Best Laptop External Cooling Fans of 2025

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Laptop external cooling fans are a popular accessory for laptop owners who want to keep their devices cool and prevent overheating. These fans are designed to improve airflow around the laptop, reducing the temperature of the components and extending the lifespan of the device. They come in various sizes and shapes, and some models even have adjustable fan speeds and LED lighting. Laptop external cooling fans are easy to install and use, making them a convenient solution for anyone who uses their laptop for extended periods of time.
At a Glance: Our Top Picks
Top 10 Laptop External Cooling Fans
Corsair RS120 ARGB 120mm PWM Fans Triple Pack
The Corsair RS120 Fans offer a streamlined solution for cooling your system. With daisy-chain connections, you can easily link multiple fans, controlling them through a single 4-pin PWM connector. This simplifies your setup while maintaining efficient airflow. The eight LEDs per fan provide bright, customisable lighting via your motherboard's ARGB control, enhancing your system’s aesthetics. Additionally, you can set the fan speeds up to 2,100 RPM, ensuring optimal cooling performance for your components, which is vital for maintaining system stability.
Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX XT Cooler
The Corsair H150i Cooler features a 360mm radiator, which efficiently dissipates heat, ensuring your CPU remains cool during intensive tasks. Weighing just 1.1 kilograms, it is lightweight and easy to install in various cases. This cooler is compatible with a range of Intel and AMD processor sockets, providing versatility for different builds. Additionally, it comes with three AF120 RGB ELITE fans that enhance cooling performance while adding a vibrant touch to your setup.
ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB Cooler
The ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III offers exceptional cooling for your CPU with its LGA1700 and LGA1851 contact frame, ensuring efficient heat transfer through better contact pressure distribution. For AMD users, the native offset mounting optimally covers the CPU hotspot, enhancing heat dissipation. Additionally, the active cooling of voltage converters with a PWM-controlled VRM fan helps maintain lower temperatures in critical areas. With integrated cable management, you can enjoy a neater setup, as only one cable connects to the motherboard.
Thermalright TL-C12C-S X3 Silent Fan
The Thermalright TL-C12C-S Fan offers high performance with automatic speed control, adjusting to the motherboard's temperature for optimal cooling up to 1550RPM. Its quality S-FDB bearings minimise noise while enhancing cooling efficiency, making it perfect for quieter environments. Additionally, the fan features vibrant ARGB lighting with 17 modes, allowing you to personalise your setup's aesthetics. With a versatile size and design, it is suitable for both case and CPU cooling, ensuring you keep your components cool during intensive tasks.
Thermalright Assassin X 120R SE PLUS CPU Cooler
The Thermalright Assassin X 120R offers exceptional cooling performance for your CPU. Its 4×6mm heat pipes utilise advanced AGHP technology to tackle the inverse gravity effect, ensuring efficient heat dissipation. With dual PWM fans, you can enjoy a quiet computing environment while still benefiting from effective airflow. The cooler's compatibility with various Intel and AMD sockets makes it a versatile choice for many users, providing convenience in installation and use.
Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO CPU Cooler
The Thermalright Phantom Spirit is an advanced CPU cooler designed for optimal performance. It features the AGHP 4.0 technology with seven heat pipes, ensuring efficient heat dissipation that can enhance your CPU's longevity. The dual 120mm PWM fans deliver impressive airflow while maintaining a quiet operation, perfect for those who value a serene working environment. Its refined anodic black frosted finish not only looks sleek but also improves compatibility with various setups, providing you with a high-quality cooling solution for both Intel and AMD processors.
Thermalright TL-C12C-S X5 ARGB CPU Fan
The Thermalright TL-C12C-S Fan offers exceptional cooling performance for your PC. With automatic speed control via a 4PIN PWM fan cable, it adjusts its speed based on your motherboard's temperature, reaching up to 1550RPM. This ensures your system stays cool during intensive tasks. The fan operates quietly at a noise level of just 25.6dBA, allowing for a more peaceful computing experience. Additionally, its vibrant ARGB lighting not only enhances the aesthetics of your build but also features 17 modes for customisation, making it easy to sync with your other components.
ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 240 A-RGB Water Cooler
The ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III is designed for efficient cooling of your CPU. It features a LGA1700 and LGA1851 contact frame that enhances heat transfer through improved contact pressure distribution. The native AMD offset mounting ensures optimal coverage of Ryzen processors, leading to better heat dissipation. Additionally, the active cooling of voltage converters with a PWM-controlled VRM fan helps maintain stable performance by cooling essential components around the CPU. Integrated cable management also reduces clutter, making your setup look neater.
Noctua NH-D15S chromax.black CPU Cooler
The Noctua NH-D15S Cooler is a premium dual-tower CPU cooler designed to enhance your system's performance. Its asymmetrical, single-fan design fits in most tower cases, ensuring high compatibility and RAM clearance. You will appreciate the award-winning NF-A15 140mm fan, which offers automatic speed control for optimal cooling under load while remaining whisper-quiet during idle times. Additionally, it comes with high-end NT-H1 thermal paste, making installation straightforward for various Intel and AMD processors.
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE Cooler
The Peerless Assassin 120 SE by Thermalright is an impressive CPU air cooler designed for superior performance. It features a robust aluminium heatsink and six heat pipes, ensuring efficient heat dissipation for your CPU. The double PWM fans provide optimal airflow while maintaining a low noise level, making it ideal for quiet computing environments. Additionally, its compatibility with various Intel and AMD sockets allows for easy installation, giving you flexibility and convenience when upgrading your setup.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Do external cooling fans work for laptops?
Yes - laptop cooling pads work especially well for gaming. This is one of the most common use cases for laptop cooling pads, since running games on your computer can be labor intensive for laptops.
2. Are laptop cooling fans worth it?
If your laptop is suffering from heat-related problems, then laptop cooling pads are a cheap and effective way to solve your problems. While they're not the ultimate solution, they can resurrect a failing device for less than the cost of a single PC game.
3. Do gaming laptops need external cooling?
Gaming laptop comes with internal cooling system that provide sufficient cooling till your laptop not so old, suppose you just purchased a high configuration gaming laptop then you might not need an external cooling device, but after using sometimes it start showing overheating issues because of dust improper ...
4. Can you add cooling to a laptop?
Step Three: Additional Cooling As a matter of fact, a cooling pad is almost indispensable in the case of gaming laptops. The way that cooling pads operate is simple: you place them on a surface, then place your laptop on top of them, plug them into one of the laptop's USB ports, and let the fan(s) do their work.
During our laptop external cooling fan research, we found 206 laptop external cooling fan products and shortlisted 10 quality products. We collected and analyzed 35,311 customer reviews through our big data system to write the laptop external cooling fans list. We found that most customers choose laptop external cooling fans with an average price of £31.49.
The laptop external cooling fans are available for purchase. We have researched hundreds of brands and picked the top brands of laptop external cooling fans, including Corsair, ARCTIC, Thermalright, Noctua. The seller of top 1 product has received honest feedback from 483 consumers with an average rating of 4.8.

Kenneth Collin graduated from Imperial College, London, at 22. He is a UX/UI designer, a web developer, and a writer, amongst others. At age 14, Kenneth programmed his first app. Kenneth's app served as a remote control for censored devices. "When I was 8, I would pick up scraps from electronics and try to rebuild or at least fix them," Kenneth said in one of his recent articles on Home repairs for top gadgets.