There are many types of laptops. However, gaming laptops are the main culprit of overheating. They have the most powerful CPUs in the laptop sector as well as powerful GPUs. They both work very hard when playing, and it’s difficult to keep them cool while playing. Some laptop coolers are fine for your daily chores and are fine. Working with gaming laptops requires a little more, and that’s exactly what Cooler Master wanted with the NotePal U3 Plus. Here is our test to see if it works.
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What is the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus?
Recognition: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
The Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus is a high-end laptop cooler. It features a metal design with rubber accents, two small knobs on the back for cable management, and three 80mm fans that push out 45 CFM of air at maximum speed. There is also a USB pass-through so you don’t lose the USB port. However, USB pass-through is limited to USB 2.0. We therefore recommend it mainly for a mouse or keyboard connection.
It gets interesting with the three 80mm fans. You can actually move them. In fact, you can completely remove them, move them to where you want them, and place them there. The USB connector is attached to the metal frame with a clip so that you can adjust its placement. The clip also includes the fan control slider and USB pass-through. It also fitted my 17.3-inch laptop without any problems. Cooler Master’s claim that it fits 19-inch laptops is somewhat suspicious, however.
The NotePal U3 Plus doesn’t have the most attractive design, but it is amazing for power users.
The design is otherwise simple. The metal part is literally just a sheet of metal with a grille drilled into it. It rolls over backwards and holds up. You can’t adjust the tilt at all, but the tilt is at a reasonable angle so it should work for most people. The rubber accents effectively prevent the laptop from sliding.
The execution of the design is a bit sloppy and is mainly due to the modular approach of the cooler. It’s difficult to hide cables and make everything look pretty when you can remove half of the device from the other half of the device. The NotePal U3 Plus makes up for this with its high degree of customization, a feature that most laptop coolers don’t have.
How do I set up and use the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus?
The setup for the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus is a little more complex than most of the others. Each fan has a button and with this button you can clip the fan onto the grid of the cooling pad. We recommend turning the laptop over and checking where the intake ports are and placing the fans in the appropriate positions on the cooler for maximum airflow. We also recommend looking for the heat pipes and placing a fan there for maximum cooling.
Otherwise it works like any other laptop cooler. You place your laptop on the metal grille and attach the cooler’s USB cable near one of your USB ports. Plug in the cooler to make it run. The clip has the fan speed regulator in the form of a wheel. The USB pass-through is connected to the connector. Trust us, you can’t miss it. Set the fans to the speed you want and use your laptop as normal.
How well does the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus work?
Recognition: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
I have the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus with my 17.3-inch gaming laptop Asus ROG G731GW with 16 GB RAM, the Nvidia GTX 2070, an Intel i7-9750H, a 500 GB NVMe drive and a second 500 GB SSD tested. The vents on my laptop are on the top left and right. In addition, the heat pipes run in the upper center of the laptop under the lower cover, so I positioned the third fan in this area for additional cooling.
We carried out a total of four tests with the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus:
- BIOS test – The BIOS is often very poorly optimized. We’ll see if the cooler can keep up.
- Windows 10 idle – Once the laptop has fully booted up, we test the cooler to see if it affects idle temperatures and leave it idle for ten minutes to make sure it can hold those temperatures.
- CPU stress test – We use Intel XTU’s native stress test because we can easily identify the temperature, thermal throttling or power throttling, and the average CPU clock speed. We ran the test for ten minutes.
- A game from Halo Wars 2 – Halo Wars 2 is a surprisingly tough game, and my Asus ROG G731GW temperatures often rise to the mid 90 ° C range, with GPU temperatures in the mid 80 ° C range. It is a good benchmark for a difficult game on a powerful slot machine.
- Something to consider – In the following explanations, I will often refer to power throttling and thermal throttling. With thermal throttling, the laptop slows down the CPU speed to cool down. The power throttling limits the CPU to its base TDP and prevents it from consuming additional (boost) power. We expect laptop coolers to at least prevent thermal throttling.
