We have scoured the web and did all the necessary research to help find notebook cooler accessories, and our team ultimately determined that the best laptop cooling pad for most people the TopMate Gaming Laptop Cooler. This model was chosen as Editor's Choice due to its robust design, integrated USB hub, and top performing airflow capabilities.
As for the runner-up, we found the HAVIT HV-F2068 was the best cooling solution for those who use a 17-inch laptop model. Unlike the TopMate, the larger size of the HAVIT supports larger notebook models while offering an integrated USB hub and excellent airflow via the pad's five fans.
Lastly, those looking for the thinnest and quietest laptop cooling fan, Cooler Master's NotePal X-Slim is the model that we recommend most. With a design that sports a basic yet sleek appeal, this model has just one massive fan that maintains a high amount of airflow while keeping the amount of audible noise to a minimum.
Editor's Choice & Ideal For 15.6″ Laptops
TopMate Gaming Laptop Cooler
Our top pick based on a robust design, high feature-set and optimal cooling performance.
Despite the lack of a notable brand name, TopMate's laptop cooling pad is designed for gamers (though works for any laptop up to 15.6″) with five fans, a highly adjustable design, integrated USB hub and a small LCD display which offers info about cooling settings.
Runner-Up & Ideal for 17″ Laptops
HAVIT HV-F2068
The best cooling pad for 17-inch laptops offering a similar design & features as TopMate.
Larger than the TopMate which won our Editor's Choice, HAVIT's HV-F2068 supports laptop models up to 17″. The cosmetic appeal is nice with red LEDs, an integrated USB hub and a robust design consisting of a combination of ABS and metal mesh.
Slimmest & Quietest Model
Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim
With a simplified design that has a single large fan, the NotePal is both ultra-slim and quiet.
Manufactured by Cooler Master, one of the biggest names in PC cooling accessories industry, the NotePal X-Slim offers a sleek and basic design with a metal mesh construction. Offering a single, large fan keeps airflow performance up while minimizing audible noise.
*Price as of 4/23/18
Our team produced this guide for anyone who has a laptop that they notice gets very hot to touch or degrades in performance as the internal cooling struggles to keep up with the hardware.
However, our hard work in providing free content and expert recommendations such as this is not possible without the use of display advertising and affiliate links of which we have partnered with trusted retailers which may earn us a small commission if you were to purchase a product through one of our recommendations.
RELATED – What Is The Best Left Handed Gaming Mouse?
The unfortunate truth is that some other websites decide their recommendations on greed above integrity thus picking the highest earning products as their top choice without taking into consideration critical attributes like a laptop cooling pad's design, features, performance, and price-point. Rest assured, we will never point you in the wrong direction just to earn a commission and will always recommend the top product even if it has no revenue potential for us.
For those interested in learning the most about laptop cooling pads, we highly recommend that you read this guide in its entirety. We will cover all of the basics of the industry as well as answer many questions that you may have about which laptop cooling pad model to buy.
If you have consumed this entire guide and still have questions about which is the best laptop cooling pad for your needs, then leave us a comment below this article. We will do our best to provide a resolution to your question or offer any additional advice to help ease confusion.
Why Should I Invest In a Cooling Accessory?
Too much heat is the leading cause of hardware failure in laptops as well as one of the driving forces behind significant performance degradation from critical components like the CPU and GPU during intensive tasks like multimedia editing or gaming.
At this point in the laptop market, many manufacturers have focused on making their models internal airflow ample and power consumption low. At the same time, the battle to make notebooks thinner sometimes even involved the removal of internal cooling fans making it more difficult for the excess heat to be properly dealt with.
Here is where the benefit of a laptop cooling pad comes into play as you can utilize large desktop-sized case fans integrated within a stand to not only experience the ergonomic benefits of an adjustable height/viewing angle, but increase the flow of air through the outside fans.
Depending on your operating conditions, a proper cooling pad can extend the lifespan of your laptop over time and improve performance under max load by helping to aid in the cooling of your internal hardware to safe operating levels and avoid the performance bottlenecks caused by thermal throttling.
What To Consider When Choosing A Pad
For some of you, the market behind laptop cooling pads can be overly confusing and you aren't sure which aspects you need to keep in mind before buying. This can be intimidating and keep you from actually going through with the purchase.
At the beginning of this article, we gave you our top three choices as to which laptop cooling pads we would recommend for most people without going into too much detail (primarily for the ‘TL;DR' aka ‘too long, didn't read' audience).
However, before we introduce you to each of our seven models more in-depth, we will cover the basics of what to keep in mind when shopping for a laptop cooling pad:
- Make/Model – since the laptop cooling pad market is a rather small niche and the models themselves aren't all that complex in design, you'll see a lot of off-brand manufacturers and only a few brand names. In many cases, the unknown brands' laptop cooling pads can perform just as well as the brand name equivalents while at a cheaper price-point. The only advantage that a brand name cooling pad may have over a foreign brand is the likelihood of reliable warranty and support issues if something goes wrong with your unit (at under $30 for most cooling pads, this shouldn't be a huge deal to most).
