The Arctic NC:

You will notice the two 60mm fans on the ARCTIC NC, as well as the vents they will blow the fresh air through, once the laptop is installed. On the back of the NC, you will find your four USB 2.0 connections, fan controller, external power connection (if needed), blue LED light, and the connection to the laptop. The fans can be set a speeds from 800-1,700 RPM’s depending on how much cooling you need. The fan controller also has an on/off switch in case you do not need the extra air flow.

Installation:

Installation was extremely easy! All you need to do is apply the two black anti-skid pads onto the ARCTIC NC and you are ready to put the laptop on. Once that is done, just connect the ARCTIC NC into one of the laptop’s USB ports and it will be powered. You will notice the blue LED comes on when the device has power. When installed, the laptop has a more ergonomic feel to it, as the ARCTIC NC props the laptop up enough to make typing easier on your wrists.

Usage Tests:

Our cooling tests were just like Arctic Cooling did with this device. They tested bottom surface temperatures at selected areas, so we did the same.

With our tests finished above, you can see that the ARCTIC NC actually does a solid job in reducing temperatures on the bottom surface temperatures. With an average drop of 4 degrees Celsius, the ARCTIC NC did a good job in cooling the surfaces. We also kept an eye on the actual CPU and GPU temperatures and they only seemed to drop between 1-2C during our tests. This is not as substantial as we would have hoped from a notebook cooler. The fresh air being blown underneath the laptop no doubt will help cool the bottom surface of the notebook.  It just will not have a great impact on temperatures inside.

Conclusion:

The ARCTIC NC has some positive features to it. The 4 USB ports were a good addition to the device and the fan speed controller was also nice. When the notebook was placed on top of the ARCTIC NC, it did help with ergonomics and felt a lot better while typing on the notebook.

However, the fans which blow on the bottom surface of the laptop to cool that part off, do not effect inside temperatures noticeably. In addition, you can only use this while on a flat surface to help keep the laptop stable on the ARCTIC NC and keep the fans blowing on the bottom of the notebook.

With the price tag of $31.50, you may want to look in another direction for a notebook cooler. This seemed to be a good idea in theory, but the finished product is lacking.

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