniture.
Rating
The title of the review about sums it up: what a PHENOMENAL product. Just the right size to transport in the inner sleeve of a laptop bag and powerful enough to keep my Dell Inspiron 600m markedly cooler (prior to using the Antec, my laptop was running inordinately hot on the underside of the casing to the extent that there are scorch marks on the plastic). Having already lost a motherboard from over-heating, the search for a cooling solution carried some urgency. After eight hours of trial operation, I found the Antec USB-Powered Notebook Cooler did the job quietly and efficiently, reducing internal and ambient laptop temperatures by at least 10-15 degrees.
As far as construction, the Antec is lightweight and durable (an aluminum faceplate aids in the heat dissipation, while other manufacturers tend to use a less-efficient plastic design). Fan noise, even on the highest setting, projects no louder than the internal processor fan of my laptop. A few online forum complaints have arisen pertaining to the USB cable and some clarification is due. While the cable is of a lighter gauge, it should hold up without incident under normal operations. A pass-through USB connection bridges off the back of the Antec cable also: a well-thought-out consideration for those needing that extra port for peripherals.
From where this appreciative consumer stands (or sits, as the case may be), I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever. Thank you to Antec for offering such a remarkable cooling solution for mobile users who need to keep working long hours.
Rating
The materials which this thing is constructed are pretty durable. the top is mad of aluminum which conducts heat away really well. the intake of the air is from all bottom 4 sides of the pad. 2 fans runs quietly with high and low. Let me emphasize that again, the fan runs REALLY REALLY QUITE comparing ot other brands. Usually i only need to leave the fan on low. Im not quite sure if i would ever need it on high(maybe while gaming). The area where the CPU is, you can feel “just a little bit” of heat. But the rest of the notbook stays room temperture/cold while this pad is under it. THis cooler is powered by the USB stored right in the bottom of the pad, which makes it convenient for portability. The USB also has an additional outlet right behind it which when you plug it into you notbook, it does not decrease teh number of the USB outlet abalible on your notebook. I wonder why it doesnt lable this as a special feature on the box, but i realy like it. IM VERY VERY PEASED WITH THIS PRODUCT. And im surprised how thsi product actually got other reviews less than 5 stars. because its really worth 5 stars.
Rating
I recently got this to replace my old Targus Coolpad. This one is a lot bigger than the Targus and fits very nicely under my powerbook 17″ G4. I love the fact that it’s USB powered and has two settings, so I can have it low when I’m just surfing the net and then high when I am playing games or movies.
The one drawback is the switch to toggle high and low is very hard to reach under a big laptop, my fingers almost don’t reach it. Also, the LED light is very very bright, and so I end up unplugging it at night when I want to go to bed. It is seriously bright enough to make hand puppets with.
But overall, I think I am sticking with this Antec brand when it’s time to buy a new one.
Rating
Most of laptop cooler/chill pads are made of PLASTIC and use fans that blow air TOWARDS the laptop. What impresses me about this product is that the cooling surface is made of ALUMINUM (just like the aluminum casing used to keep portable hard drives cool) and its fans PULL/SUCK HOT AIR AWAY from underneath the laptop. This method of REMOVING hot air is superior to blowing room temperature air at the laptop (it’s also the same mechanism used by laptop/desktop internal fans).
MY TESTS: I compared the latest Targus high-speed chill mat (Model PA248U) to this one. After running the laptop for one hour on each, I noticed the surface of the laptop (keyboard, palm rest, touch pad, etc.) was the same in both cases (very cool). But there was a noticeable difference on left side of my laptop (where my Dell’s internal fan exhausts warm air). With the Targus, there was noticeable amounts of warm air being exhausted by the laptop’s internal fan. With the Antec, there was much less warm air being exhausted than the Targus. So the Antec does a superior job cooling the laptop since the laptop’s internal fan was exhausting less hot air.
MINOR DETAILS: The Antec allows you to control the speed of the fan (high or low) while the Targus is fixed, presumably at high (and is rather noisy). The Targus does have a simple push on/off switch; the Antec does not (you have to unplug it for off). The Antec’s USB cord is pass-through meaning Antec will NOT take us one USB slot (the Targus did not have this feature). The Antec has a very strong Blue LED light to indicate it is on (it could be helpful as an on/off indicator, but it is very annoying in low-light condition because it is very bright).
BOTTOM LINE: Because the cooling surface is made of aluminum and because the fans work to draw hot air away from the laptop (much like your laptop’s internal fan), Antec is a superior product. Also, my simple tests showed that the laptop was cooler using Antec.