- Price – an obvious factor to consider in your search for the ideal cooling pad, this market has a decent amount of competition which is why you'll see there is a lot of random brands producing great cooling pads at discount prices. Our recommendations within this guide range from $15-$25 with the higher-end models offering more bells and whistles thus costing a couple more dollars.
- Maximum Laptop Size – not all laptop cooling pads are designed equally and some will differ in overall size to cater to larger or smaller laptop models. In the event of our recommendations, only one model is not compatible with 17″ laptops (it just so happens to be our Editor's Choice as most consumers own a 15.6″ model or smaller). The benefit of the smaller form-factor is that you'll have little to no excess space between the edges of a 15.6″ laptop and the cooling pad. On the contrary, this means that you'll see a few inches of overlay on the sides and rear when using a 15.6″ laptop on a cooling pad that supports 17″ models.
- Fan Count – depending on the model we recommend, you'll see anywhere from one to six fans integrated within the cooling pads' design. There is no right or wrong answer as to how many fans there should be. One large single-fan will use less power and run slower thus being quieter than multiple smaller fans running at higher speeds. However, multiple fans can pinpoint several different areas of airflow more optimally than a singular centered fan.
- Largest Fan Size – measured in millimeters, the largest fan size refers to the fan model of which measured in the biggest in size on that particular cooling pad. In some cases, you'll see six identical fans whereas others will offer one large center fan and four matching smaller fans surrounding it. Larger fans will offer less noise and more airflow than smaller fans running at the same speed.
- Maximum Fan Speed – measured in RPM (revolutions per minute), the fan speed is directly correlated to fan size and is also the most notable reason why the fans are loud. Higher RPMs are technically better, but this will depend on the exact scenario as larger fans running at slower speeds can compete with smaller fans running at higher speeds.
- Maximum Air Flow – measured in CFM (cubic feet per minute), this is another attribute where a higher number is technically better. The maximum air flow reading tells us how much air is physically being pushed by way of the fans. CFM isn't an accurate way to decipher audible noise levels, but traditionally a small fan will need to run much faster (RPM) to emit the same CFM as a larger fan thus driving higher noise levels.
- LCD Display – an arbitrary component, but useful to some allowing the user to view the current settings of the laptop cooling pad as well as make visual performance adjustments. You won't see this feature offered on many cooling pads, but it is present once in awhile on the more higher-end models.
- Variable Angle – since a cooling pad is pretty much a laptop stand on steroids, the ability to place your notebook on a surface and adjust the height/angle to your liking is ideal for ergonomics and overall preference. Depending on the model, these laptop cooling pads will over anywhere from 2-5 levels of height which each change the operating angle as well.
- USB Hub – almost all cooling pads will be powered and operate from a USB power source (ideally your laptop). This can get tricky in the event of newer notebook models like the MacBook Pro with TouchPad which only use USB-C, but there are always dongles or adapters for that. All of the models on this list will allow you to plug the power cable into your laptop's USB port and in return, you'll get two spare USB ports from the built-in hub. However, most of the time these will be slower USB ports suitable more for less resource intensive components (not HDDs) or general power consumption.
- LED Color – most of the laptop cooling pads mentioned within this recommendation guide will offer some sort of LED component built into the cooling fans. However, these LEDs are nothing more than cosmetic appeal and they are often blue with the exception of red in some cases. The downside of these LEDs is that they most often cannot be manually disabled unless you turn off the fans themselves thus disabling the cooling.
Comparing The Top Models
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Make/Model |
TopMate |
SIKER |
Cooler Master NotePal |
HAVIT HV-F2056 |
Tree New Bee |
HAVIT HV-F2068 |
TECHNET |
|
Price |
|||||||
|
Max Laptop Size |
15.6″ |
17″ |
17″ |
17″ |
17″ |
17″ |
17″ |
|
Fan Count |
5 |
6 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
3 |
|
Largest Fan Size (mm) |
120 |
150 |
160 |
110 |
110 |
110 |
118 |
|
Max Fan Speed (RPM) |
2500 |
1400 |
1500 |
1100 |
1200 |
1500 |
1200 |
|
Max Airflow (CFM) |
75 |
Unknown |
70 |
65 |
Unknown |
65 |
38 |
|
LCD Display |
check-circle | times-circle | times-circle | times-circle | times-circle | times-circle | times-circle |
|
Variable Angle |
check-circle | check-circle | check-circle | check-circle | check-circle | check-circle | check-circle |
|
USB Hub |
check-circle | check-circle | check-circle | check-circle | check-circle | check-circle | check-circle |
|
LED Color |
Blue |
Blue |
times-circle |
Blue |
Blue |
Red |
Blue |
Best Laptop Cooling Pads (2018)
1. TopMate Gaming Laptop Cooler
With a futuristic design that caters to the gaming crowd, the Gaming Laptop Cooler by TopMate features the best in both design and function. Constructed out of a mixture of plastic and metal mesh, this model has five adjustable settings which each offer a different height/angle of view.
