Notebook Cooler, Silver, ZM-NC2000
by Zalman
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List Price: Our Price: $47.97 You Save: $26.02 (35%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $39.50 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Notebook Cooler, Silver, ZM-NC2000
Customer Review: ideal for home, not as heavy as I expected, not very portable.
Summary: 5 Stars
Using with my new 2008 15.4" Macbook Pro (maybe a bit overkill as the MBP doesn't get that hot). But why not protect such an expensive piece of equipment. (at $66 its well worth protecting the life of your notebook PC)
I have used the Antec Notebook Cooler with my prior notebooks and pretty satisfied with those. But those are best for 14" notebooks or smaller.
This ZM-NC2000 has slightly larger footprint around the edges than the 15.4" MBP. (about 0.5 inches on sides and front, 1 inch in back). I love the TWO USB ports (one on left, and one on right) for different notebook configurations. You can use the second USB port for a mouse (the unit acts like a pass through USB) or whatever.
The surface is all aluminum and the small rubber pieces on top are okay in gripping my MBP so it does not slide around.
The unit is tilted about 10 degrees (you can't change this) and underneath, there are retractable feet that can increase the angle to about 15-20 degrees (sorta like most desktop keyboards).
The bottom part of the unit is black plastic, recessed from the edges of the aluminum top (so yes the aluminum edges do extend over but are not that sharp). There is a nice small compartment underneath where you can store the 12" USB cable.
Only 2 fans (located towards back of the unit) which draws heat and directs downwards to the base/table. The fans are fairly quiet. I love the variable speed dial (an on/off button). Only complaint is the although quiet in decibels, the pitch of the fans is a bit high (compared to the Antec cooler) when at max speed. Blue LED light for on/off.
Not sure how it will affect the battery life of the computer when it's at full power, but you can also use the unit (turned off) for passive cooling.
Overall, great cooling unit for 15.4" and probably 17" notebook sizes. Not that heavy. A bit too big to carry around to the local cafe or library.
UPDATE: this notebook cooler is not ideal for people who place their computer on their laps. The overhanging aluminum although not sharp can possibly scratch wood surfaces. I usually use it on my couch or bed and surfaces that don't dissapate heat well.
ANOTHER UPDATE: so this Zalman doesn't seem to make much of a difference with my unibody MacBook Pro, BUT WOW!!! It really does the job with cooling my fiancee's HP Pavilion ze5300. If anyone is unfortunate enough to use this behemoth, you know how loud the CPU fans are and how freakin hot it gets. It usually get too hot for you to leave your hand on the bottom casing. Just for kicks, I tried it with the HP Pavilion ze5300 and for hours, it kept the base much cooler than the Antec Notebook Cooler. I almost didn't believe it and kept lifting and touching the base of the ze5300. To my surprise, it did a great job with cooling this computer, but the CPU fans were still loud. I don't know why this performed better than the Antec, but I suspect it maybe that the Zalman fans were closer to the vents on the HP Pavilio ze5300.
Customer Review: Prevent China Syndrome...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best notebook cooler I have ever used, hands down. It is really not designed for use in the lap, but this is no problem for me since I never have been comfortable using notebooks that way. It does, however, make the best platform for using a notebook at a desk, coffee table, or cafe bar that I have ever seen.
This unit seems to be the perfect companion to a 17" MacBook Pro that you could ever wish for, especially considering the dimensions. The notebook has a quarter inch of clearance on either side, and a good bit of manuverability up or down slope. Even the color is a good match. The black plastic frame which supports the light aluminum chassis has feet for height adjustment and travel storage for the accompanying usb cord, while the back color makes the aluminum finish take center stage. This unit wont outshine your laptop, but it is the perfect accompaniment for functionality and style.
The fans are very quiet (they have a strange whisper sound which you can pick up if you tune in) but they can be adjusted in RPM's with a 'volume' dial on the side, as well as be turned off with a button. There is a bright blue LED diode to let you know the thing is turned on as well. A simple usb cord connects to the unit on one side, but is replicated on the other side, keeping things even usb wise.
Performace-wise I'm impressed.
I use my Macbook in Bootcamp with Windows Vista, so I use Coretemp to determine my core temps, and have noticed once already a 15 degrees C difference in temps playing graphics intensive games like Fallout 3 [its best cooling (65C), my previous worst cooling (80C)]. This would be a best case extreme usage example, but with normal usage, on average it is 5-10C cooler than I experienced without the cooler. This is worth it in my opinion. You can't cool a computer that is in such a tight case as a notebook exceptionally well just be venting some air on the outside and sitting it on an aluminum chassis, but it does better than expected. When my computer first powers up, the notebook feels cold to the touch, which I find impressive.
Overall, this unit does all I could ask of it, and performs better than expected. It provides rock solid stability, and a good typing angle that is much desired, all while keeping my computer cores from experiencing the 'China syndrome' and doing it all with style. I'm so happy, it makes me blush.
Five stars.
Customer Review: It seems well designed, but it doesn't work well for me.
