Boy, sure is a hot one today, huh? Okay, I get the irony: that's a take so cold you could use it to replace your freezing Wim Hof showers. But when the metaphorical mercury creeps this high, you've got to keep your cool. The same goes for your laptop, which is why you might want to grab a laptop cooling pad this summer.

Fortunately for you, I've spent this week testing every laptop cooling pad I can get my hands on to see which offers the superior AC for your computer. Not only that, but I've brought receipts — this piece has more graphics and graphs than election night coverage. So if you want objective numbers about which pad is genuinely gusty and which is all bluster, I've got the data you need.

I get that it can be tempting to overlook cooling your laptop during warm weather — I've been more worried this summer about tracking down a fan to keep myself cool than my laptops. But you overlook the best laptop cooling pads at your peril.

I still have vivid memories of the summer I redlined my laptop during a heatwave. While the video skittering should have been a hint, it was only when it stopped booting up and started bleeping SOS in Morse code that I began questioning my life choices. Turns out I'd burnt out the memory — quite literally: there were scorch marks on the inside of the case.

So at this time of year, it's worth considering whether a laptop cooling pad can help you out. And I can definitely help out there.

Laptop cooling pads: cooling

Temperature Rise Using Laptop Cooling Pad

The temperature rise during a stress test while using the laptop cooling pad on max settings

Temperature difference (°C)Temperature difference (°F)

Baseline

31.9

TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad

22.8

Klim Mistral

20.4

Klim Wind

19.5

Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad

18.4

TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad

17.9

Klim Ultimate

15.5

Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad

15.3

Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad

12

Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad

8

010203040

Temperature difference (°C) Data

Product	Value
Baseline	31.9
TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad	22.8
Klim Mistral	20.4
Klim Wind	19.5
Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad	18.4
TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad	17.9
Klim Ultimate	15.5
Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad	15.3
Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad	12
Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad	8

Baseline

57.4

TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad

41

Klim Mistral

36.7

Klim Wind

35.1

Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad

33.1

TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad

32.2

Klim Ultimate

27.9

Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad

27.5

Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad

21.6

Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad

14.4

015304560

Temperature difference (°F) Data

Product	Value
Baseline	57.4
TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad	41
Klim Mistral	36.7
Klim Wind	35.1
Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad	33.1
TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad	32.2
Klim Ultimate	27.9
Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad	27.5
Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad	21.6
Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad	14.4

Lower values indicate better cooling.

Assessing which laptop cooling pad is a breezy wonder and which is a wheezy blunder ultimately comes down to how frosty each model's cooling is. That's why I went through every pad I could get my hands on to see how much each one prevented our gaming laptop from heating up during a 3DMark stress test.

As you can see, by far the weakest cooling offered by any laptop cooling pad I tested was from the TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad. Compared to the 57.4°F / 31.9°C baseline rise of our gaming laptop alone, the C12 was only able to limit it to a 41°F / 22.8°C rise — that might be better than frantically waving a dish towel in its general direction, but only barely.

Probably the biggest disappointment of these tests was how the Klim Mistral performed. Not only did it seem to perform worse than the more affordable Klim Wind — resulting in 36.7°F / 20.4°C warming compared to the Wind's 35.1°F / 19.5°C — but it was pretty inconsistent to boot, achieving even worse results on a retest.

Skipping ahead a little, the laptop cooling pad I was most surprised by was the TECKNET. Although it's cheaper than quite a few of the pads I tested here, setting me back just $21.59 / £21.99, the 32.2°F / 17.6°C warming it presided over put it firmly in the top half of the pack. It's the little laptop cooling pad that could.

Given that the Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad and Klim Ultimate both achieved an almost photo finish, it would be easy to assume there's not much daylight between them. However, like a bottle of wine, you really need to weigh up what you're spending here to calculate its true value. And as the Liangstar costs $20.99 / £23.59 versus the Klim Ultimate's $44.97 / £44.97 price tag, that definitely takes the edge here.

But, frankly, there's a reason Llano is the absolute GOAT in my eyes. As you can see, it took both first and second place on my cooling pad podium. While the Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad stopped our gaming laptop from warming up more than 21.6°F / 12°C, the Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad kept it down to just 14.4°F / 8°C of warming. This boi makes liquid nitrogen look positively toasty.

