Cooler Master NotePal Ergo 360 Laptop Cooler Review

When most nerds and geeks think of Cooler Master we think of heatsinks.  At least I do.  But they are much more than that.  Cooler Master has what seems like one of everything on their shelves.  I have used their cases and owned more than a few of their heatsinks, and I’ve had the pleasure of using a pair of their headphones on occasion.  I would love to try out a pair of their new ones, too.  But this is the first chance I’ve had to experience one of their laptop cooling pads.

The Notepal Ergo 360 is one of the latest products to roll off the CM assembly line.  Check out some of the features of this baby:

• Focused on that single overriding need to have one powerful accessory that works with the products that keep you mobile; Notepal ERGO 360 incorporates the design and efficiency of our ergonomic laptop cooling stands with the versatility of a tablet stand into one easy to use product. It is an ergonomic laptop cooling stand that helps reduce hand and wrist fatigue caused by using laptops for long periods of time.
• Multiple available height settings and the option to remove the adjustment stand in favor of two separate cooling accessories underpin the versatile nature of the ERGO 360. It is rounded out by convenient, anti-slip holders that keep your laptop stable while cable management grooves provide a place to easily manage the attached USB cable.
• Ergonomic Design: Three ergonomic height settings allow for a customizable viewing angle. Front anti-slip holders prevent your laptop from sliding.
• 360 Degree Rotation: Ergo 360 provides a new perspective on the traditional laptop cooling pad thanks to its 360 rotating stand
• Two Silent Fans: The quiet, efficient USB-powered fans provide excellent cooling performancethat circulates air around your laptop. Elegant airline-finish aluminum surface functions as a cooling pad to spread heat onto a larger surface area.
• Cable Storage Grooves: The USB cable can be stored away.

Model R9-NBS-E36KU-GP

I have an older laptop that I use for my writing.  It’s an Inspiron E1505 from way back in the day.  The only reason I haven’t upgraded to something better is because it hasn’t died on me yet.  It has been dependable and I have yet to lose a single chunk of data due to hardware failure.  And with all the other computers around my house that require constant upgrades for testing purposes, it’s nice to have one that I don’t have to screw with.  I write on it, and that’s it.  Okay, so I recently watched the entire Lord of the Rings series on it.  Sue me.  The only issue is that no matter what it’s being used for, it gets hot.

So when I opened the box from Cooler Master and found the Ergo 360, I did a skyward fist pump.  It’s nice to review something that I can put to work for me after the review is over.  The packaging is pretty standard.  Pics of the product and what it can do on the front, info about it on the back, and a window on the front right side to see what you’re getting.  At first it looks like your basic cooler.  Nope.  Read on.

Out of the box, you get the cooler, some foam packaging blocks, and a warranty and instruction pamphlet.  That’s pretty much it, so we can focus on the cooler now.  Black brushed aluminum set into a thick black plastic base, the cooler houses two 80mm fans.  These fans spin at 1700 RPM, which generates a nice little stream of cool air.  And as luck would have it, they are situated in the perfect positions to eliminate heat from the hottest parts of my laptop.  The right fan blows directly into the intake vent for the CPU, and the other blows right on the RAM.  But we’ll get back to that shortly.

The standard risers on the bottom of the cooler lift the back of your laptop about a ½ inch from the surface, which allows for plenty of airflow.  If you’re putting this on your lap, be sure to position it so the fans are getting plenty of room to pull air.  Why do they even call these things laptops?  That’s pretty much the worst place you could put it.  You know how many laptops have been destroyed by heat from someone putting it on their lap and blocking the intake vents?  Jeez…

So anyway, on the back, there is a rectangular recess where you will find the USB power cable wrapped around a plastic keeper.  The only other thing back there is the one thing that makes the Ergo truly ergo.  The cooler has a leg that folds out with three height settings.  This allows you to raise the entire laptop up off your surface and use it with another keyboard, as a secondary monitor, or just to make room on your desk.  Although typing on your laptop while it’s at a 45 degree angle might be a PITA.

This leg can be removed from the cooler and used separately for any number of devices like smart phones, PC tablets, iPads, ect… It’s actually a pretty neat idea.  I had to try it out, so I took it off and put my Android tablet on it so I could watch Netflix whilst writing this review.  That is also the very reason why I had to go back and rewrite many things that made no sense.  Television and typing  are not a good combination.

It held my tablet in place very well.  The nonslip rubber “foot” on the bottom of the stand that would normally help keep the cooler in place provides plenty of resistance to keep the tablet from slipping off.  It also provides three adjustable angles, but I only found the highest setting useful with my desk setup.  However, if trying to watch a movie on a plane with your tablet sitting on one of those crappy folding trays you might find a lower angle much better for viewing.  Either way, it does its job.  My only gripe is that you have to manually force the adjusting arm into the slots rather than having a slide adjuster.  But even this is only a minor inconvenience.

Now to the cooler.  If you were to use the adjusting leg to raise it, I would suggest using the flip up retainers on the front to keep your laptop from sliding off.  If not, then leave those suckers down.  My laptop is thick compared to some of the newer thin models out there, and even then the retainers stuck up far enough that they cut into my wrists while writing.  I believe CM could have gotten away with making them a tad shorter.  But unless the cooler is raised, they really serve no purpose, so leaving them down is entirely possible.

Now to the cooling properties of the Ergo 360.  I’ve always been a fan of aluminum coolers.  They’ve always felt just a little cooler to me than their plastic counterparts.  Aluminum does dissipate heat better than plastic, but that’s hardly its role here.  It’s mostly there for stability and aesthetics.  The fans are the real star of the show here.  And they perform very nicely.  As I said before, this laptop is an older model, and it does like to produce some heat.  When I’m doing something a little taxing like editing video for OCMS or playing WoW, it can get a little hot under the collar.

However, the fans on the Ergo air perfectly positioned for my laptop, with the left one blowing directly on the air intake for the CPU heatsink and the right fan blowing up onto the cooling vents for both the RAM and the mobo.  While this probably won’t happen for everyone, most laptops do produce heat in these same regions, as the CPU, GPU, and RAM locations are rarely moved around just for fun.

I recently found a forum of people who enjoy restoring Inspiron 1505s and similar laptops, and they all seem to report the same issue I have.  At the right rear of the computer, where the system lights are and where the power plugs in, there is an area that has been known to turn into an Easy Bake oven from time to time.  It’s usually when I’m taxing the system’s resources, but it does occur from time to time for no apparent reason.  The Ergo has pretty much wiped that issue out.  I spent three hours playing L4D on it last night, and not one part of the laptop got hot.  Those fans do the job.

All in all, I find the Ergo 360 holds up to all of its promises.  It provides an excellent platform for both your laptop and your smaller portable computing units as well as providing much needed cooling to vital components with some great airflow from some fairly quite fan action.  It’s a great cooler, the aesthetics are nice, and above all, it works.