Most cooling pads for your laptop require a USB slot and have all sorts of moving, spinning things that get dirty and stop working. Plus, they add so much bulk and heft to your book bag that you might as well hover around campus with a full sized desktop.
This cooling pad from ThermaPAK ($25), though, is basically a fancy placemat you stick under your laptop to make it up to 10 degrees cooler. How’s it do it? With little organic crystals that absorb and dissipate excess heat. Other features like bumpy grooves not only keep things from sliding around, but also let air seep underneath.
It’s probably not ideal for marathon StarCraft II sessions on your lap; the crystals melt after a while but reform after cooling off. But you can fold the thing up and toss it into your book bag without much thought or consequence.
Because, you know, if there are two things college students don’t have enough of, it’s thinking and consequences.
Link: ThermaPAK Laptop Cooling Heatshift Pad [Amazon.com]