Thermaltake iXoft Notebook Cooling Pad

Thermaltake iXoft Notebook Cooling Pad

Published August 25, 2008 at 01:16:04 PM, by Blair Mathis

Overview

Welcome to Laptop Logic's review of the iXoft notebook cooling pad manufactured by Thermaltake.

There's nothing too fancy about what this pad's appearance, but what's important is what this little pad claims to do. Thermaltake claims that it uses a HeatShift Technology for the Ultimate Laptop Cooling' solution. How does it work? Does it work at all? Find out in our in-depth review!

Design

The iXoft is made to fit nearly any size laptop (12 ' 17') and operates silently, helping distribute heat more effectively than most other materials. Weighing in at only 1.4 pounds and measuring approximately 14' wide x 12' tall x '' high, its unfolded footprint doesn't exceed most laptop dimensions out there as it is, making it a formidable ally for the highly mobile.

Even though the looks remind me of my grandmother's quilt ' one thing is for sure, there's a reason why Thermaltake made the iXoft the way it looks. Each dimple and recess in the iXoft helps the air flow into your machine, and the material inside (Sodium Sulfate Decahydrate) absorbs the heat from your laptop and draws it away.

Visiting Thermaltake's website shows a nice picture of how the heat buildup is 'pushed away' from the sources allowing the cooler air to get into your laptop's intake vents.

Photo courtesy of www.thermaltake.com

Most users might know this ' but for an air cooled system to work the most efficiently, you must get the air to move out using the path of least resistance, meaning you'll want a clear unobstructed intake and exhaust. Most users are careful about the exhaust, but forget about the intake. Now, one might think that setting a laptop on a 'quilt like' pad would be counterproductive for cooling, but remember the key elements that I mentioned above: the dimples and the heat dissipating material inside the pad. The dimples, even though not as effective as say, holding the laptop in the air, provide a MUCH better system than a table ' or even a laptop riser. Why? Because the material underneath the laptop absorbs the heat ' which is where the iXoft's fancy Sodium Sulfate Decahydrate material kicks in.

Photo courtesy of www.thermaltake.com

This material has the amazing ability to turn into a more liquid state at higher temperatures, which transfers the heat to non-melted areas and then proceeds to cool down. When you move heat away from the source, the result is lower temperatures. Since this source is your laptop spreading the heat in a larger area instead of concentrating it (like any other material) creates a much more efficient cooling system. It's really not that complicated, and shouldn�t have took that long to explain, but some people like to read about it, so there you go. I'm not sure of the exact temperature in which it changes state, but rest assured, it happens!

The backing to the unit is an anti-slipping corduroy material. Yes, corduroy has that amazing ability of not letting things 'slide' around, and it's true for this as well. Even though corduroy hasn't made a comeback in about 20 years' it works, and it works well for not letting the iXoft slide around too much on a flat smoother surface, and more importantly your legs. The material on the top (which is a vinyl like material) offers VERY LITTLE slip protection, however, and is actually quiet slippery for plastic. It's a good idea to make sure your laptop has rubber feet or some sort of anti-slipping agent on the bottom or else if you were using this on your lap, it could fall off pretty easily.

The Ixoft also sports a slick 'Thermaltake' logo stitched on the side, and a screen print of their branding 'iXoft'. I'm not sure how relevant this is to the design, but trendy fashion logo seekers might/will be content.And for the final act this works with no cords no power is needed! You don't have to worry about finding a plug, or using a handy USB port with this thing. No drivers are needed! It is guaranteed to work on any operating system, however I hear that Vista testing is still underway'that's a joke.

Portability

What can one say? This thing folds up, rolls up, and stows away like a contortionist on a Slimfast diet compared to other alternatives. Weighing in around 640g (1.4 pounds), adding this to your lineup of accessories won�t break your shoulder off, or snap your wrist in half. Considering that other units require a dreaded cord, or a power supply � it�s a god send to us mobile users to sport something small and effective�but HOW effective is the unit?

