Zalman Tech's ZM-NC1000 laptop cooler: not as noisy as you think

With hot running and even occasionally, exploding laptops making front page news, laptop coolers like this ZM-NC1000 from Zalman Tech are stepping into a ready-made market of fear and consumption. For about a Grant, you can buy yourself some peace of mind, in addition to a 3-mm thick aluminum sled featuring two centrifugal fans spinning up to 1,500RPM or less via the adjustable dial along the side of the chassis. Instead of those extra blowers adding ever more noise to the environment, the cooler's quiet running fans are said to not only reduce the laptop's heat but also bring the dBAs down a few ticks on that logarithmic scale. See, by lowering the heat, the laptop's noisy, sometimes mooing, fan is able to spin at a leisurely Sunday RPM thereby decreasing the overall noise level... or so says Zalman.

[Via AVING]

[Pras Anand @ Jan 30th 2008 3:55PM]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned that Hard Disk drives don't like to be running at an angle. There is a greater risk of long term failiure if your HDD is not running roughly at a flat angle (flat, or sideways, as long as it's perpendicular to the earth's gravity).

I will use a laptop cooler since high-powered computers always generate more heat, and contrary to the comments about well designed laptops, my current DTR (Desktop replacement) laptop runs very hot and has noisy fans, but that's not a design issue, that's a choice issue. If I wanted a cool, low-powered laptop I would have got one.

Maybe Zalman should design one that doesn't put my HDD at risk, since I don't use a Solid-state yet..

[Atmaweapon @ Oct 1st 2008 4:19PM]

Keaton, ever hear of a thing called Google? =o)

Hypro Bearing Technology

This designed and
manufactured innovation lasts twice as long as
sleeve models and costs less than durable ball-
bearing fans. This innovative design has an inside
structure without o-ring and washer. Thus
overwhelmingly reduce the friction, temperature
rise and noise. Not only does this improve the rate
of assembly and increasing the output, but it also
prevents the shaft of the heat dissipation fan and
the bearing from chafing thereby increasing the
life of the fan. Moreover, it performs longer life
than ball-bearing fan over 50,000 hours at ambient
temperature !!

[Luke Hollins @ Nov 9th 2008 3:06PM]

This thing works great, if only due to reducing the sound from the notebooks internal fan(s). I have been using it for months and really notice the CPU fan noise when I'm using the notebook away from my desk.

One caveat, the fans in it get noisier over time.

[Tomas Miguens @ Sep 8th 2009 2:45AM]

I used this product in Thailand for two months.
It does not lower your laptop's temperature (HD Tune).
It's nice and sleek, and poorly designed with minimal raise settings (just two tiny feet), but that's about all you'll get.

[Chris @ Nov 7th 2006 9:25AM]

If your laptop is hot enough to need this, get it fixed. Don't support band-aid products like this. The product needs to be designed and properly manufactured so that we don't have to have add-ons like this to work properly.

I bought an early MacBook Pro and it was hot as hell. I had a few options but I decided to open it up and reapply the thermal paste. Now it's as cool as it was designed to be. There are also software solutions to make the fan turn on sooner which reportedly keeps the machine much cooler.

[PDubNYC @ Nov 7th 2006 9:39AM]

Ever since I started using SMCFanControl, I don't really need this, although it seems like a great idea. I am curious how well it works, and if it really makes a difference around the keyboard where mine gets quite hot, especially between the keyboard and screen.

As far as saying it'll cost you a Grant, stfu and say fifty dollars please. I'm tired of having to translate what the F you are trying to say, sometimes without success.

[Karl Viklund @ Nov 7th 2006 9:39AM]

Make Intel and AMD develop cooler processors instead...

[Bomber @ Nov 7th 2006 9:48AM]

as regards the price, what ^he said. I thought you meant for about a GRAND and near fainted

[bsm0f0 @ Nov 7th 2006 9:51AM]

alienware lappies + this = toasty man-nuts ...

[apeguero @ Nov 7th 2006 9:58AM]

Out of curiosity, does the new MacBook Pro (2CD) suffer from the same heat problems as the first MacBook Pro (CD)?

