Laptop cooling

[_Tristan_]

How useful are gel-based cooling mats ? Should I better go with a extra fan in an external base ?

[Ramses II CP]

My wife has a gel based one for her laptop. It doesn't change the temperature of the machine in either direction but it keeps her legs cool, so I would only recommend getting one if the laptop bothers you when it's sitting in your lap.

Try before you buy with any external device that has fans! Depending on the design and airflow of your specific laptop the extra fans could actually choke your current fans and raise the internal temperature if you're not careful. You can use an app like SpeedFan to monitor temps with and without the extra fans. With my laptop, which runs very hot, all the laptop cooling devices with fans that I tried either made no difference or actually made performance much worse. I don't really recommend them.