What's your story with Cooling Pads for Unibody MacBook Pro's?

[Alvi]

Hi, I just got a Manhattan Cooling pad which really isn't working, it has 3 fans but if i look at the temperature on iStat or any other temp app it doesn't make a difference, maybe just 1-4º C i expected to get 20º less or something but it just isn't... should i return it and exchange it with another one or do all cooling pads do the same?

 

[prss14]

I would take it back. I downloaded the fan control app and just lowered the temp threshold to increase the fan speed. Lowering it just a little bit made a big difference for me. I also am just not a big fan of the cooling pads. Too heavy. I have an old lap board (I guess that is what you would call it) that I sometimes use when doing serious media editing. Flat plastic on top and something soft on the bottom. That and the fan app are all I have needed.

 

[Alvi]

I would take it back. I downloaded the fan control app and just lowered the temp threshold to increase the fan speed. Lowering it just a little bit made a big difference for me. I also am just not a big fan of the cooling pads. Too heavy. I have an old lap board (I guess that is what you would call it) that I sometimes use when doing serious media editing. Flat plastic on top and something soft on the bottom. That and the fan app are all I have needed.

I use some sort of big piece of wood when i'm in bed so i don't obstruct the ventilation holes of the MacBook, but i don't enjoy at all to run it at 70 ºC (158º Fahrenheit) on a flat surface like my desk

 

[Kingcodez]

Never used one, my macbook pro barely gets hot, ever.
If I'm on hulu watching high quality video then yeah maby it'll hit around 80 or so, but I keep my fans really low because I can, so I just flip them on when it gets hot, but I don't really care.

SMC Fan Control is the app to use
Set the fans to like 3000 ish, and you wont hear them.
2000 or something is the minimum but there really isnt that much of an audible difference between the two.

 

[Alvi]

Never used one, my macbook pro barely gets hot, ever.
If I'm on hulu watching high quality video then yeah maby it'll hit around 80 or so, but I keep my fans really low because I can, so I just flip them on when it gets hot, but I don't really care.

SMC Fan Control is the app to use
Set the fans to like 3000 ish, and you wont hear them.
2000 or something is the minimum but there really isnt that much of an audible difference between the two.

I have another program which is called Fan Control which keeps temperatures nice, but i feel that 70 - 80º is pretty insane, and i reach those temps when i do some harder work, i'd love to lower those temps to 60º -ish

 

[iamrawr]

Try a heatshift thermapak. They're fanless so they don't use up power and they use conduction to cool it down. You can get one for around $25-30ish. I personally don't have one but the reviews were overall good. They're also very easy to carry.

 

[Pax]

The problem with cooling pads on MBPs is that very, very little heat comes out of the base of the MBP, so the cooling pad can't make much difference. Even under full load my MBP base only gets up to 30C. It's hard for a cooling pad to suck any heat out of that. Even if it did, at full CPU load I expect the fans will just slow down to keep the CPU at its Apple-designed setpoint of 90-95 C (IIRC)

Just return it and do without - I really doubt that any cooling pad will work. They are designed for conventional laptops with air inlets on the base, which Macs don't have.