Unfortunately, my laptop\u2019s been experiencing some issues this summer. The main one is that it seems to be hitting temperatures almost high enough to sustain nuclear fusion. There\u2019s nothing quite like the concern that the block of aluminum on your lap is about to bond to your skin to start questioning whether your cooling setup is sufficient. Although this is helped along by the fact that it\u2019s hit 93\u00b0F (34\u00b0C) in the last few days, this has been an issue for a long time before the mercury was flash boiling.<\/p>\n
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Even more troublesome has been my laptop\u2019s habit of exhibiting some serious crashes when under strain. I\u2019m not talking about polite little dings in a supermarket carpark \u2013 I\u2019m talking about spectacular fender-benders you don\u2019t seem to be able to free yourself from. In several instances, my CPU usage has redlined, and I\u2019ve been locked out of the software I\u2019m using, unable to force-quit anything or even coax a response out of the trackpad or function keys.<\/p>\n
Clearly, my increasingly demanding requirements, gradually aging internal hardware, and blistering summer temperatures are all conspiring to the point that my laptop is sublimating into whole new states of matter. That\u2019s caused me to reassess my stance that cooling pads are largely just for esports players and preventing crypto mining setups from igniting.<\/p>\n
Here are just three that I\u2019ve personally experienced.<\/p>\n
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(Image credit: Future)1. Music-making<\/p>\n Aside from chain-watching episodes of Frasier and trying in vain to occasionally free up some disk space, producing music is the main thing I use my laptop for. I never really considered it to be that demanding a hobby in terms of CPU and RAM usage. Certainly, in the past, throwing down a few synthesizers and chopping up some loops hasn\u2019t proven that taxing for my system.<\/p>\n However, now my setups regularly extend to up to 50 channels, laden with sophisticated samplers, high-end effects, and detailed automation, I find my CPU has to work overtime to handle everything I\u2019m throwing at it. That\u2019s fine most of the time. However, as the ambient temperature rises or my internal fan speed starts to drop as my battery runs low, this can cause either awful audio corruption or some of the aforementioned freezing.<\/p>\n Yes, there are workarounds for this. You can mix the most demanding channels down to flattened audio or even build newer groups of instruments over a backing track as a new save file. But this makes further editing a bit of a drag.<\/p>\n Instead of buying a whole new computer \u2013 made marginally easier by the fact that the MacBook Air (M4) is currently reduced from $999 to $799 (\u00a3899 to \u00a3849) at Amazon<\/a> \u2013 a cooling pad offers a way to protect your laptop from heat damage at these moments of peak CPU usage.<\/p>\n (Image credit: Future)2. Digital art<\/p>\n A couple of layers of vectors is unlikely to put any real strain on your setup. But once you start dropping layer after layer of raster graphics, adding loads of FX, or creating myriad clipping masks, the demands it places on your system can quickly spiral.<\/p>\n Take it from me: as Reviews Editor at TechRadar, I\u2019ve tested more than a few drawing tablets and, while my initial sketches don\u2019t necessarily cause my system to overheat, more complicated artworks tend to get its fan going like a jet engine.<\/p>\n Fortunately, I\u2019ve experienced fewer out-and-out disasters here during the heat than I have with music software. Entire system-locking tantrums have been less common than periodic \u2013 albeit still quite irritating \u2013 crashes to the desktop. Still, these are pretty clear symptoms that my processor isn\u2019t super-happy that I\u2019m playing Hokusai on one of the hottest days of the year.<\/p>\n So when working on art that involves heavy workflows, a laptop cooling pad is still a smart investment, particularly if the weather outside is getting sweltering. And given that many bulky drawing tablets don\u2019t lend themselves well to mobile setups, you\u2019ll likely be tethered to your desk anyway, meaning a cooling pad should slip comfortably into your current setup.<\/p>\n (Image credit: Future)3. Video production<\/p>\n If you really want to put your laptop under heat stress, encoding 4K<\/a> video or rendering 3D animation are probably the fastest ways to get there, short of using it to entrain your own LLM on the internet\u2019s entire oeuvre of Harry Potter fan fiction. Naturally, given the resolutions involved, these tasks are massively resource intensive \u2013 each second of your finished videos will contain at least 24 frames of 3840\u2009x\u20092160 resolution and there\u2019s a huge amount of processing that goes on behind the scenes to achieve this.<\/p>\n Now, I don\u2019t really tinker with 3D animation. I\u2019d like to claim that\u2019s because I\u2019ve never owned a computer with sufficient power to do it but, for the most part, it\u2019s because I don\u2019t have that kind of patience or talent. But I\u2019ve tinkered with video editing now and then and it can come with some of the same issues as static art. Certain tools \u2013 *cough* Premier Pro *cough* \u2013 are pretty RAM hungry at the best of times and, when it comes encoding your video, your CPU is going to be doing a Herculean amount of work.<\/p>\n Given the age of my laptop, I\u2019m genuinely a bit worried this would make it go off like a firework of rare earth metals, which is why I wouldn\u2019t dream of subjecting it to this kind of workload without some extra cooling support. Again, laptop cooling pads can make a significant difference here \u2013 I\u2019ve personally seen them trim a good 35.8\u00b0F (19.9\u00b0C) off a laptop under stress, which could well spell the difference between tolerable warmth and serious damage.<\/p>\n (Image credit: Future)Which laptop cooling pad should I buy?<\/p>\n By this point, I hope I\u2019ve convinced you that laptop cooling pads aren\u2019t just gear for gamers \u2013 they\u2019re handy tools for protecting your productivity powerhouse during a bunch of different workflows. But say you do want to pick one up, what\u2019s your best option?<\/p>\n Personally, if money\u2019s no object, I\u2019m always going to beat the drum for the Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad<\/a>. Not only does it look pretty classy for something partly aimed at gamers, with a single RGB running around its outside but it offers the best cooling I\u2019ve ever experienced. It slashed the baseline warming experienced by our testing laptop during stress testing from 57.4\u00b0F to 14.4\u00b0F (31.9\u00b0C to 8\u00b0C), which is a colossal degree of cooling. You\u2019ll pay a premium for it though, as its list price is $119.99 \/ \u00a3129.99.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re more worried about saving cash than shaving off as many degrees as possible, then this alternative pick should offer the perfect balance of affordable and frosty. As you can see from my Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad review<\/a>, it stopped our testing laptop from warming more than 27.4\u00b0F (15.3\u00b0C), which is still pretty decent and should protect your machine from any lasting harm. Yet it does that while only costing $19.99 \/ \u00a320.99 \u2013 which is a massive $100 \/ \u00a3109 less than the Llano.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Today’s best Llano V12 RGB Laptop Cooling Pad and Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad deals<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/VNXp2ZqhpMrsEWdogAaB9W.jpg\")
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