The laptop was set to Windows Balanced for all tests with no changes. The laptop cooler was set to the maximum setting for the highest amount of cooling. The temperatures were recorded and double-checked with HWMonitor, Asus Armory Crate and Intel XTU.
Without further delay, here are the results of the tests.
| exam | CPU temp | GPU temp | Fan speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BIOS without a cooler | 50C | N / A | 2800 rpm | |
| Windows 10 idle without a cooler | 45C | 39C | 2400 rpm | |
| Intel XTU stress test without cooler | 85C | 42C | 6400 RPM (max.) | Gas after 60 seconds, thermo after 90 seconds. The clock rate of the throttled CPU was 3.2 GHz |
| A game of Halo Wars 2 without a cooler | 90C | 80C | 6400 RPM (max.) | The maximum CPU peak was 96 ° C, the maximum GPU peak 84 ° C. |
| BIOS with cooler | 49C | N / A | 2600 rpm | |
| Windows 10 idle with cooler | 37C-38C | 36C | Off-2000RPM | The laptop switches the fan off at 37 ° C and on again at 38 ° C, which leads to a jump in temperature. |
| Intel XTU stress test with cooler | 77C | 42C | 5400 rpm | Accelerator pedal after 90 seconds, no thermal accelerator pedal recognized. The CPU throttled speed was 3.7-3.9 GHz |
| A game from Halo Wars 2 with a cooler | 83C | 78C | 6400 RPM (max.) | The maximum CPU peak was 90 ° C, the maximum GPU peak was 79 ° C. |
The results were among the best of all the laptop coolers we tested. Most laptops use extra thermal headroom as an excuse to run harder at higher CPU clock speeds. It happened during my tests, but the NotePal U3 Plus still managed to lower the temperatures by almost 10 ° C in all tests while keeping the fan speed low in almost all cases. During the CPU stress test, the CPU was kept 0.5-0.7 GHz higher while maintaining a temperature drop of 8 ° C. That is an excellent result.
The only problem is the GPU temperatures. During heavy gaming, an average of only 2 ° C was switched off, but the temperatures were not increased either, which led to a difference of 5 ° C overall. In short, the NotePal U3 Plus definitely cools down laptops well.
What I liked about the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus
Recognition: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
- The ability to place fans wherever you need them is a huge benefit as it allows you to give your laptop the most direct cooling possible. The clip with the USB cable can be moved to either side to accommodate your open USB ports for less effort.
- It should be pretty durable. The frame is just a large sheet of metal and shouldn’t break unless something happens.
- The grid has the same pattern as most PC cases, so you can add your own PC case fans to this object if you wish. It should be attached using the same hardware that is required to attach a PC case fan.
- It actually cooled my laptop a lot.
- You can remove the fans and mount the laptop in the back of the cooler for surprisingly good portability. Cooler Master even thoughtfully offers a strap for this purpose.
What I didn’t like about the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus
- The fans only express 15 CFM each (45 CFM total). Since it has fan controls, we would have liked more powerful fans for better cooling. People who don’t like it loud can simply turn the fans down to calm them down.
- It’s not the most attractive design we’ve seen, and the cable management is a bit sloppy. The rubber accents attract a lot of dust and irritate when cleaning.
- The USB pass-through is a bit bulky. The USB connector becomes uncomfortably long when you plug in something else.
- In the box it says that there are five tilt settings. That thing is a long piece of metal with no tilt adjustments.
Is the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus good?
Recognition: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
In short, yes. With the customizable fans and USB clip, you can set up this device specifically for your needs. It is easy to disassemble for travel and should fit in most backpacks. It’s not the most attractive design, but the rubber works well for the handle and the thin metal grille makes for great airflow. The result is some of the best cooling results we’ve seen with any laptop cooler we’ve tested.
Continue reading: The best laptops to buy in 2020
There are some drawbacks. The fans could have been more powerful and this thing is pretty expensive at $ 69.99. Even so, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages quite a bit, and this thing should cool all but the most stubborn laptops by a measurably good amount. It’s an easy recommendation as long as you aren’t concerned about the price and design drawbacks.
