Budget Aluminum Notebook Cooler Review

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Mujtaba Tarihi, Iran

Reasons for buying

Anyone who owns an ASUS W3J knows about its heat issues, especially during intensive tasks. It's impossible to use this laptop directly on your laps due to this problem -- the great amount of heat it produces was one of the main reasons this model has been discontinued.

I had an older cooling pad, but it was noisy and made completely of plastic. It also wasn't very successful at cooling the laptop. So this time around I wanted to try my luck with a full aluminum cooler.

How Purchased

I had bought my laptop and all of its accessories from a well known computer market in Tehran called Paytakht (Capital) Computer Center, which is the largest notebook market in Tehran. I also bought this cooler from there, it cost 22000 tomans, which is equal to about $24.

The Cooler

The package came with just a USB cable, the cooler itself wrapped in a plastic air bubble bag and a piece of paper titled &quot;user manual&quot; which also contained a detailed spec. sheet. There was no sign of a manufacturer other than the &quot;made in China&quot; label which can be found on thousands of laptops and their accessories. My digging for data revealed the original maker to be &quot;TianYuan Technologies&quot; and the model number is AL05, though it says A05 in the spec sheet...

The specification is as follows :

• Size : 300*256*31mm
• Weight : 900g = 1.9lbs
• Fans : 2 pieces / 70*70*15mm / 1800RPM / Ceramic bearing / 23db noise/ 25CFM flow/ single-speed
• Power supply : 1 x USB port / 5.0VDC external power supply (either of them didn't try using both of them but I think it works)
  USB Hub : 4-ports USB 2.0 version.

Various shots:

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Cooling pad’s performance

I tested the temp’s under three different categories.

1) Idle temps: Let the laptop cool down – boot – wait until the temps stabilize

	CPU temp	GPU temp	HDD temp	Local temp
Without the cooler	51	60	42	46
With the cooler	51	60	41	46-47

 

2) Stress Prime 2004 Orthos: Blend test (Stresses both CPU and Ram), I ran it for 2 minutes, the temps recorded indicate the last 30 seconds

	CPU temp	GPU temp	HDD temp	Local temp
Without the cooler	72-73	70	47	52
With the cooler	72	70	46	52

 

3) 3DMark05 on FS AA 4x + Antistropic Filtering (Stresses GPU) the temps indicate the last 30 seconds

	CPU temp	GPU temp	HDD temp	Local temp
Without the cooler	75-80	70-75	44-45	55
With the cooler	75-78	70	44-45	54

As you can see, the temps did not vary much, though the difference between the temp's on 3DMark was noticeable.(The W3J has a single fan, with the GPU connected to the CPU though heat-pipes and sadly, there is a single window at the bottom of the laptop and a single vent on the right - much to the pleasure of left handed people)

The bottom view of W3J with the battery removed : (notice the single heat vent) (view large image)

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The W3J, placed on the heat vent : (notice the rather blinding blue indicator)

The USB Hub

As I stated earlier, the cooling pad comes with a USB v2.0 hub. The hub works as long as the cooler is connected via USB, iit does not require the cooler to be turned on. The hub worked with everything until I tried my brother's HDD 2.5&quot; USB Enclosure, the drive simply refused to worked and made beeping and clicking noises (both describing a failure at hand), while it worked with every other USB hub I have. That issue aside, the USB Hub worked while the LED Mouse, the older 256MB Kingston data traveler and my Sony Ericsson K510 were connected and the fan was on.The two latter devices worked at their full speed which meant there were no power issues.

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The USB-in and 5.0VDC input :

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The structure

Just as the pics show, the cooler comes in 2 pieces, the pad and hub/fan which are held together by 4 screws. Each fan is also connected to the smaller part by the means of 4 screws. The fans are replaceable and are connected to the PCB by a connector rather than being soldered. One interesting thing I found out about the cooler is that since the screw formation is symmetrical the lower part of the cooler (including the connections and the fans) can be taken out, rotated 180 degrees, and reattached, so you can have the hub on the right hand and the supplier on the left hand.

