AVANTEK Laptop Cooling Pad 74B

The fan pad works as advertised, but is really only usable if you leave it parked on your desk all the time. It is not strong enough to withstand the rigors of travel. This is the version with the wire frame support (all of the Avantek model reviews appear to be lumped together) and two fans.And yes, the blue light is annoying, but the placement of the USB plugs are worse. They are on the back of the fan housing and between the wire support arm and the unit when the unit is folded down. This means you cannot use the fan unless the support arm is moved at least to the first height adjustment. You cannot leave the fan flat while it is running and you cannot leave the USB wire in the plug when you fold the unit down.I doubt I will use it much. Instead, I will find a nice rubber strip that I can superglue to the laptop base to keep it elevated higher off the table or my lap. Laptop vendors who have their fans discharge directly out of the bottom of the unit should include this as an option anyway because they often do not provide enough leg/bottom elevation to allow sufficient air movement through the laptops...and you get overheat damage as a result.Update 4/15/2015:If your internal laptop fans blow down like mine do, turn this cooling pad upside down to get better cooling results. The pad cooled my laptop 3C-5C better internally when operated as designed (fans blowing up). When I turned it upside down so the flow is in the same direction as my laptop fans, the internal laptop temp was 6C-7C (or 11F) lower. That 11F difference might be well worth the hassle of using this cooling pad if you laptop runs hot...or any cooling fan for that matter. Please note that you must leave the laptop catch tabs extended down if you run this unit upside down so the fans have a discharge path. If the unit is laying flat on the table and upside down, there is no way for the air to flow out from under the pad and it cannot do its work. You will get no cooling that way.Update 4/21/15:I received the following unit to replace the one I originally bought: AVANTEK CP172 15''-17'' Laptop Notebook Cooling Pad Chill Mat. It is far more stable than the one with the wire frame support. It also cools my laptop better. The following were the internal CPU temp results for my Dell Precision M3800 that runs hot on the bottom during system diagnostics stress test (100% CPU utilization):Without cooling pad and on table top: 85COn Avantek cooling pad without legs extended: 81COn Avantek cooling pad with legs extended: 77CA 9C drop in internal temp is good.I still don't like the blue light...but access to the USB port and on/off switch is excellent in this model.

I really like this cooling pad because it does it's job well. But I doubt I would buy this specific style of item again (CP162) or suggest it to my friends.The useful little 'feet' that keeps the laptop from sliding down, break really easily. They lay down flat when not in use, and flip up/open to provide a little shelf for the laptop. Well, when I first got this cooling pad, one of them was broken off already, but I fixed it with a paper clip and determination. Now the other foot has broken off, gotten lost and I can't fix it; so my laptop wants to slowly side down sideways.The other complaint I had was the metal bar that works to adjust the angle of the pad by slipping into notches on the base bit, is bent out of shape some. I can still adjust th angle but it takes a bit more work to ensure that the bar is properly in place before I put any weight on the whole set-up; just to make sure it won't collapse. The bar has been that way since I've gotten it and it hasn't really gotten worse.Bottom line: It works well and looks pretty neat.I wouldn't buy this style of a cooling pad again because it looks like some of the other varities have changed the design of the 'feet' to a better idea.

It was working great, then all of sudden has just died. I thought it would last at the very least a year. Bought it in April of this year and here we are not even August and it no longer works. I have a different brand that has already two years under its belt I didn't buy because it makes annoying noise but guess what it still works and the noise goes away. So I am going back to themupdate the company sent me a new pad because the other was still under warranty which I honestly had not checked. They reached out and contacted me and now I have the new one working well, I would like to give it more stars but I am going to wait in hopes that this one lasts longer then the other I had. But a Big Thank You to Avantek for standing behind its product !

My laptop gets REALLY warm. But the dual fans in this cooling pad do an amazing job of keeping it cool all the time. They are so quiet, I forget they're even running. It's also more stable than any riser I've ever used. There are five height adjustments, and even in the highest position, it's still unbelievably sturdy. There's no bouncing and each height position feels like it's locked in place. The way it grips my laptop is incredible.It does not budge. It feels like it's all one piece. The rubber feet underneath keep it from sliding so it stays in place.Yet it's easy enough to move around. And I love to blue LED light at night.

Extremely quiet, as advertised, and does a fine job cooling even in my frequently >80 degree apartment in the summertime. Main complaint is that it feels very flimsy, and is easily bent; I picked it up the wrong way once while it was on, and heard the fans grinding against the frame. While the laptop is just sitting on it, it's fine, of course, since the weight is distributed evenly, but it's a little sensitive to how you move it around. So I can't say anything for longevity yet, but I imagine it should be okay as long as you take good care of it.

I recently purchased an Alienware 15 laptop (i7 quad core 3ghz with 3gb GTX 970). Within 2 weeks, my laptop burned out, and Dell sent me a replacement with a new motherboard. Fearing that I might again overheat the CPU/Graphics card, I picked up the AVANTEK stand. Numerous people say that stands with fans don't work. AVANTEK's does!When I fire up Battlefield 4 on high settings, the temps would hover around 55-60 degrees Celcius with the stand pulling in cool air underneath. Without the stand temps would flare up around 75-80 degrees Celcius.It's seriously a great investment for your laptop.

It does the job of fairly quickly dropping CPU temps. And as my laptop normally runs warm enough to activate the fans then the fans do turn off when the cooler is on. If I unplug the power to the cooler then the fans come back on within 45-60 seconds. But noise wise I am just replacing the sound of my laptop fan with the cooler fans. Now the cooler fans are bigger and so spin slower and so the noise is lower pitch but I would not say quieter. The laptop fans are higher pitch and so a bit more noticeable.The on off switch is difficult to get to as partially covered by the tilt mechanism. If you want maximum tilt the switch is exposed but if you want to operate it flat the switch (and the USB ports) are difficult to get at. so I tend to unplug the cable from the USB port. It also means if you don't have multiple USB ports then you have to use the USB ports on the back of the cooler which are also difficult to get at.The nice blue lights are pretty pointless. The laptop covers them up.

I had a few issues with this cooling pad, after the fans stopped spinning after just a couple weeks. However, Avantek were very helpful, and sent out a replacement immediately. This replacement has been working perfectly ever since I received it, 2 weeks ago. I strongly believe that the original issues were just a one off.This cooling pad is not perfect, but it is great for the price. However, if you do experience any issues, I am sure they will be more than helpful if you contact them.

Thanks for asking for a review, I had purchased a new laptop for my husbands birthday, and a friend suggested getting a Cooling Pad. So I ordered 2, one being for myself.It is Great, keeps laptop cool, just a small amount of humming while the fans are rotating, so easy to connect up.What more do you need.

So far this fan has far surpassed my old one which just seemed to suck dust in. It's very quiet and I haven't had a single thermal shutdown. Plus it holds the laptop very securely no matter the angle and doesn't collapse flat every time it receives even the slightest nudge.

The first pad I received from Amazon had a problem with one of the fans rattling. I contacted AVANTEK support regarding the rattling fan, and they were happy to send out a replacement with no fuss whatsoever. I received this the following day, and there's no rattling fan, so I've no complaints there.The product itself is great; it seems to be pretty sturdy, though only time will tell, the fans are fairly quiet and it has dropped 20c off my temps. Couldn't really ask for more.