Laptop cooling pads: noise levels

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Noise Level — cooling pad alone

Noise level of the cooling pad or laptop alone taken at head height and from 3 inches away

Head heightNear

Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad

71

Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad

64.5

Klim Mistral

52.6

Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad

45

TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad

43.5

Laptop alone

42

Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad

37.4

Klim Wind

36.2

TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad

36

Klim Ultimate

36

020406080

dB

Head height Data

Product	Value
Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad	71
Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad	64.5
Klim Mistral	52.6
Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad	45
TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad	43.5
Laptop alone	42
Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad	37.4
Klim Wind	36.2
TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad	36
Klim Ultimate	36

Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad

85

Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad

77

Klim Mistral

62.6

Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad

59

TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad

58

Laptop alone

60

Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad

50.2

Klim Wind

48.8

TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad

60

Klim Ultimate

46

0255075100

dB

Near Data

Product	Value
Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad	85
Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad	77
Klim Mistral	62.6
Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad	59
TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad	58
Laptop alone	60
Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad	50.2
Klim Wind	48.8
TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad	60
Klim Ultimate	46

Noise Level — cooling pad & laptop

Combined noise level of the cooling pad and laptop taken at head height and from 3 inches away

dB Head heightdB Near

Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad

64

Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad

57.5

Klim Mistral

51.5

TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad

45

TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad

45

Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad

45

Klim Ultimate

44.4

Klim Wind

44

Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad

44

020406080

dB Head height Data

Product	Value
Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad	64
Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad	57.5
Klim Mistral	51.5
TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad	45
TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad	45
Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad	45
Klim Ultimate	44.4
Klim Wind	44
Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad	44

Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad

79

Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad

69

Klim Mistral

61.5

TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad

58.5

TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad

58

Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad

59

Klim Ultimate

55.2

Klim Wind

58.5

Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad

61

020406080

dB Near Data

Product	Value
Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad	79
Llano V10 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad	69
Klim Mistral	61.5
TopMate C12 Laptop Cooling Pad	58.5
TECKNET Laptop Cooling Pad	58
Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad	59
Klim Ultimate	55.2
Klim Wind	58.5
Almiuzi F2 Plus Laptop Cooling Pad	61

You may think that your gaming laptop makes a lot of noise. But believe me: that's scarcely more than a murmur compared to some cooling pads. Given they're essentially just an LED-adorned box with a whopping great fan inside, they can get pretty shouty. That's why I grabbed the sound level meter from my utility belt and started measuring like the world's nerdiest superhero.

Perhaps predictably, the pad that blows coolest blows loudest. While I love the Llano RGB Laptop Cooling Pad's glacial chilling, I can't get away from the fact that it's pretty noisy. I'm 5 foot 11 inches tall, and from my head height, I clocked it at 71dB — according to the Center for Hearing and Communication, that's roughly as loud as a coffee grinder or freeway traffic. In my book, that's a worthy price to pay for keeping your laptop cool, but it might not be ideal if you're planning to use it in the office.

In fact, you might assume there's an inverse relationship between cooling and fan noise. And while that does hold true for the most part, there are some interesting exceptions. For example, while I found the Liangstar Laptop Cooling Pad offered the third best cooling in my tests overall, it was substantially quieter than either of the Llanos, clocking in at a much less brash 45dB.

Conversely, the Klim Mistral manages to buck the trend in the other direction, running surprisingly loud compared to some of the other competitors here. At 52dB, it kicks out a similar level of noise as a fridge — which is pretty ironic given it offered some of the worst cooling in my testing.

And there are some surprising candidates for the winner's podium when it comes to sound levels. The TECKNET offers far from the worst cooling, and yet it ties for first place as the quietest pad on test here at 36dB — again, not at all bad given its super affordable price tag.

Honestly, though, if you want whisper-quiet running without sacrificing performance, my pro tip would be to check out the Klim Ultimate. Unlike Klim's two cheaper cooling pads, it offers very credible chilling while also measuring noise levels of 36dB from head height — that's apparently quieter than a library, which isn't known for being a raucous place.