Performance

I'm going to start out by giving my computer specs so any questions are out of the way. For this testing I'm using my trusty MSI 1029 (not shown in pictures). It has an AMD Turion 64 MT-37 processor clocked at 2.0GHz. I have 1GB of PC3200 ram and an 80GB 7200RPM hard drive. I always have my wireless card enabled, and my LCD set to the highest brightness. I ran a couple of normal tests, starting out with a fresh measurement of the computer off for 20 minutes then starting up and doing normal tasks. I am using a program called MobileMeter to show my temperature readings. Of course, your readings may vary with your setup, program, and use. But for review purposes, this will provide us with a great idea if the iXoft actually works as claimed. These first three tests show the unit resting on my bed, with the iXoft underneath (which under normal circumstances is just begging for your computer to overheat).

This shows my temperature reading after performing heavier tasks of opening programs, and doing some nominal web browsing. I�m not really pushing my processor on most tasks. This measures roughly five minutes of normal use running on batteries. You will notice that my temperature immediately increased for my CPU, however, my hard drive temperature dropped a few degrees. At a rough average of around 60-75% CPU load on most items being performed, heat started to build up, however, the fans didn�t jump into overdrive as they normally would. So far so good, what about loading up some tunes, web browsing, and video samples playing'

Even when loading my CPU to a rough average nearing 80-90% - the temperature did not skyrocket. It did increase slightly, but by no more than 4-7 degrees at a max point. This graph demonstrates roughly 10 minutes of above normal, heavier use. Again, so far so good the unit is helping the computer stay cooler than it would be if it didn't have the iXoft underneath. Now, what happens if I drop the processes to a minimum with only music playing next to me on my bed

What's interesting to note here is that immediately after you hit the brakes on processor usage, the temps fall right behind it. This is normal, but what isn't normal is the fact that the hard drive temperature went up a degree. I don't know why. But on a much lighter load, I'm back to normal 50 degree temps as readouts. But the great thing is, after I lifted my laptop and felt the iXoft, I could feel that it wasn't extremely warm, and it was only slightly warmer in certain focused areas (where my CPU, hard drive and exhaust area is on my laptop). This is good, it means that the material inside the iXoft was working as described, moving the heat away from the source. Had this NOT been the case, I would have noticed right away and found extreme changes in hot points.

Performance cont'd

Now, what about the unit being plugged in and really hammering away using a benchmarking program to simulate gaming or video editing, or some extreme task where the load is high and low for a multitude of tasks? I downloaded the free trial SiSoft Sandra Lite and ran a burn-in test on my system for roughly 30 minutes, with the laptop on the iXoft - placed directly on my wood desk. Below are the tasks for the entire run � simply focusing on stress environments only.

And let's really put my 1029 to the test I'm changing the priority from normal to HIGH (not recommended really). This will give us an extreme example to see if the iXoft is really performing as it's meant to be.

And now for the final results.

I am impressed. You can see that at nearing half an hour at various stress points and tests my hard drive temps raised, then lowered but my temps stay impressively low, both monitored from the MobileMeter program, and the internal testing from SiSandra (although the temperature readings are two different reference temps varying by marked 10 degrees) they both show pretty consistent results that the temperature was maintained as shown below.

Never breaching 65 degrees on either program on a high intensity testing run for nearly half an hour and my fan never running at that insanely fast speed (I listened to it the entire time) proves that this technology can, and does work.

Conclusion

Even thought I was skeptical, the iXoft does what it says it's going to do, which is aid in cooling your computer, and protecting your lap from those high temperatures reaching your legs. It may not have any fancy connections or LED lights, but it works, and if you're on the road and want to help cool your laptop, this device is a worth looking into.

Pros:

• Does as it states
• Doesn't take up much real estate
• Silent, and doesn't use power
• Extends life of your laptop

Cons:

• Only two color choices
• Slippery top surface
• It's a little spendy, but considering the alternatives, it's worth it

Recommendation:

If you are one of those people that use their laptop on the go constantly this unit comes highly recommended as it is effective and does actually work. If you're not into white, you can get it in black too. If I had to guess one item that all laptop users could use on a great gift list, it would be the iXoft. For the price and the performance it provides, it's not only worth it, it's just downright awesome.

Availability/Warranty

Available now for a MSRP of $24.99.

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Technical Specifications

No specifications are available.