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The Road Warrior Review - Lapworks Attaché Fan-Cooled Laptop Stand

Back when I first started using Apple laptops, heat was essentially a non-issue. The anaemic little 100 MHz PowerPC 603e chip in my first 'Book, a PowerBook 5300, would barely heat up enough to warm your left hand on a chilly Canadian morning. The 5300 didn't even have a cooling fan. The first Apple 'Books with an internal fan were the 3400 series in 1997 - also 603e powered, but with much higher clock speeds of 180 MHz to 240 MHz, a PCI based motherboard with a faster frontside bus, bigger, faster hard drives, an internal modem, support for more RAM, and so forth. The proverbial writing was on the wall.

That said, the fan in my 1999 vintage 233 MHz G3 Series WallStreet PowerBook never cut in until one day when the machine was 3 1/2 years old - just minutes before the CPU died of heatstroke. Perhaps the fan setting for cut-in should have been more conservative, although I have to say that after I replaced the melted-down processor, the 'Book remained completely reliable, and the fan was never heard form again, which suited me fine.

We entered a whole new dimension of laptop operating temperatures with the MacIntel era, although the 1 GHz plus G4 'Books could get pretty sultry as well. Indeed, MacBooks ran so hot that Apple no longer refers to its portables as "laptop computers" in marketing literature and advertising and recommends against using them in a literal laptop mode.

Aside from potential physical discomfort (or worse) due to higher operating temperatures, the frequent cycling of the thermostatically activated internal cooling fan or fans in these machines is a noisome distraction and annoyance, especially since the anorexically thin form-factors of today's Apple notebooks means that the fans must be small diameter units turning at very high RPMs and consequently making a lot of extremely irritating high-pitched noise.

One way to optimize cooling and help keep those raucous fans silent is to use a laptop desk or laptop stand, of which there are a great many alternatives to choose from. Lapworks Inc. of Rancho Cucamonga, California has made its name, literally, designing and marketing a line of innovative, attractive, and relatively inexpensive laptop desk and laptop stand solutions, such as the Laptop Desk Futura and the LapWorks Aluminum Desktop Stand, both of which I've reviewed here on The Road Warrior (click the links for the reviews).

The newest addition to Lapworks' growing product line is the Attaché Laptop Stand, which combines several technologies to create a state-of-the-art elevation and active-cooling platform for today's hot notebook computers.

One feature that distinguishes the Attaché from most laptop stands is that its main computer support tray is made of solid aluminum plate, which is durable, lightweight, attractive, and acts as a large passive heat sink that draws heat away from the computer. The aluminum plate is shaped in a shallow, concave, curved arc, which provides an open air space or "convection cell" under the computer through which air can circulate, dissipating heat picked up from both the laptop's bottom surface and the aluminum heat sink by convection..

However that's only part of the story. The "active" feature of the Attaché stand consists of two relatively large diameter, slow-turning (2200 RPM), USB-powered cooling fans built into the unit's support base. Unlike all other actively-cooled laptop stand or lap desk products I've tested, which suck heated air downward and blow it outward and away from the computer's bottom, the Attaché's fans' air flow is upwards toward the computer and thence outward through the convection cell aperture formed by the stand's curved tray, carrying heat away from both the computer and the aluminum heat sink. I'm not an engineer, but it seems to me that blowing cool air on the hot underside of the notebook might indeed be a more efficient and effective mode.

Aside from its cooling functions, the Attaché stand's other main purpose is to elevate the open notebook's display screen to a more comfortable and ergonomically-sound eye-level when used in conjunction with an external keyboard and mouse, although the unit can also be folded flat for typing on the notebook's own keyboard with the passive or active cooling functions still in play.

The Attaché stand's third function is a built-in, four-port USB 2.0 hub in the left upper corner of its support base, which should prove very handy with Apple's port-challenged notebooks and the proliferation of USB peripheral devices.