[asher @ Nov 7th 2006 10:15AM]

not at all.
I got mine last week and had a 15"PB, last of the line actually. The new MBP runs cooler than the PB did. For the first 3 days I never once heard the fan and it's always on. Rarely do I close the lid. I tested it the other night and left it on, awake and downloading files... flat on the carpet. It went up to about 120F and often does. After about 2 hrs it climbed, slowly, finally reaching 144F when the fans kicked in to full speed.

With a keyboad skin on and normal usage in photoshop I can get the fans to go full throttle about 2x a day. Burning a dvd will turn them on within 2 minutes.

I'm surprised at how little I hear them and how rarely they need to turn on (at least to full speed).

[Daugenet @ Nov 7th 2006 10:01AM]

I have one and this thing is awesome. Normally the bottom of the laptop was getting hot and now it was cold. Not cool. COLD.

Laptops just have too much stuff crammed into them to be abe to cool themselves very well. People want them smaller and smaller though that just makes them run hotter. :(

[Tim @ Nov 7th 2006 10:33AM]

Will my 17" lappy work with this? (39.8 cm x 27.8 cm x 4.7 cm)

[Wonderboy @ Nov 7th 2006 10:37AM]

What would be even cooler... ha, no pun intended... anyway, it would be sweet if they incorporated a noice cancelation tech into this. Have a mini mic onboard and emit sound cancelation waves for any steady sound (ie fans). That way they could guarantee that your laptop would run quieter.

Then all I'd need is a noise cancellation device for all the dogs in the neighborhood.

[Christian Martin @ Nov 7th 2006 12:41PM]

If your notebook's CPU cooler spins up a lot, products like this can dramatically reduce the noise level. You'll get a very faint, constant noise that is about on par with silent desktop fans (if not quieter) rather than intermittent high-pitched and noticeable high-rpm spinning.

While I don't own this specific product, I recently bought a Targus notebook cooler to stick under my HP notebook. Previously, I noticed the (very audible) CPU fan spinning up and down several times a minute, and the left palmrest would get pretty warm. I have my notebook sitting on a desk running 8-9 hours a day, and part of the problem is that the desk itself doesn't dissipate the heat that's expelled by the fan out of the bottom so it's as if the notebook is sitting on a thermal pad after a while. Because these things pull the heat down and dissipate it out the back, sides or whatever on a constant basis, it's great when you'd otherwise have little to no airflow (eg, when the notebook's sitting on your legs).

Point of all this rambling: noise won't be a factor and the claims that it 'reduces' the noise generated by the computer are, in a sense, true. You're way more likely to notice a changing noise level from the CPU fan than you are to notice the silent fans on the pad spinning at a consistent rate.

[J. Evans Turner @ Nov 7th 2006 3:16PM]

Wonderboy: Noise cancellation = bad idea. Most laptops are already difficult to hear the speakers. My Acer laptop is hard to hear with everything cranked up and my ear placed on the speaker. Noise cancellation in this case would not be able to seperate audio output from fan noise.

[J. Evans Turner @ Nov 7th 2006 3:15PM]

I don't like the fact that it is powered through USB. I don't trust the power conversion/engineering of MOST laptops. Also, why not give the cooling pad the OPTION of powering through AC, possibly PROVIDING power for the laptop? Geeze...

[GioNYC @ Nov 7th 2006 3:28PM]

Soooo..Not only that I need to bring my laptop but I have to lug that thing around with me as well?

[Chris @ Nov 7th 2006 3:59PM]

"Laptops just have too much stuff crammed into them to be abe to cool themselves very well."

Wrong. If your laptop is too hot, it's a design or manufacturing problem. Case closed. With today's quiet fans and efficient heat pumps, there should be no problem making cool running laptops with today's processors.

[thatguy @ Nov 17th 2006 1:20PM]

wow do you know anything? these are my laptop specs and i have a desktop of just about the same (maby a lil more) and it can barely keep it cool.

AMD Turion ML44 2.4ghz
2gb dual channel
100gb 7200rpm
dual 7900 gtx

and your going to say that a laptop can cool this efficiently? not even close, my desktop which is about the same specs as this can barely keep it under 40-45c with water/air cooling

[Rick Lyon @ Nov 7th 2006 4:19PM]

Is that a Pell Grant? Didn't a republican pres cancel pell grants or something a few years back? How much does it cost?

[Keaton @ Nov 7th 2006 10:09PM]

Hmmm...

I've never heard of a Hypro Bearing fan...

Zalman.....