Summary: 2 Stars
I have an Apple Macbook Pro 17", purchased in July 2009. This laptop runs cool and fine if you just do web browsing, listening to iTunes, but it gets really hot if you start to play games. I played mostly flash games online on Facebook and World of Warcraft, and I noticed it gets really hot by the magsafe plug, then the heat goes to the left hand side keyboard, which I use mostly to move my character in World of Warcraft. I checked online for solutions, downloaded temperature/fan control app to know what temperature it is at (above 85-90), turned the fan up to max, and it didn't help much. Looking at the schematics, there is 1 fan on the left side, and 1 fan on the right side. The cpu and 2 gpus is on the left hand side of the laptop, and the right hand side is very cool. Anyone who knows computer would know you need to cool your cpu and gpus, as these components tend to produce more heat. Why there is not more than 1 fan on the left side is beyond me. So, I decided to looked into this product.
I got to say this product does look well designed. There are 2 fans (though the plastic on the bottom shows prints for 4 total). I believe one fan is blowing air, and the other one is sucking air. Each fan runs at 1500rpm max and you can adjust the speed. There are illustrations where the air will flow thru the holes on the top where its made of aluminum which will cool the bottom of your laptop. My 17" laptop fits very nicely, but not very comfortable on your lap, though I can see its not made to be put on your lap. That being said, this product is like a nice looking car that barely runs. When I put the fan on max, and put my hand on top of it, I barely feel air. It is very quiet, and you can see the fan moving pretty fast, but how could there be barely any air coming out? Is it because the second fan is sucking it right back out? I don't know. I can't say this product is useless, the very mild air does slow down the heating to temperature 85, but it still reach there and gets hot. I tried my brother's fan cooling pad that he got at Best Buy for 10 dollars, it has a single middle size fan, pretty loud, and it does about the same thing as this product. There are 3 USB ports, one is used to connect to your laptop for power, so you are left with 2, but its better than most cooling pads which doesn't offer any.
I really can't recommend this product to anyone.
Customer Review: Great Cooler
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a Dell XPS M1730 and anyone that knows of this laptops knows it generates a lot of heat. I wanted to keep it cool so I looked at getting a laptop cooler. After considering many options and even trying out a few (bought them but returned them cause I wasn't happy), I settled on this one.
It's quiet and actually works. The design is nice in that the airflow is distributed rather evenly, compared to other coolers that have high flow near the fan and no flow anywhere else. It's also actually big enough so my laptop fits on it (my laptop is 17" so it's rather large compared to the typical laptop).
However, as with any laptop cooler, this only works up to a certain extent. To properly cool the laptop you must get air inside and blowing past the heatsinks, not the external body of the laptop. To solve this, you can open it up and cut out a sheet of paper or foam that has holes specifically placed by your laptop's cooling vents, and this will help direct the airflow into those areas. This will much more effectively help cool your laptop, and this is one of the few cooler designs that actually allow this.
My laptop as all the cooling vents on the back so I blocked the front half of the vents on the cooler and place my laptop on the cooler so that my air intakes sit right over where all the air is being pushed up. It has effectively dropped my graphics card temperature nearly 10*C when doing regular tasks as about 3-5*C while gaming. To me that's a significant reduction and well worth it, especially for extended gaming sessions.
The only con I could see is the added bulk of porting this thing around with your laptop, but my laptop is so large I consider it as a portable desktop, and I only really move it from desk to desk, so moving this along with it is no big deal to me.
Finally, the last suggestion I have is getting a generic phone charger (one that plugs into the wall and gives you a USB outlet) and plugging the cooler into that so you aren't sucking power out of one of your computer's USB outlets all the time. A lot of laptops can't handle huge loads in their USB outlets (I know my laptop actually has full-powered USB ports, but most don't), and this will help prevent your USB port from frying, and since a lot of laptops only have a couple ports, I think this is a good precaution.
Customer Review: Pricey, but you get what you pay for!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a Dell XPS1710 that is attached to a docking station for use as a desktop. I generally get all of the upgrades when I get a computer. So this laptop has a lot of power and emits some heat. In addition, I have it overclocked to the top speed. After less than a year, I found it continually went to 100% CPU usage, and wouldn't do anything. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what was using so much of the CPU resources, and finally called Dell tech support to see if they could find anything. Using tools the tech person had, we still couldn't find anything that could be causing the problem.
The tech person finally suggested the possibility that the laptop was overheating - something I hadn't considered in spite of the bottom getting hot to the touch. He ordered two new fans and a heat sink that were installed within two days. The old fans and the heat sink were packed with dust. The repairman suggested a laptop cooler, a periodic cleaning of the air vents with compressed air.
I had never heard of a laptop cooler, but started researching on Amazon that night. After reading reviews for a number of coolers, I decided on the ZM-NC2000 because of the positive reviews and the size of my laptop. I also like the idea that it was USB powered and had two fans which many didn't.
I would highly recommend this cooler. When on, the platform almost feels refrigerated. It has riser feet that keep the laptop up from the shelf surface for air circulation. I was concerned the riser would make connection to the docking station difficult, but it doesn't cause a problem at all. The raised part of the cooler is at the front of the machine. So even part of the docking station, which also gets hot, is on the platform. Even with the fans turned to high, I can't hear them.
In conclusion, I think it was well worth the investment of $72 for a cooler that will save wear and tear on a laptop that cost over $4000. This cooler will work for laptops up to 20". If you have a 14" or 15" laptop, you might want to consider the ZM-NC1000.