( 241 reviews )
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Posted: Aug 16 2009
This product worked great for 5 months. The the power connector between my laptop and the cooling pad became looser and looser. Now I just have a laptop pad. One end of the power connector plugs into a usb port. This end works great. The other end plugs into the cooling pad. This end is very poorly designed, and Antec should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to produce such a poorly designed product.
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Posted: Aug 15 2009
Loved the aluminum surface and variable speed option. Kept my Dell and my lap cool for about six months, then....nothing. Don't know if it's the cord or the mechanism; either way, the fans have stopped turning after a short amount of time with periodic use. It just doesn't last, so be wise & choose a different product.
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Posted: Aug 14 2009
Buying one of the Antec USB-Powered Notebook Coolers is an easy choice, out of the many and sundry choices available here and elsewhere. I think that most of the other reviewers here have covered the key points well, and I see no reason to go back over and re-hash everything that has been said before, so I'm going to make this review short, and sweet, with some personal-use caveats thrown into the mix. Let's be honest about this now, because we are all here to get the best deal on the best quality for our hard earned $$'s, aren't we? Well, look no further than this great performing notebook cooler by Antec. When you can pay at or about $25 shipped for a cooler that does its job silently, surely, and *safely* in terms of isolating the notebook's heat away from our legs, laps, and thighs, then that's a bargain to be taken advantage of, right? I think so, and add to it these personally noted plusses++ for the Antec USB-Powered Notebook Cooler and we have Wavey Davey's 5-Star Performance Award, earned again in the heat of competition with all those other pricey, and dicey coolers by other manufacturers. First, the design is KUHL, isn't it? I like the "Star-Design" with the strong, but light ABS plastic (mine are in black and silver) bottom which cradles the aluminum alloy top conductive surface area, the part that actually touches the notebook. And you want that part to be metal if possible, because its convective ability is superior to plastic or coated cardboard, whatever those other notebook coolers are using: the Antec's construction is superior to the other coolers for sale here and elsewhere. Next, the fans are double-ball bearing fans and they are dead-on next to silent at a rated 27dB (decibels) noise factor, which is minimal, and XLNT at best. Those fans move a LOT of air through and around the bottom vents of your average notebook, and pass it out through the sides where most notebooks have their exhaust vents. The fans have a High and Low switch which is nice, but through my uses this past year with two very different notebooks, one a newer Sony FW-series and the other being an Acer 5920-series, I've just left the switch on "Low" and it does the job virtually silently. There's a very, very bright Blue LED near the fan switch on the right side for the tell-tale "I'm working and ON" sign, and most people probably consider that LED waaay too bright, and it is! The only real detraction to an otherwise stellar design concept is that LED, and it's so bright that it will pierce a room's dark, and silent night and light it up a bit! So I've taken a piece of black electrical tape and taped over both of the LED's on our coolers, and it solved that small problem. The fans do accumulate a good portion of dust and dirt if you are leaving the cooler on 24/7 as we do ours, so a simple removal to the outside/garage area, and a blast from your air compressor (if you have such a device, and I do) will blow all that away for another go at cooling effectively and efficiently. I clean our two coolers monthly, as they are on 24/7, literally all the time, because both notebooks are doing Folding@Home for Stanford University when they aren't being used for normal things, so the coolers have been getting a good workout at our place. There's a substantial warranty in place with the Antec Notebook Cooler also, as I recall it's a 3-year factory warranty-- so even if you manage to burn it out and use it up in that time Antec will replace one if it fails under warranty. That's another positive point to be made versus the other coolers here at Amazon and elsewhere. In closing, because I promised to make this a short and sweet review, I feel very good about purchasing two notebook coolers of such high quality and excellent design and functionality for about $50, getting one on sale here for less than $25 and the other one for just more than $25. I just do not think there's anything else for sale that works as well, costs so little, and has a great 3-year warranty from the manufacturer to back it up should anything go wrong in 3 long, hard years of notebook cooling service! This is the unit to get, and I wholeheartedly endorse the Antec USB-Powered Notebook Cooler 100% across the board. I'm giving it Wavey Davey's 5-Star Seal of Excellence! You just cannot go wrong with one of these at or about $25 shipped, so forget the rest, this is the best! Wavey Davey 8-14-2009
