|
Vantec LapCool 5 Laptop Cooler |
|
|
|
|
Written by Mikhail Ivanenkov
|
|
Tuesday, 06 November 2007 |
|
Thanks to Vantec for the product sample.
There are two main types of laptops: business/mobile and performance/gaming. The former prioritizes long battery life, small size, and cool operation while the latter is all about speed with much less regard for the aforementioned factors. In essence, performance laptops are more like miniature desktops. However both still heat up under heavy usage. Checking email and browsing the internet will let your laptop run for hours without even getting warm, but once you start gaming or doing anything processor/graphics intensive the burn will come. That's where laptop coolers come in. But are they really necessary? Today we'll take a look at Vantec's LapCool 5 and find out.
The cooler comes in the above blister package. It's unique in that it's smaller than most and only covers the rear part of your laptop rather than the whole thing. In a way it acts like a stand with added benefits. Measuring at 328 x 100 x 20mm, it's wide enough to accommodate all shapes and sizes, though it still remains slim.
The package includes the cooler and a pair of USB cables. One is used to power the fans while the other is dedicated to the integrated USB hub. The LapCool 5 is available in blue, black, and red (which looks orange).
The unit is solid aluminum with mesh grills and rubber stands on top. The bottom is the about the same. Because this cooler only covers part of your laptop, it needs to be angled so as not to upset the balance. The fans themselves blow air away from the bottom of the laptop (down and out through the cooler) rather than onto it. Ideally it would be the other way around; we'll see how this affects performance.
To keep things balanced, Vantec added an incline on the bottom. When you place this cooler under your laptop near the back it elevates it much like a typical stand would.
On the left side we have a fan speed control dial. It turns about 3 full revolutions and at the minimum setting the fans switch off. Their rated speed is 900-1600 RPM with an estimated airflow of 6.67-12.28 CFM. While this does make for a quiet cooler (rated at 15dBA), it may not be sufficient to give any serious results. On the right side we have the USB/power plugs and 3 USB ports. At first this seems like a good deal, but you're only gaining 1 USB port since it takes 2 to properly power the entire cooler in the first place.
Here's what it looks like sitting underneath an IBM ThinkPad T60. This particular model has a 2GHz Core2Duo and an ATI FireGL V5250 so it can holds its own. Once plugged in, Windows recognizes the cooler as a generic USB hub. For testing I let the laptop sit for an hour doing nothing, then played CS:S with max settings for an hour. This was done both with and without the cooler. When the cooler was used, the fans were set to full speed. Temperatures were recorded using MobileMeter which detects internal diodes. As you can guess this is much more important than any surface cooling. Unfortunately the program doesn't differentiate between the CPU and video card, so Temp 1 and Temp 2 can be interchangeable. The results are below.
As you can see, on idle there's absolutely no difference between using the LapCool 5 and no cooler at all. On load there's a 3-5C difference for the video card/CPU. This isn't very noticeable given the sharp increase in temperature. A 10C difference under load would be the minimum necessary to see any real benefit. So what's going on here? Several things most likely. First off, the majority of laptops still employ a plastic shell which is a very poor conductor. This is both good and bad. It's good because it keeps you from burning your legs. It's bad because any external cooling, be it via conduction or convection, will have very limited effects. Secondly, the LapCool 5's fans attempt to pull air from beneath the laptop and exhaust via the bottom of the cooler. A more effective solution would have been to blow air directly onto the base with higher powered fans.
Pros
- Looks nice
- Small design
- Integrated USB hub and fan control
- Quiet
- Acts as a stand as well
Cons
Vantec's LapCool 5 is a decent product. It looks nice, is small, does provide a degree of cooling, gives you an extra USB port, and doubles back as a stand. However it does have a lot more potential that could be realized if the fans were reversed and had a bit more airflow. As it stands, it's alright but nothing to write home about. External coolers in general can only cool so much due to the current nature of laptops. Feel free to comment on this review here. Thanks for reading and enjoy the site!
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 November 2007 )
|
