After burning out 2 graphics cards in my laptop (thank you Dell warranty) I'm thinking of getting a cooling pad to keep my machine a bit cooler. Does anyone have any experience with laptop cooling pads? Are they actually effective? What brands/models do yall recommend?

They're pretty effective generally. They lift the laptop off the ground and let more air flow under it. Another thing to you should watch is to only use it on hard surfaces. Softer surfaces like beds, floors, your lap, etc. are the worst places you can sit a laptop cause the airflow is heavily restricted because they're not raised off the surface like they normally should be.

Also, look into chill pads instead of cool pads. Chill pads will have 80 or 120 mm fans and be powered by USB or AC adapter. They work well to keep a notebook significantly cooler.

I never used a cooling pad before. I just let my laptop burn a hole in the table.

I do wonder how much life my Dell laptop has before succumbing to the temperature.

Yeah, my laptop runs fine. It's got some beasts of ventilation in it though, with 2 large fans that will really kick into overdrive when it's on the bed.

This Precision M60 doesn't seem to be too well ventilated. The fan is really loud when it kicks in full speed, but you can't feel any air coming out anywhere. The keyboard and RAM cover get pretty darn hot.

I hate Dell. They have horrible customer support.

http://www.hardwarecooling.com/product_info.php/cat/33/prod/507/Notebook_Cooler_Pad_dual_fan?

I bought something like that for the exact same price.

My laptop wasn't ridiculously burning hot but just warm.

It takes power from your laptop because it's connected with a USB cord.

Pretty good for something that's worth $10.00.

I can't say it is always nice to talk to Dell because they seem rather slow in their diagnoses, but they have replaced 2 graphics cards and 1 DVD drive for me for free.

They don't have the best customer support interface, but you can NOT fault them on their willingness to make you happy.

So you can replace broken laptop graphic chips, but upgrade them?