Testing

I aimed to make this a replacement for a Coolermaster Neon blue fan on top of a Powerball packaging insert… surely it could do better?

I can’t give any reading as the ways in which you can use this product are so varied. However I could get an extra couple of Mhz out of my aged 9200 which was cool. And yes, it was better than my other ‘solution’ .

The noise that this unit made was annoying even to my ears that have been subjected to the hell of a Coolermaster Aero fan on maximum. I would definitely say that a fan controller is needed with this set up.

I doubt there was a huge drop in temperature of any of the components that this unit cooled, as all it really does is circulate already hot air rather than bring in air from outside the case, or exhaust air. However, there must have been some difference in temperature if I was able to get a higher overclock. But then again, my GPU has a passive heatsink so any extra airflow is going to cause a massive difference.

Before I finished testing, I decided to change the layout of the fans. This layout had air blowing from each axis, and made me get a single extra MHz out of my GPU. Not great, but worth pointing out.

I also have to wonder about its usefulness as a product as a whole. With the latest generation of graphics being released we now see them sporting huge heatsinks incorporating heatpipes and powerful fans, for example the GeForce 7800 GTX. These cooling solutions exhaust straight out the back of the case, and have a heatsink with plastic covering over the whole thing. This means that any extra airflow pointed at this will only provide extra noise, rather than additional cooling performance.

However, if you have a case with no air flow for example shop-bought pre-made PC’s, then this product will make a large impact. In fact, I tested this as my gaming PC was down for awhile. It did indeed allow me to get a considerable gain in overclockability (is that a word?). But, most hardcore gamers would stay away from such a computer.

Here are a couple of shots of the cooler in action. The blue-green colour fitted well with my case colour scheme.

I hope you don’t like neat cable management…