Rating
My old review follows below. Five months have passed. The device is now making a loud noise. Probably the bearings are wearing out and one of the fans is probably wobbling. Up to this point, it worked fine. See my old review. I stand by that, up the point of failure. However five months of use before a failure is troubling. I would estimate that during those five months, the unit was in use an average of at least 6 hours per day, so the time to failure was probably just over 1000 hours. This is probably too short for me to justify buying another of this same model. All of these devices appear to be cheaply made, and are not costly, so I’m not sure what to expect from another manufacturer. Maybe five months is typical?
I purchased this before reading any of the reviews, and then after it seemed to perform quite well, read some of the positive and negative reviews. The vacuum issue of many of the negative reviews makes sense, and I wondered about this myself when I first operated the unit. The bottom line is that this unit works well for my computer, a DELL Precision M6300. I haven’t noticed the vacuum issue with my computer. Keep in mind that it overhangs all the way around. Also, I use the four rubber feet on the top of the platform to ensure 1/4″ clearance under my laptop. I think if one doesn’t use these rubber feet (you have to install them yourself; very easy) then there might not be enough clearance and the vacuum created by the Antec might conflict with the computer’s own fans. For my computer, the fans draw air in from the bottom, but along the rear sides of the computer which are overhanding the sides and back of the Antec, so they probably can never be in conflict with the Antec’s fans. Frankly, this configuration probably ensures that the Antec fans and DELL M6300 fans work to help each other. Also, the little rubber feet seem to ensure that my computer doesn’t slide around; it is firmly located on the Antec. Another issue others have commented about is the poor connectivity of the USB connection. I haven’t seen any problem whatsoever with this. Keep in mind that I don’t need to use the pass-thru to access other USB devices. My computer has six USB ports, so once the Antec USB is plugged in, I don’t need to fool with it, and that might help avoid connection problems. I find the two speed settings useful. When I do heavy duty number crunching I swtich to the high speed setting, and this seems take more of the thermal load off the computer and my internal fans slow down. I have one criticism of the speed switch. It is located so close to the USB cable connection on the Antec, that it is a little difficult to reach around and move the switch to change speed settings on the fan. The other thing about this unit is that is really just for flat surface use, not lap use. It you do mostly lap work with your laptop, this may not be the best unit for you. Final conclusions: While I appreciate the criticisms of others, my guess is that some of what they experienced may be laptop dependent. My laptop works well with this unit, and after frying another DELL workstation notebook computer because of overheating, I am satisfied that this product will protect my now even more expensive replacment laptop.
Rating
My husband’s laptop had issues with overheating (Dell Latitude D630 – 14″) and I got him this cooler.
All computers (including laptops) need cooling – laptops are small/thin and there is not much space for fans… and that’s where this unit comes handy.
What we noticed about this cooler:
- It’s very light
- Aluminum top is great for spreading heat and keeping the laptop cool
- It’s very quiet (on High you can bearly hear the sound of fans, and on Low you don’t hear it at all)
- Cable is short so that it does not “dangle”; but not too short – it can reach at the back of laptop for USB connection. If you still can’t reach USB connection on your laptop, because it’s on the oposite side, you can always turn the cooler for 180 degrees so that connection on cooler comes to the right side (it’s symetric, so it does not matter how you turn it).
- There is compartment for storing the cable when cooler is not in use
- Rubber on the bottom provides good grip – there is on slippage on wooden/glass surfaces
- It fits great on the lap
- Rubber on the top provides good grip – laptop is not slipping from the cooler
- Laptop fits great on this cooler (note that it’s only 14″ laptop).
- Cooler is quite thin and light so it’s easy to put it in laptop bag and carry it with the laptop.
We like it very much, and we are going to get one more – for my laptop.
What I can say is that this is an amazing cooler and I do recommend it.
Rating
I have a Toshiba Satellite P105-S921 with an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). In the last six months, I have had MAJOR overheating problems…even when using a notebook cooler (Micro NB360CP). So, I wanted to try something new and before I used this cooler, I took GPU and general temp measurements: (in Fahrenheit)
At idle with old cooler after two hours: GPU-198, General-186
After 1 hour of playing graphics intensive game: GPU-266, General-248
At this point, the keyboard is hot to the touch and the bottom will actually burn you. Generally, in 30 mins, the screen will go white and the laptop will shut down. I decided to stop playing the game after an hour and switched to this cooler. The results were astonishing:
After playing for another hour (all in the name of this review):
GPU-160
General-156
Basically, this cooler brought my laptop to a lower temperature during hardware intensive gaming than a competitor brought it to at idle. If you’re reading this, you’re probably looking for a cooler. Look no farther…this is worth every dime.
Cons:
-Removable rubber pegs that separate cooler from laptop can get lost or knocked off, incapacitating the cooler.
-The blue light is ridiculous.
Pros:
-Two speeds for different computing environments
-Short cord stays out of way…allows for USB devices to be plugged in on top of it.