Fundamentally, noise levels probably shouldn't be the deciding factor when picking your perfect laptop cooling pad. Both cooling power and budget come higher up the pecking order in terms of my personal preferences. But that doesn't mean you should ignore it completely — depending on where and how you use your laptop, you could find strapping a jet engine to the bottom of it to be a bit of a deal breaker.

Do I even need a laptop cooling pad?

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MacBook Air M5 encode test

Performance after an hour during a standard encode test both with and without cooling

Versus Comparison Data

Attribute	Benchmark — MacBook Air M5	Klim Ultimate — MacBook Air M5
Average FPS	2.52	2.77
Estimated encode time	122	114

Benchmark — MacBook Air M5Klim Ultimate — MacBook Air M5

VS

Benchmark — MacBook Air M5Klim Ultimate — MacBook Air M5

Average FPS (fps)

2.52

2.77+10%

Estimated encode time (minutes)

+7%122

114

Re-encoding a 4K stereo .mov file at highest quality, the MacBook Air M5 showed a modest reduction in throttling in terms of average FPS and encode time when using the Klim Ultimate laptop cooling pad.

Acer Predator Helios 300 encode test

Performance after an hour during a standard encode test both with and without cooling

Versus Comparison Data

Attribute	Benchmark — Acer Predator Helios 300	Klim Ultimate — Acer Predator Helios 300
Average FPS	2.8	2.8
Estimated encode time	115	113

Benchmark — Acer Predator Helios 300Klim Ultimate — Acer Predator Helios 300

VS

Benchmark — Acer Predator Helios 300Klim Ultimate — Acer Predator Helios 300

Average FPS (fps)

2.8

2.8

Estimated encode time (minutes)

+2%115

113

Re-encoding a 4K stereo .mov file at highest quality, the Acer Predator Helios 300 showed essentially no reduction in either average FPS or estimated encode time, suggesting limited heat-related throttling took place.

So it's pretty clear which cooling pads offer ice-cold AC and which sound like a tumble dryer breaking the sound barrier. But I've left the biggest question until last — do you actually need one at all?

Aiming to prove my theorem that 'cold CPU = good', I whipped up a quick encode test designed to stress out the CPU of several laptops over a longer period. In theory, after an hour, their core temperature should have risen, their CPUs throttled, and the length of the encode spiked and the encode rate dropped. Running the same test with one of our top cooling pads, the Klim Ultimate, would then show how much it could reduce this throttling.

On my MacBook Air M5, after an hour of using its passive cooling alone, the total estimated encode time had crept up to 122 minutes, and the average encode rate was sitting at 2.52 FPS. When I reran the test with the Klim Ultimate running on max cooling, that total encode time was trimmed to 114 minutes, and the encode rate had increased to 2.77 FPS. That's not a huge difference, but it shows the Klim Ultimate was able to trim back some of that temperature-related throttling.

Running the same test on our Acer Predator Helios 300 was a much more ambiguous experience. During my first run, the encode crashed within minutes, and during the second it crashed moments after the test concluded. So it was honestly far from stable.

I was able to eventually get some results, however, and they showed... nothing. Whether I was using the Klim Ultimate or not, the test results were essentially identical, with Handbrake clocking an estimated encode time of 115 minutes uncooled and 113 with the Klim's help. Meanwhile, the encode rate remained steady, sitting at a reasonable 2.8 FPS.

What does that mean? That I've wasted several hours of my life? Not quite. There are a couple of key conclusions to take away from this. One is that a performance laptop with whacking great fans built in is already pretty good at keeping itself cool. Shocking revelation, I know.

But probably the more critical takeaway is that the mileage you get out of a laptop cooling pad is going to vary depending on how well optimized it is for handling heat, as well as the kind of tasks you're doing. Had I tried to run Cyberpunk 2077 on max graphics settings with ray-tracing switched on, the Predator Helios 300 would likely have caused it to melt into the earth's core.

