I have a 5 year old laptop with a completely dead battery and it runs very hot, so, I decided to get a cooling pad.
There were so many to choose from, but only one had USB 3.0 support. I thought it was worth the buy, so I went ahead with the purchase.
It arrived today, and I just had to check it out ASAP!

Laptop specs:
Brand: Toshiba
Model: Satellite A215-S4757
CPU: AMD Turion 64X2 TL-56 1.8 Ghz
iGPU: ATI X1200 series
RAM: 3GB DDR2 SDRAM(Added 1GB over stock)
Cooling Pad specs:
Brand: Cooler Master Storm
Model: SF-19 Strike Force USB 3.0 version
Has 4 USB 3.0 ports

The test was done using HWiNFO32 Sensor Status, measuring the CPU minimum and maximum temperatures. Each time the fan speed was changed, I gave the laptop 10 minutes to adjust and then 5 minutes to get the results posted here. Changing the fan speed was done by moving the circle once, from front to back. This way, you get 3 ON measurements, so, it goes like this: Off, On-and-OneUp, TwoUp and ThreeUp(max).

The test consisted of four parts. Baseline on table, Baseline on Cooling Pad, Running only the GOM player on the background and running only a game on the background. The windows of the player and the game were not opened, I had issues running the "apps" in a window while also running HWiNFO32, it would turn my display off and I had to manually shut down.

Baseline temperature
On the table:
138.2 Degrees F Minimum, 149.0 Degrees F Maximum

Baseline temp on Cooling Pad
Fan Off:
122.0 Degrees F Minimum, 129.2 Degrees F Maximum
Fan OneUp:
107.6 Degrees F Minimum, 116.6 Degrees F Maximum
Fan TwoUp:
104.0 Degrees F Minimum, 109.4 Degrees F Maximum
Fan ThreeUp(max):
102.2 Degrees F Minimum, 109.4 Degrees F Maximum

Temp on Cooling Pad, Running GOM
Fan Off:
136.4 Degrees F Minimum, 143.6 Degrees F Maximum
Fan OneUp:
123.8 Degrees F Minimum, 129.2 Degrees F Maximum
Fan TwoUp:
114.8 Degrees F Minimum, 120.2 Degrees F Maximum
Fan ThreeUp(max):
111.2 Degrees F Minimum, 120.2 Degrees F Maximum

Temp on Cooling Pad, Running Game
Fan Off:
195.8 Degrees F Minimum, 199.4 Degrees F Maximum
(NOTE: It started at around 177, but kept rising, at 5 minutes this is were it got to. Then I maxed the Fan and got the other results.)
Fan OneUp:
167.0 Degrees F Minimum, 174.2 Degrees F Maximum
Fan TwoUp:
159.8 Degrees F Minimum, 165.2 Degrees F Maximum
Fan ThreeUp(max):
154.4 Degrees F Minimum, 163.4 Degrees F Maximum

As you can see, the pad does work, it cools my laptop by 20~30 degrees. At max speed there is some noise, not a lot tho. If you are gaming, you probably wont notice it. It is very expensive! And it was hard to find, for me. Its not very portable, but its for gaming so, I think it would fit a LAN party quite well. My table is 31 inches wide and it fits there comfortably with a standard mouse pad to my right and about 4 inches of space to my left. Hope this tiny review helps someone.

Cool, I always thought those things were useless.

The most effective way to reduce the heat production of my old laptop was to disconnect the fan and remove the dust from the air vent that had collected over the years forming something resembling a thick felt cloth (not kidding).