Targus HD3 Gaming Chill Mat for up to 18 Inch Laptops AWE57US (Black)
- HydroDynamic triple fan system keeps up to 17″high-performance laptops cool
- Precise dial to control fan speeds to optimize cooling; Maximum fan speed is 3300 RPM
- Grill is constructed of anodized 2040 aluminum alloy; Features elastomer feet which provide a non-skid surface for stability
- Specifically designed to cool up to 17″high-performance laptops.
- Limited One Year
The Targus HD3 Gaming Chill Mat is specifically designed to cool up to 17” high-performance laptops. This cooling system features three ultra-silent, highly efficient fans with hydrodynamic bearings that have twice the rated lifespan than standard cooling device fans. An adjustable fan speed dial features precise, tactile control so it’s simple to adjust the cooling level without taking your eyes off of the laptop screen. The durable anodized 2040 aluminum alloy grill is lightweight and cool to
List Price: $ 63.99
Price: $ 44.79
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I would pass on this one.,
I had high hopes when I opened the box. The device was light, sleek and attractive (for a laptop cooler). Unfortunately, I immediately learned some major flaws.
I plugged the device into my Lenovo Thinkpad R40 which tends to run hot. There is no mention of this on the Amazon product page, but there is no A/C power adapter included. The product is designed to draw power directly from your laptop via a split, dual USB cable included with the unit. If your laptop is small on free USB ports, this could be a deal breaker. You can use one or both USB leads to power the cooler. They recommend using both for “maximum cooling,” but I only detected a slight difference in the max fan speed when using both USB leads as opposed to using only one (that was while the laptop was plugged into a/c power – there might be a more discernible differerence on some laptops, especially if running from battery power). But that is the least of your concerns.
The cooler has a small, on/off/speed adjustment dial on the right-front side near a tiny, bright, white LED light to let you know when the unit is on (at least theoretically). I turned the switch so it clicked on and the three 80mm x 10mm fans spin up for a split second and then they stop. They stopped? Yes, they stopped. Hence the unit’s first major flaw. The fans will only really run at medium to max speed. Instead of the fans running slowly and silently and then steadily increasing in speed as you turn the dial, I had to turn the dial to max to get the fans to spin up at all and then dial it back to get any speed other than stop or max. Even then, if you dial it back too far, the fans will just stop. There really isn’t a slient, low speed.
I say they are cheapy made fans because of the second major flaw – the fans on my unit buzz, whir and generally make noise. One of the three fans on my unit even sounds like it’s completely unbalanced to the point where it really makes a clicking noise at lower speeds. At max RPM, the fans all straighten up and spin right, but they are noisy fans at max RPM. They make your laptop sound nearly like a desktop pc.
Even at max RPM, the cooling provided by this mat is again limited by the fact that the fans are only moving air in a straight line of 80mm x 280mm as the three fans are all lined up in a row close to the rear of the unit. This is the third major flaw. If your laptop generates heat or has air intakes in the front, the middle or just nowhere near the main area of airflow in the rear, the Chill Mat will be far less effective for you. It will provide some amount of cooling, but less than I had hoped.
Also note that the description boasts that the “Grill is constructed of anodized 2040 aluminum alloy” – but it is only a very thin, surface layer of aluminum bonded to plastic. 90+% of this unit is plastic. Again, attractive, but not made of aluminum.
In my opinion, the flaws are unacceptable for a $60 laptop cooler. The average person may not even realize that the fans have stopped spinning at a low setting when they are expecting this unit to reliably cool their laptop, let alone an expensive “gaming” laptop. It only works reliably at or near max rpm and then the unit produces a lot of noise. Even then, it will typically provide only very limited cooling due to the small area in which the fans operate. I don’t reckon I would recommend this product.
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|Solid, portable cooling mat for gaming laptops,
The Targus HD3 Gaming Chill Mat is a sleek looking cooling pad aimed for larger, gaming laptops which tend to produce a lot of heat. Most of the mat is made of plastic, while the top is a thin, perforated sheet of metal. There are feet on the bottom to keep the mat raised up and allow air to flow through. Inside are three, low-profile fans that blow upwards. There’s a small dial (like an ancient Gameboy volume dial) on the side that controls the speed of the fans and a USB Mini-B port on the back edge.
Despite the large dimensions, the chill mat is surprisingly light, which makes it incredibly convenient for the on-the-go gamer. It’s thin enough to fit into a large laptop case along with your laptop, and the only cable needed is a small USB cable with two USB A (regular) connectors on one end and a single USB Mini-B on the other end.
Fortunately, the fans aren’t whiny but you can certainly feel and hear them. At the highest setting, the sound is comparable to that of a laptop fan on high, but if you wear headphones, the noise made by the mat shouldn’t be a problem. I’d say the HD3 keeps my laptop noticeably cooler when I’m playing games that would normally cause my vents to spew hot air, but it’s really only effective on the highest fan setting. Since the fans blow upward, having a second set of feet or ridges on the top of the mat to place some extras space between the fans and the bottom of your laptop might make it even better.
The only complaints I have about this cooling pad are the vibrations that it makes on the higher settings and that the cooling pad takes up two USB slots to power it.
6/21/2011 EDIT: After about 10 months of daily, heavy usage, one of the fan blades broke off inside the mat. I had to cut open the bottom panel to remove the broken blade so the fans could spin again.
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|Does a excellent job (noticably loud at full speed when things are silent),
This laptop cooler looks and feels and works like a step above the sub-$20 laptop coolers. And it should considering it costs two to three times as much.
I like its flexibility – you can adjust the cooling power with a dial on right side of the pad (towards the front), and you can give it even more power by putting the second USB into the computer’s USB slot. This is nice. At full speed, you can certainly hear the fan working, even with music playing. The sound is rather monotonous so it’s simpler to ignore it as background noise. But this may be an issue if you are sensitive to noise in general.
The dial also serves as an off/on button and I found myself often forgetting to turn it on when I unpacked the computer. The computer heating up served as a reminder to turn it on.
One thing that is rather awkward but perhaps understandable is that the USB cable is on the middle of the back of the cooling pad, instead of the side. I am guessing this is a trade-off, since putting it in the middle makes it equidistant from the left or right side USB ports on the computer. The USB cable with the two heads is detachable which is a plus if you like the flexibility or a minus if you easily misplace things. The cable is small enough to get lost in a larger computer backpack. I had to “fish” a couple of times to find it
Size-wise, a 17.3″ widescreen HP Pavilion sits just right on top of it. I don’t have access to 18-inch laptops to try those on. Needless to say, it works with smaller laptops, especially if you like your 16-inch or smaller laptops to have some room on each side of the laptop cooler. If you place a netbook on it, it makes it look like an aircraft carrier
It sits solid on solid surfaces, which is something that is not always the case with the sub-$20 coolers.
Cooling-wise, it manages to nearly completely cool off my hottest laptop, an older Presario that heats up quickly and easily. As an “extreme test”, I ran a full anti-virus scan and let the laptop heat up, and then turned the cooler on at full-speed. It managed to bring it to room temperature, something that the various sub-$20 laptop coolers I have are not able to do. They cool it off but not that much that quick while the computer is still hammering away.
If you don’t mind the noise, and do not object to paying a price premium, this can be a excellent match for 15-to-17-inch widescreen laptops [check dimensions since not all laptops are of the same size], even if they are not gaming rigs. Not just for the cooling power, but also for the protection and extra surface it provides.
Please note I haven’t tested this on gaming-rigs, so I can’t really say how it would perform with those laptops.
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