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Noise &amp; Power Consumption

The difference in the power consumption of the fan was about 1 watts which for my 6 months old W3J translates into about 10 minutes of battery life. The noise is certainly lesser than my older cooling pad but it's still audible.

Conclusion

Even though the cooler didn't have much of an effect on my W3J, people with larger laptops can expect better results than those I got with my laptop.

Since much of the more expensive and advanced notebook equipment still aren't being offered in young notebook markets such as Asia, this cooler will be a great and cost effective choice for people who want to cool down their notebooks or use them on their laps.

Pros

• Full Aluminum body, dissipates the heat better than plastic.
• Looks very good.
• A useful 4-port USB v2.0 hub.
• USB/External 5.0VDC supply.
• 1watts power consumption is battery-friendly.

Cons

• Little noise.
• The blue indicator is a little too bright. It can be distracting.
• It's a little heavy to be used on laps.
• The USB hub didn't work with the HDD enclosure.
• Single-Speed.
  

 

Nice review Mujtaba, it sounds like the shopping experience in Iran is a bit different to what I'm used to in the U.S. -- or then again, maybe it's a bit like buying something from the various generic electronic stores I see in New York (the ones that you see trying to get all the tourists to come in a buy).

I think if I lived near a desert region I'd be looking for a pretty good notebook cooler myself. I'm not sure this one you have is really doing much to help looking at those temp numbers, but anything to separate the notebook from your lap and maybe keep temps down a little is better than nothing.

 

I think the reason the External HDD may not be working is because you are powering the hub by using the usb on the laptop. Try using the external power supply instead. My previous usb 2.0 hub (no ext. power supply) didn't seem to have enough power to power my 2 ext HDD. I went and bought a powered usb hub and it works now.

 

Thanks .
The major difference is this market has yet to become a professional one but the resellers and the buyers are starting getting the hang of the business.The resellers are also getting more specific and focused too which is a very good sign.For example the shop I bought the laptop from didn't sell any laptops,they focused on selling computer related stuff and accessories plus PSP and PS3 [I think I should point out to the fact that the shop was one of the largest shops in the whole Paytakht Computer Center]

Yeah, the greatest thing about this cooler for my use W3J is the levitation, So I can connect the thumb drive and this kind of stuff more comfortably plus [and much more importantly] it saves my legs from being half burned by the heat vent when I am using it on my lap [sadly the single vent on the side blows the air to the right and also the bottom and I have backache so I sometimes have to sit on the sofa to work with the laptop and this cooler is a life saver in that situation]
Though the temp differences were little on my W3J, two days after I posted the review,my brother borrowed the cooler to try it on his M1210, he said the difference was considerable.

I did try that, the external drive works with two other self-powered hubs that we have.And I also tried using the HDD when the fan was switched off(the hub can work when the fan is switched off).I tried some thumb drives and along with one of those highly decorated mouses [with 4+ LED's] and they worked.I also tried chaining the hub with another self powered hub - the mouse and the thumb drive worked well with the chained hub too - the power consumption of that mouse alone is 1 watts and the external HDD consumes about that amount.

 

Thanks Mutjaba! I have been looking forward to this review. Too bad that it needs an adapter to work (the 4 USB at least). And after reading it more carefully: man that notebook cooler is not very effective. My Spire Pacific Breeze cools much and much better, even at lowest speed setting.

 

The problem is W3J's unusual cooling nature.A CPU and a GPU with just a single vent and a single window in the bottom.My brother was very happy with the results that he got with his XPS M1210.

 

The cooler's shape is not very friendly to be used in conjuction with your laptop while on your lap, especially if you are wearing shorts where some skin may be exposed (e.g. the edges within the cooler will get annoying on your lap). On top of that, you might block the vents of the fan so that its productivity will be decreased. I find that most coolers are not lap-friendly and are meant to be used on top of a table...unless the coolers suck in air from the side (there are a few).

