One terrible thing about MacBook Pro laptops is that they tend to get pretty hot when they’re being used. I’ve been trying to combat this problem through a variety of ways, including propping the laptop up on stilts (to let heat and cool air in) and making my room very cold. However, none of these have seemed to work very effectively.

So instead of trying to be creative, I’ve resorted to just trying to find a decent cooling station for my computer. After some extensive research, I think I’ve narrowed it down to two choices.

The Thermaltake T3000 notebook cooling base looks nice. It’s basically a large heat sink that elevates the laptop just a little bit and dissipates the heat outwards. Amazon.com has the Thermaltake T3000 for $39.99. Decent price.

The other choice is the iLap from Rain Design. It raises the laptop a bit more than the T3000 but from the looks of it, I don’t think it’ll do the job as well as the Thermaltake one. The iLap does come with padded pieces for when I work with the laptop on my lap, which I guess would be useful…if I didn’t have a desk already. The Apple Store has the iLap for $49.95. Pricey.

Any suggestions? When I was looking for a cooling station, I wanted something that wouldn’t raise my laptop too high or make my keyboard at some ridiculous angle. If possible, I’d prefer a cooling station that also had USB ports or something, but that’s not incredibly necessary. I just need something other than my air conditioning to cool my system down.

At the moment, I’m leaning towards the Thermaltake one simply because of how it works (and also because Thermaltake is known to be in the business of cooling accessories). Which do you think I should get?