My gaming laptop had been throttling for about four months before I did anything about it. I knew what was happening: the processor was getting too hot under sustained load and reducing its own performance to protect itself, which meant frame drops at exactly the moments I did not want them. I knew the cause: the laptop was sitting flat on my desk with no airflow underneath. I knew the solution: a cooling stand. I just kept not buying one.
My name is Kyle Brennan. I am a twenty-six-year-old graphic designer from Glasgow, and I use my laptop for both work and gaming, which means it is under sustained load for most of the day. The throttling had been affecting my gaming sessions for months and, I eventually realised, probably my render times at work as well. I had been tolerating it the way you tolerate a problem that has a straightforward solution when you cannot quite be bothered to implement the solution.
The Session That Made Me Act
It was a Friday evening. I was about forty minutes into a session, the laptop was running hot, and it throttled at a critical moment in a way that cost me the game. I sat back, looked at the laptop, and decided that was the last time. I opened a new tab and started looking at cooling stands.
I found the Trust Gaming GXT 1125 Quno Laptop Cooling Stand at ALTOE. The spec was right across the board: 5 blue illuminated fans providing consistent airflow across the entire base of the laptop, adjustable angle for ergonomic positioning, compatibility with laptops up to 17.3 inches, which covers my 15.6-inch gaming laptop with room to spare. Trust Gaming is a brand I had used before for peripherals and trusted for build quality at a reasonable price point.
The blue LED fans were also, I will admit, a factor. My setup has a blue and black colour scheme and the illuminated fans would fit right in. This is not the most important consideration when buying a cooling stand, but it is not nothing either.
At £68.76 it was a considered purchase, but I had been losing performance worth considerably more than that in throttled sessions. I ordered it on the Friday evening. It arrived Monday.
First Session
I set it up on Monday evening. The stand is sturdy, the angle adjustment is smooth and holds its position, and the fans connect via USB and start automatically when the laptop is powered. The blue LEDs lit up and looked exactly as good as I had hoped in the context of my setup.
I ran a gaming session for about two hours. The laptop ran noticeably cooler throughout. The throttling that had been happening reliably at around the forty-minute mark did not occur. I checked the temperature monitoring software I had installed to track the problem: the CPU was running about 15 degrees cooler under the same load than it had been without the stand.
15 degrees is a significant difference. It is the difference between a processor that throttles and one that does not. The frame drops stopped. The session ran smoothly for the full two hours.
Six Months On
The Trust GXT 1125 has been on my desk every day since. The throttling has not returned. My render times at work have improved, which I had not fully anticipated but which makes sense given that the processor is now able to sustain its full performance for longer without thermal protection kicking in.
The adjustable angle has also made a genuine ergonomic difference. I had been hunching slightly to see the screen at desk height. With the stand raising the laptop and tilting it toward me, my posture is better and my neck is less stiff at the end of a long day. That was a secondary benefit I had not prioritised when buying it, but it has turned out to matter.
The fans have been running daily for six months and have not become noticeably louder or less effective. The build quality has held up. The USB connection has not caused any issues. The blue LEDs still look good.
Two friends who game on laptops have bought it after seeing mine. One of them had the same throttling problem I had. He messaged me after his first session to say the difference was immediate. The other just wanted a better ergonomic setup and has been happy with it for that reason.
The Verdict
If your laptop throttles under sustained load, a cooling stand is the most direct solution and this is the one I would recommend. The five-fan coverage is thorough, the temperature reduction is meaningful, the adjustable angle adds genuine ergonomic value, and the build quality is what you would expect from Trust Gaming. The blue LEDs are a bonus for anyone with a matching setup.
Find the Trust Gaming GXT 1125 Quno Laptop Cooling Stand at ALTOE. Listed in Latest Products, Electronics, Electronics Accessories, Computer Accessories, and Computer Risers & Stands.
Sort the cooling. Stop losing to your own hardware.
— Kyle Brennan, Glasgow
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