Cooler Master NotePal I100 Laptop Cooler
Impressions:
Here we have our first look at the Cooler Master Notepal I100. The top side is covered almost entirely of wire mesh and the 140mm fan can be seen in the middle of the cooler. On the front you will also find a nice clean Cooler Master name plate.
On the bottom side of the cooler we can see the rear the intake slots for the 140mm fan. The bottom, as is the entire main cooler chassis, is a hard plastic shell. You can see that the bottom is held in place to the chassis with 11 screws, so rattling should not be an issue. There are also several more features we will talk about a bit further down.
Speaking a bit more about the fan, it is rated at 21 DB and 38 CFM, which is pretty quiet while producing good air flow for a laptop / notebook cooler.
In the left hand picture we can see that the Cooler Master NotePal I100 has 2 flip-up legs (one at each rear corner) that are folded in to give it that flat thin 23mm thickness. However, you can flip the legs up to give your laptop / notebook a better viewing angle when sitting on a flat surface, such as your desk. By flipping up the legs, the rear of the Notepal goes from 23mm in height to 39mm in height, if you do the math that is only 16mm more, but it seemed to make for a pretty good viewing angle to me.
One thing that is good to see here is that Cooler Master went that extra step, and added nice rubber pads to both the feet and the flip-up legs of the Notepal I100. There is nothing worse than a cooling pad that slides all over the desk while you are trying to type on your laptop / notebook.
Looking at the rear still, you can see in the left hand picture the USB 2.0 power connector, which also has the ability to accept another USB 2.0 device, via the female USB end, when plugged in to your laptop / notebook. By providing a dual functioning USB power connector such as this, you essentially never loose a USB port while plugged into your laptop / notebook. Trust me, loosing an available USB port on a laptop / notebook can sometimes be a big deal.
To use the dual USB power connector, simply snap it out of the retaining slot built into the Cooler Master Notepal I100 and unwind the cord and route it out the back of the cooler. Speaking of the cord, at almost 19″ in length it should be plenty long enough for use on any laptop / notebook.
