It's nearly springtime in the US and that means we are one step closer to that very special time of the year known as summer! Most people adore summer, and not just those who go to the beach and play Meatloaf's "I'd do anything for love, but not that" for hours on end. Others may enjoy barbecues, swimming, or drinking a cold beverage of your choice outside with friends until late in the evening. The anticipation is practically palpable, but every year we must remember that summer is also the prime time for a computer's arch enemy to strike. I am, of course, speaking about heat.

Over the winter we become complacent, getting beautiful frame rates and such low temperatures on our GPU; I usually don't even need to use a heater to keep my single bedroom apartment warm while my two desktop systems are running. As the winter thaw begins and we enter the transition to summer, it begins. Slowly but surely, your computer gets louder and louder, like a freight train rumbling towards you. The comfortable eight person LAN parties you went to in January now make you and your seven friends feel like you are trapped in the swamps of Louisiana. Worse than that is the fate of your laptop in the summer. What used to be a quiet, nubile laptop has turned into what sounds like a banshee as it desperately vacuums up air in an attempt to stay cool. It's almost like your laptop has a fever, and the only prescription is a cooling pad.