There's also another caveat. While it's definitely been warm the last week or so in the TechRadar testing lab, it hasn't reached the kind of desiccating highs that have hit both the US and UK in recent months. Past a certain point, any laptop will struggle in the heat. Forget CPU throttling — in that heat, I'd be more worried about your components liquefying like a chocolate bunny on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

In light of that, I'd say a laptop cooling pad is still worth exploring, especially if you tend to do a lot of resource-intensive tasks like 3D work, Photoshopping or gaming.

Any thoughts or personal experiences you'd like to share? Please feel free to chime in down in the comments!

The upper stage of a SpaceX rocket that delivered two lunar landers in early 2025 is set to come crashing down on the lunar surface several months after it ended its mission. According to Japan Today, the large piece of rocket debris is expected to hit the moon at an estimated 5,400 mph or 8,690 kph, which is seven times the speed of sound.

While a piece of debris hitting the moon might seem like an inconsequential event for most people, scientists and astronomers are keeping a close eye on it because this will be one of the few times that an object will impact the moon while being observed. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter will take before-and-after photos of the impact site, while the latter will also fly close to the stricken SpaceX rocket a few minutes before it begins its final descent.

NASA has previously deliberately crashed objects on the moon — it did this with sections of the Saturn V rocket and discarded Lunar Landers to conduct seismic experiments during the Apollo missions in the 70s. It repeated the experiment in 2009 with its LCROSS mission, where it crashed the probe near the south pole of the moon in search of ice.

What interests researchers this time is how the impact will affect the surface of the moon, which is expected to deliver energy that’s equal to about three tons of TNT. Even though this might seem like a huge amount of energy, we likely cannot see the actual crash from Earth. But because the moon does not have wind or an atmosphere, the ejected material could stretch for miles and be visible on telescopes.

“The gravity on the moon is low and there is no wind to blow the dust away,” said Benjamin Fernando of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Part of the reason for our interest in this event is to figure out how much of a hazard debris impacts pose to future astronauts.”

Space debris is not a major concern for the moon as it is for our planet at the moment, but this might change in the near future. As the U.S. and China are locked in a space race to see who will be the first one to land on people on the moon again after more than half a century, there will soon come a time when operators cannot just leave their rocket debris in an orbital decay, lest it come crashing down on their settlements and data centers.

Seven states have reported cyberattacks on their water supply control systems, with some officials suspecting that Iran is behind these actions. According to the New York Times, there isn’t any definitive proof yet that Iran orchestrated these attacks but it said that moves like this have been escalating since the U.S. began its bombing campaign of the country. It was also noted that the attackers made zero financial demands, making it more likely to have been conducted by state actors that aren’t just motivated by money.

Minnesota was the first to report this kind of attack, with Michigan soon saying that it was targeted, too. While there have been no major disruptions that have made tap water unsafe to drink, the authorities across local and state governments are still on the lookout for potential problems. They’re particularly concerned about older computer systems that monitor water quality, adjust chemical treatments, and control water pressure, especially those that are connected to the internet.

Braham, Minnesota, is one of the areas affected by the cyberattacks. The mayor of the small city, which has a population of less than 2,000 people and is located about 50 miles north of Minneapolis, said it has already received guidance on how to resolve the issue and strengthen its defenses against future attacks. It’s currently using manual control to keep the water service on, but its mayor, Nate George, told the publication, “I think the troubling thing on the horizon is how do we move forward to a more secure system. IT infrastructure upgrades are very costly, and we are a very small municipality.”

He also repeated the suspicions that some federal officials had but declined to confirm. “We’re getting bits and pieces of information from the state of Minnesota and the F.B.I. They are pretty sure it’s Iranian actors.”

While states scramble to protect their utilities and other critical infrastructure, the White House has downplayed the suspected state-sponsored cyberattacks. President Donald Trump told a reporter, “I think Minnesota is behind it. I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack.”

This isn’t the first time that Iranian hackers have hit a U.S. institution during the 2026 war, but it’s the first time that essential services and infrastructure within the mainland have been affected. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has previously warned about potential Iranian cyberattacks, but smaller municipalities remain vulnerable.

