Laptop Cooling Suggestions

H'okay. In a few months, I'm buying a Aurora m9700 (Alienware laptop) and am curious about something. Alienware stuff tends to get hot quickly, however the 9700 is quite good about maintaining a good temperature.

Still, for longevity purposes, I'd like a cooling stand. I've heard shifty things about stands that use fans, but I've also heard good things about them. Something caught my eye that lacks fans, but absorbs the heat. However, I need a third party place where I can see legit reviews as opposed to the happiest possible results (possibly even fake ones).

The website for that cooling stand is here:
http://www.xpad4laptop.com/

No fans = no moving parts = no worries of breaking down.

However, no fans PERIOD make me a little skeptical. Anyone got any nice solutions to this, or a good product? This is still a purchase that is a few months away, but I'd like to get all my thoughts collected on what I need in total.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm honestly a little skeptical on the fanless cooling pad too. I can accept the part where the site mentions it increases the gap between the surface and the laptop to improve cooling-- but really. If you think about it, it can't cool any better than a flat aluminum table. As far as passive cooling goes. But its true in the sense that it'll cool better than your legs and pants.

As for a solution,
whenever I'm working long hours on my laptop at work I use this. Its very good at cooling (active cooling!) and is able to hold my 15.4" laptop. It appears pretty damn durable too as I've been using it for over a year now. And the fans hasn't died on me. So that's another plus.

Its only downsides is that it needs a usb port for the fans to operate and I guess its price tag... which is around 30usd. But looking at the other brands its actually a very good price.

If you want to see the other brands anyway just checkout frozencpu.com.
Oh yeah, this seems to be a better/hardcore version of what I have. I don't know if its reliable though. Just something you might want to look into.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

It lacks fans, but it acts as a surface to absorb heat. I read a review on Amazon.com which mentioned that it worked nicely. He used to make use of a slab of granite (which was clunky and heavy) to absorb the heat, then switched over to this and was pleased. I went to an official review site, and although it didn't review many items, it had reviewed this. It has a graph with statistics and what-have-you that showed this works nicely.

Bottom line they tried to point out is that laptops are engineered to handle their heat with the fans, heat sinks, etc they have. However, when they are placed down, their vents to push out heat get blocked and you run into an engineering variable. I think I might still give this a shot, as it looks nice. I've only heard grumblings about pads that have fans, for some reason.

However, the last item you listed looks interesting. Has its own thermometer and the *whole* surface is a fan. The laptop I'm getting is 17", so I dunno how well it'd work with sitting on that, though '~' Hmm.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hmm interesting.

I did a little reading about xpad's main ingredient (ABS plastic) and I'm a little surprised to find that the polymer its made out of acts more like a insulator for the user. Rather than a conductive material to help pull heat away. I guess this is so the person using it won't feel the heat from the laptop, not too much anyway.

That only leaves one reason why it is able to dissipate as much heat as they claim. And that's the spacing it provides to the laptop. Like one review mentioned:

Originally Posted by Altgamer website

When comparing the gap between my laptop stock feet a flat desktop surface, I can see that there’s really not a lot of room to breath. On the other hand, the space in between the “X” fragments with the X-Pad has about 3 times the gap so a lot more air can travel to and from my laptop...

So roughly it makes the laptop's job of cooling itself much easier and therefore run cooler.

In conclusion, does the fanless cooler work?
Myth! -> incredibly, yes!

Maybe you should get it. Its cheaper than my cooler anyway =p.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Ahahah ;D Fair enough. Thanks for the informed advice!

How ya doing, buddy?