The five fan design harnesses four 65mm fans coupled with a single 120mm fan in the center base of the pad with a maximum RPM of 2500 (highest in any model recommended here). By utilizing an LCD and its supporting buttons, you can configure the fan speeds our of 6 different options.
Having an integrated, 2-port USB hub is useful if your laptop is running out of connectivity options. Keeping mind this particular cooling pad is made for 15.6″ laptop models and below. Additionally, you do not have the ability to turn off the integrated blue LEDs in the cooling fans.
2. HAVIT HV-F2068
The top cooling pad model from HAVIT, the HV-F2068 offers a five fan design that closely resembles the TopMate just with a larger form-factor and a fewer bells and whistles (no LCD and only two height settings).
Also crafted out of a combination of ABS plastic and metal mesh, the HV-F2068 offers an anti-slip design that helps will ergonomic comfort through the adjustable height and field of view. The five fan setup is configured slightly different than the TopMate with one 110mm fan and the other four coming in at 85mm each.
This is the only model within this guide to use red LEDs on the fans and similar to the TopMate, they cannot be manually disabled. Instead, these LEDs will change their glow intensity based on the speed they are running with the brightest operation happening at the 1000-1500 RPM mark.
3. Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim
If you are familiar with PC cooling components, then chances are you have already heard of Cooler Master. They are one of the most reputable names in this industry their NotePal X-Slim cooling pad offers a sleek and thin form-factor with a simple design.
Unlike the rest of the cooling pads mentioned in this guide, the NotePal X-Slim only harnesses one single fan. However, this fan is larger coming in at 160mm with a max RPM of 1500. Due to the laws of physics, this larger fan can run at a lower speed while maintaining a similar amount of airflow.
Additionally, the single-fan/slower speed combination also results in significantly less audible noise during operation which is ideal for those who hate a lot of fan noise yet still want to keep their laptop cool. Keep in mind, this cooling pad is rather bare bones with no LEDs or LCD and just a USB passthrough instead of a dedicated multi-port USB hub.
4.Tree New Bee Cooling Pad
The Cooling Pad by Tree New Bee harnesses four equally sized fans coming in at 120mm each which happens to be the most common fan size for desktop PCs. Beyond the fans, the design offers two anti-skid arms and the metal mesh platform which is meant to help draw heat away from the laptop.
With a variable height/angle adjustment between 1.14 or 2.12 inches, you can decide which setting feels best for your needs, and it accompanies laptops up to 17 inches. The cooling fan's design offers some dedicated areas for cable organization along with a built-in 2 port USB hub.
The four fans each emit blue LED lights and offer adjustable fan speeds. These LED lights are always on while the fans are functioning (anytime the pad is actually being used for cooling) and cannot be manually disabled unless the fans are turned off.
5. SIKER Cooling Pad
The Cooling Pad from SIKER is suitable for laptops from 14″ up to 17″. The form-factor is slim and utilizes six identical fans which come in at 150mm and can spin up to 1400 RPM each. Construction is comprised of ABS plastic and a metal mesh on the base of the chassis.
With an integrated 2-port USB hub, there is one available on each corner of the V-shaped design. There are five dedicated height adjustments each offering a different viewing angle. When folded down, this model may be able to fit into a bag for on-the-go use if your laptop case or storage bag supports 17″ models.
6. TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad
The laptop cooling pad form TECKNET looks a lot like some of the other 3-fan models in this guide. With three individual fans coming in at 110mm each (1200 RPM) with blue LEDs, this model offers ample cooling potential without the need to stack up on excessive fans.
TECKNET states this model supports use with laptops as low as 12-inches (like Apple's latest generation MacBook) all the way up to most 17-inch gaming models. There are two levels of height and tilt adjustability with an integrated two-port USB hub.
7. HAVIT HV-F2056
HAVIT's second cooling pad model listed within this guide although the more basic model of the two. The HV-F2056 is a more toned-down version of its older HV-F2068 brother having only three fans versus five.
These three fans are bigger in size coming in at 110mm and offer blue LED lights instead of red. However, each of these fans is rated at 1100 RPM and you cannot adjust the this fan speed.
This cooling pad comes in at just over an inch of thickness and weights 1.6lbs making it portable enough to carry around with you in an office or school setting. Like most of the competition, the HV-F2056 offers a built-in dual-port USB hub.
Final Thoughts
If you are reading this, then you have made it to the end of this recommendation guide and we hope that you have gained valuable knowledge in your search for notebook cooling accessories. If you find yourself too overwhelmed with information, then you should bookmark this URL to revisit at a later date when you are more prepared to decide on one of the recommended laptop cooling pads.
For those who have consumed all of the content within this article, but still find themselves with a question or concern about matching a laptop cooling with their their specific needs then use the comments section below this article. Our team will do our best to answer your question or provide any expert advice to help resolve your confusion or worry.
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Our staff worked hard on this article, and we hope that you feel more educated on the accessory market. While we ultimately determined the TopMate as the best laptop cooling pad for most people, all of our alternative recommendations are also great accessories that will keep your machine from overheating!