Iran was also once on the receiving end of a cyberattack that many experts link to the U.S. The most famous of these was Stuxnet, which was supposedly used in 2009 to significantly damage and destroy critical tools used by the Iranian nuclear program. More recently, the CanisterWorm malware attacked Iranian machines and wiped them clean for no apparent reason. Again, no one has claimed responsibility for this attack.

Wars have always been fought on land and on sea, and more recently, in the air and in space. But as the internet has become indispensable for society, cyberspace has quickly become a fifth domain that states must protect and dominate. “This is what modern warfare looks like,” Gov. Tim Walz said on X.

Elon Musk’s Colossus data centers that sit near the border between Tennessee and Mississippi will finally be removed starting this month. According to the company, the 69 temporary mobile turbines, which have been the subject of a lawsuit that claims they have been causing pollution, are going to be completely removed by July 2027, meaning it will take the company 12 months to withdraw the trailer-mounted generators from its premises. This may sound confusing, as they’re “portable” generators, after all, but it seems that SpaceXAI is removing them in phases as its 1.2GW power plant slowly comes online.

SpaceXAI achieved one of the fastest data center deployments ever after it set up 100,000 Nvidia H200 GPUs in 19 days — something that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said usually takes four years or more. Musk achieved this by bringing in his own power instead of waiting to get connected to the grid, which was considered a novel idea at that time. Today, a few data center operators, like OpenAI, are following Musk’s footsteps and deploying their own turbines to power their servers without relying on other providers.

But even though the idea feels innovative, the community surrounding the Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 data centers has been complaining about the pollution that these mobile turbines bring. They say that these turbines didn’t have the required permits to operate, although the company argued that the mobile and temporary nature of these units exempted them. The EPA said earlier this year that these units aren’t exempt from permits, but SpaceXAI continued to operate them anyway. It has even got to the point that the NAACP filed a case over these unpermitted turbines, although the DOJ weighed in, saying that removing them would put national security at risk as Colossus 2 “supports mission-critical operations.”

Despite that, it seems that SpaceXAI has finally settled into an agreement with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. It’s if the 1.2GW power plant replacing these mobile turbines is the same one that Musk is importing from overseas, but the important part is that it’s approved under a Clean Air Act permit. Aside from that, the company also said that it’s equipping all its mobile turbines with “advanced emission control technologies,” which should reduce the environmental impact of its power sources.

Tech enthusiasts are a passionate bunch, and the rich ones among them are willing to put their money where their mouth is. This is exactly what we see with a signed Steve Jobs business card from 1983, which is posted on RR Auction and is going for $70,741 at the time of writing. What made this relic special is that Job’s business cards from 1983 are a rare commodity and remain in high demand from collectors. It also received a Gem Mint 10 grade — the highest possible rating from PSA/DNA and is certified to be authentic.

RR Auction says that it has auctioned off 15 Steve Jobs business cards in its history, but only four of those come from 1983. This is also only the second one to bear the signature of Apple’s founder, which was put on the auction block in 2024 and fetched an eye-watering $180,000. The card on auction right now isn’t exactly perfect, with the website describing it as “In fine condition, with light soiling and staple holes to the upper section, none of which affect the bold signature.” Still, there’s at least 16 bids on the item, and the next bid is currently listed at $77, 816.

This isn’t the first time that an item related to an iconic founder has fetched thousands of dollars on the auction block. Just last month, Sotheby’s estimated that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s iconic Tom Ford leather jacket, which costs $9,000 if you buy it new, would get up to $60,000. However, when the hammer finally closed the auction, the winning bid hit $960,000, which, we believe, is driven by Jensanity.

Unfortunately, if you’re not into the personal effects of CEOs and want something more substantial, you’ll probably have to fork out a lot more money. One example we have is the Apple-1 ‘Prototype Board #0,’ which sold for $2,750,000. Aside from costing a lot of money, these are rare finds, and you’ll have to wait years, if not decades, to get a chance at owning something so exceptional. But if you have a hole burning in your pocket and want to start a tech-related collection, but find the Steve Jobs business card a bit above your budget, an unreleased batch of 97 Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. NES cartridges has recently been discovered at a retro shop, most of which are graded 9.6 or higher by PSA. Three examples are about to enter auction on August 12, and they’re estimated to start at four figures, which might make it more “attainable” to fledgling collections.