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CDL Micro Laptop/Notebook Gel Cooling Pad
by Mildew82
My once reliable laptop decided to become a temperamental little sod after years of faithful service and began to overheat at regular intervals either resulting in singed lower limbs or an emergency shutdown to preserve the inner circuitry which is clearly not good for all concerned. The usual outcome - the fans would start noisily going ... overboard in a last ditch attempt to salvage the situation before the inevitable sigh of death followed by a depressingly black screen and potential loss of work. Wanting to go for a cheap solution rather than getting a technician to look at my laptop or pulling it apart myself for a full scale dusting which would probably result in either an unwanted expenditure or the need to buy a completely new laptop, I was on the prowl for some kind of convenient cooling system and the concept of a gel cooling pad fitted the bill nicely and thus the CDL Micro NEWlink Laptop/Notebook Gel Cooling Pad came in to my possession.
The pad, which I spent £8.99 on, comes packaged in a thick, see through plastic case which needs a small nuclear detonation to have any chance of getting in. Seriously, you have zero chance of opening the package with your bare hands - a sharp implement is required, for which I opted for your everyday pair of household scissors, and even that was hard work and left the plastic all jagged and dangerous - frankly I felt myself lucky not to slice an artery open. Taking care to cut around the pad, which would have been incredibly easy to damage trying to hack your way through the plastic, when you do finally manage to free it you gain access to the paperwork inside which gives the low down on how best to use and maintain the pad, and the fact if the inner granules escape from within via perhaps a tear in the outer material it would render the pad less effective / useless. Oh, I wonder what could possibly cause irreparable damage...a jagged piece of plastic, perchance? I suspect a better form of packaging would be helpful in the future...
==Science explains it all==
The pad is approximately 35cm W x 30cm H x 1cm D and weighs about 830g so is a good size to fit all laptops / notebooks on and is pretty lightweight - put it this way, using it to defend yourself against a burglar won't stop your stuff being stolen. So, what's the science behind the miracle of this cooling pad? Well, basically the pad is stuffed full of a macromolecular compound in a symmetrical undulating pattern of small nodules which under a temperature of 25°C remains in crystal / granular form. As the heat increases to more than 25°C this compound is able to absorb the excess by changing its state to that of a viscous gel thus lowering the temperature of the laptop, and the fact its surface is non-uniform means the fans remain unblocked so can go about their normal business uninterrupted. The great thing about this compound is it will revert back to its crystal state when the temperature drops back down again, allowing for repeat use.
==The Benefits==
The manufacturer claims the benefits of using this pad are:
* By lowering the operating temperature of your device its longevity improves
* The style of the pad allows for use on soft and hard surfaces plus laps
* It is portable and fits easily into a laptop case
* It is compatible with all types of notebooks / laptops
* You can get 5 hours of use before an external power source is required
So, as the heat of the laptop begins to rise to uncomfortable levels, can this pad rise to the challenge?
==My Experience==
The usual times when I operate my laptop for prolonged periods are when I find a plausible excuse like snow or malaria to work from home so I'm looking at an 8 hour period of solid laptop use. This generally takes place in my office space - aka my bed on top of a duvet - which does not allow the free flowing of air and by using my laptop this way I probably did not contribute to its general wellbeing and subsequently it is in this scenario that my laptop most often spluttered and died at many inopportune moments through my working day. So, using the pad the last time I worked from home? It didn't die once over the entire 8 hour period. I call that a result. My observations throughout this experience were firstly that the fans were infinitely quieter so the strain put on them must have been considerably reduced which is clearly a great thing for keeping the internal workings ticking over safely and more efficiently and to stop corrupting things like my registry with unexpected shutdowns.
Secondly, the pad itself, despite absorbing a lot of heat, remained very cool to the touch and underneath (the part that would be in contact with your lap and human flesh) had no noticeable change at all which meant the horrible burning sensation I used to get when the fans previously gave up the ghost is now a thing of the past, and when the top side eventually started getting slightly warmer, for me it was localised on the top left hand side of the pad so you could simply swivel the pad around allowing the cool side to now be in contact with this molten hot spot to gain even more life from the pad and then all that is required is to rinse and repeat throughout the day. Well maybe not the rinsing part since water and electronics have historically not mixed well together.
Thirdly, to test the claim that this pad works well with soft and hard surfaces as well as a lap I can confirm that the pad, whilst being fairly rigid has a certain degree of flexibility so it does sit well on hard surfaces such as a desk, and moulds quite well to soft surfaces like a duvet, but the lap is where a rather serious problem does arise. If you have a good posture and are sitting upright with your lap parallel to or at a higher angle than the ground there is no problem. If you are slouching or reclining, as I often do whilst watching TV for example, the pad has absolutely no grip for the laptop and gravity takes over violently pulling your laptop towards the unforgiving ground on a cataclysmic collision course, which is a bit disappointing. Even if your posture is good, if you are in the process of rearranging yourself to achieve maximum comfort, an accident is just waiting to happen.