I stopped using laptop coolers after I noticed that there will be a buildup of dust in all of the vents/holes of your laptop that the cooler is blowing air into. Unless you can easily open up your laptop and use a Dust-Buster to blow out the dust, I would not recommend using laptop coolers in the long run. There are some coolers that suck in air from the side and blow out air from the other side, acting as a weak heatsink for the bottom of your laptop - this works less efficiently but it is perfect for the lap.

Besides, the only real reason to use a cooler is for the HDD, which is most susceptible to hardware failure as it has many moving parts while things such as the GPU and CPU are a whole lot sturdier. HDDs can function perfectly fine until a max temperature of about 55+ degrees, anyway and your HDD temperature is well clear of that maximum...it is funny though how your HDD can be in the 45-47 degrees but your local temperature about 10 degrees higher. After a while I'd assume your HDD's temperature will hit the local temperature.

 

This one sucks the air in and as I tried the airway wasn't blocked when I used the cooler on my lap.The W3J is made from plastic and is almost isolated.Just as I said the cooling system of W3J is really usual.I haven't seen and laptop with such high CPU and GPU temps while they were idle...

 

Good review which reveals the problem of not having the big name brands in the local shop (but how well would one of those work with the W3J?).

Yes. The W3 series tended to run warm. Two years ago I had a W3A (version with Intel GPU) but with undervolting the CPU temperature was reasonable although the HDD was always quite hot (the down-side of undervolting the CPU is that the reduced fan activity then causes greater heat build-up in other parts of the computer).

However, this cooling pad may be more effective than is shown by the temperatures for cooling the bottom of the computer.

Did you try undervolting the CPU? This is much the best way of getting the heavy usage temperatures down although the GPU will probably then take over as being the primary source of heat.

BTW. What did you use for measuring the temperatures? MobileMeter or something else?

John

 

Yeah I did undervolt it [thanks to eji], I deceased the CPU temp in Ortho test to 56*C which is really impressive.
I used SpeedFan to measure the temps.
EDIT : But it's not really the problem with this cooler.I suggest you go and read Cori's review of Vantec lapcool [i think 4].It wasn't of any help on his laptop [V6va's temp and heat problem is like W3J] but we all know that Vantec is really a good company.
It seems that the reaction of some of the people who posted here[despite my full explaniation of the abnormality of W3J's heat] really made it essential for me to post the actual temp number's of my brother's laptop [m1210] with this cooler.I hope it'll clear up some doubts.I think I'll try it out tonight [7 hours later from the edition of this post].

 

so this was the review you were busy on eh ? mujtaba?
its lovely
the review and the cooler pad
nice pics BTW
24$ eh?
((hm....thats like 196 dhs)) seems about right
cooler pads are about that price here in dubai
nice review once again mujtaba
keep up the good work mate
thanks again

 

Good work, Mujtaba! And nice Asus notebook as well

 

This product looks a lot like the NotePal from Coolermaster which had almost no cooling effect for me with my Asus V6V or 15" Mac G4.

 

I contacted Cori~ he also had cooling problem with his V6Va,
It seems that some laptops are really hopeless when it comes to cooling.
EDIT : About the M1210 thing, if you use the fan without flipping the fans (so it would blow the air out) it would make things worse, because it exactly works against the cooling of M1210 and M1210 has some very big windows in the bottom - when I gave tried the M1210, I had flipped the fans to try how would it perform that way.

 

thanks for the review, but from the specs you posted, the cooling is almost none existant..I wish someone would review the evercool NP-201..it has a 11 in 1 card reader, a hub, and a fan control speed, and it has power adapter for external HD's..
also it pulls the air down and out...

Or the quadcooler:
http://quadcooler.com/
LOOKS MASSIVE!!!
or the tricooler...actually I think their tricooler is the evercool np-201 rebadged...

at the moment i use 5" flowmax 24v fan. i raise the laptop with some rubber caps at the 4 corners and run the fan from the side across cooling the laptop down INSTANTLY..I can bring down the cpu temp from 75 degrees celcius to 45 in less than 3 minutes..so i'm wondering if there are coolers that can perform like this?