In use, the Attaché's elevation support arm is adjustable to any of four levels from flat to full elevation, with two intermediate steps. To change the level, you push a large, spring-loaded button on the back of the unit, swing the support arm to the desired position, and release the button, which locks the arm in position. Elegant and simple.

The notebook is supported on the unit by two flip-down tabs at the bottom of the base-plate, which are padded with a rubbery material to protect against scratching and to hold the computer in place.

The only downside, so to speak, to this is that the support tab blocks the optical drive slot on computers like my PowerBook G4 that have front-loading drives, although this not a problem with my Pismo PowerBooks or iBook, which are side-loaders. This issue of course isn't unique to the Lapworks Attaché, and pertains to many laptop stand products.

The Attaché stand can accommodate any current Apple notebook from the MacBook Air to the 17-inch MacBook Pro as well as legacy machines and most PC laptops. It fits my trusty old Pismo PowerBook like it was made specifically for it.

In order to use the stand's active cooling function, it is necessary to plug the supplied USB cable into a USB port on the computer and into the dedicated small-format input port on the Attaché's USB hub. Happily, this does not use up any of the hub's four standard USB 2.0 ports. There is also a DC power input female jack through which you can externally power the USB hub, although no AC power adapter is supplied. I tried it with a standard 5-volt power adapter and it worked just fine. A blue indicator LED glows when the hub is powered.

The Attaché's cooling fans are controlled by a handy on/off power switch, and have an air flow rating of 20 cubic feet per minute (CFM). If you're worried about fan noise, there's no reason to be. The Seagate 100 gigabyte 4200 RPM hard drive in my Pismo is pretty quiet, but at first after switching the Attaché's cooling fans on, I wasn't sure whether they were working - they were quieter than the hard drive. They are even hard to hear with the hard drive spun down. The official noise level spec. is less than 23 dBA. The fans draw a modest 0.9 watts of power, which could be significant if you're running off the computer battery. However, the Attaché is most likely to be used when the computer is in desktop substitute mode with wall current available. The: fans operate on a hydraulic ball-bearing system that is claimed to be very dependable, quiet and long lasting. The cooling fans also automatically shut off when the laptop they are connected to is turned off, overriding the ‘on/off’ switch by dint of cutting power to the USB port. However, this automatic shutoff when the computer is asleep or shut down does not obtain when the USB hub is powered externally with a power adapter.

Build quality of the Attaché is very good and up to Lapworks' usual high standard, and it should last a good long time with reasonable care.

The Lapworks Attaché Laptop Stand measures 12 7/8 wide x 11 3/4" deep x 1 5/8 thick with the adjustable support arm folded flat, and weighs 2 Lb. 7 oz.

A budget-priced priced version of this stand called the Envoy is also available, with the only difference being that the Envoy's computer support tray is made of the same high-density ABS plastic as the base and support arm, rather than having the aluminum heat sink face plate. The Envoy weighs in at 1 lb. 10.5 oz.

The Lapworks Attaché sells for $69.95 and the Envoy for $49.95.

I really couldn't find anything not to like about the Attaché stand other than the minor criticism about access to front-mounted laptop optical drive slots.

Features:
• Material: High Density ABS Plastic
• Large aluminum plate absorbs/dissipates heat
• Product dimensions: 12-7/8" wide x 11-3/4" tall x 1-5/8" thick
• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• 4 push-button elevation settings
• Lowest elevation for ergonomic direct typing
• Higher elevations require separate keyboard and mouse
• Raises laptop screen to eye level for ergonomic viewing
• 2 silent built-in cooling fans
• weight: 2 Lbs. 7.5 oz
• ON/OFF power switch
• Rated Voltage: 5V DC
• Power Current: 0.18 A
• Rated Consumption: 0.9 W
• Fan Speed: 2200 +/- 10% RPM
• Fan Airflow: 20 CFM
• Noise Level: < 23 dBA
• Warranty: one year

Price: $69.95

For more information, visit:
http://www.laptopdesk.net/stands.html

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cmoore@macopinion.com

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