The underside however is made of a lovely felt material which is nice to the touch and rather ironically does allow the pad to grip quite firmly to whatever surface it is laid on (apart from smooth surfaces), but alas means it also grips rather firmly to such things as dust and cat fur so this pad does require a frequent dusting. I'm not sure whether or not this pad is suitable for a machine wash, but I wouldn't recommend it - a simple wipe down with a damp cloth or a duster seems to do the job nicely enough. As for the other claims, my laptop is pretty large compared to ones I've had in the past, but the pad is large enough to encompass the whole base, so I would be confident that this pad is indeed compatible with all other types of laptops or notebooks out there on the market at the moment, and its thinness does indeed make it very portable as I've found that it does slot nicely into my own laptop case and adds very little to the overall heaviness. As for the 5 hour life span of the pad and the increased longevity of my laptop I cannot definitively prove these claims either way, but what I can say is that I notice no real change in the pad after 5 hours of use positively or negatively and my laptop continues to chug along issue free and I can only believe that this will help keep my laptop remain in a usable state for longer now it has stopped shutting itself down constantly and that by the laws of electronics the lower operating temperature will indeed allow for all the various components to live for longer.
So, you can in theory keep your laptop cool all by itself by making sure you dust it properly and using hard surfaces that won't block the air flow unlike say a duvet, but for people that this just doesn't work for, an external cooling system may be the only way to go. Other choices range from sturdy, aluminium adjustable stands to smaller cooling pads both with in-built fans usually operated by a USB connection to your laptop with prices ranging anywhere from £4.99 to £30 but the obvious advantage with this particular gel cooling pad is that it is comparatively cheap, compatible with all laptops, is more portable than these raised stands and does not require the use of a USB port from your laptop. If you are looking for a permanent solution, a more expensive stand may work better for you, but for people that want the flexibility of using their laptop anywhere from desks to laps to duvets I have no real complaints with this other than the terrible lack of grip with lap usage.
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Startech Heatsink Thermal Pads
by boredindunoon
Thermal compound (also referred to as gel, paste, grease) is a substance that fills small and sometimes microscopic gaps between two surfaces and increases their "thermal conductivity" while at the same time smoothing out rough surfaces to improve their connection. In terms of electrical components, thermal compound is used in ... computers between the processor core (CPU) and the heatsink to increase heat dissipating.
If your building your own computer, upgrading your processor / heatsink and fan or just have a old system and you want to replenish the thermal compound, perhaps to try for an overclock then you may need some of the slick silver substance.
One of your options is to purchase these StarTech Heatsink Thermal Pads (which comes in a pack of 5), and offers a "mess free solution to installation and heat conduction for maximum cooling." In theory a thermal pad would have a number of advantages of thermal paste. They would be quicker to apply, much easier to apply and much less messy. In reality however these items have problems that you will also have to consider when buying.
In terms of packing it's the bare basics here. Five small pads in a small plastic bag with no instructions on how or where to use them. That in itself doesn't present a massive problem as if your technological advanced enough to build your own computer and install processors then you should be advanced enough to stick on a sticky pad. If not then you have the wealth of the internet with all the information know to man in front of you (yes you can use the internet for things other than getting in arguments with strangers or for looking at photos of cats.) On a plus the small bag was very easy to open.
The design of these thermal pads mean that the compound as solid at room temperature which only changes and softens as the temperature of the heatsink increases. However the two main selling points of these items are it's mess free installation and even application design - but sadly I can't really comment on those points as I never actually reached that stage.
Despite being advertised as "peel and stick" they were not sticky in the slightest. It was physically impossible once peeling off the backing to stick the pads or to either your heatsink or processor directly. You could take a chance and use a bit of glue or try and take a best guess by sitting it on your CPU then fitting your heatsink on top hoping that doing so won't make the pad move. That's there first selling point lost as there not easy to use or fit.
In terms of size the pads are pretty much spot on, covering the processor core and its surrounds. As for being less messy, I suppose they are when compared to thermal gel such as Silver Nitrate (where you have to squirt on gel like liquid) something running as if it had a mind of it's own.
The next point to consider is cost and at nearly five pounds for a pack of five (price correct at time of buying and reviewing) they don't offer value for money. Compare this to a tube of Arctic Silver 5 3.5g Thermal Paste which can easily cover ten processors if not more for £6.10.
Sadly the "less messy" option alone isn't good enough for me to recommend this product to you. If your looking for a thermal compound you'll be better sticking with the fore mentioned Artic Silver which is better value, easier to use and to be honest more fun.
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