| NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Notebook | Compact PC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Emily Ladouceur and Olin Coles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 06 February 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NZXT Cryo LXAnyone who owns a laptop knows how hot they can get. To help remedy that problem manufacturers are now coming out with some well made and thought out solutions. The NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler is touted as the first notebook cooler to feature triple 120mm adjustable fans and a full 3mm aluminum frame. But will it do the job? The NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler is one of many new coolers on the market, and Benchmark Reviews tests to see if it sets itself apart from the crowd. 
With so many laptop coolers and shields on the market it may be difficult to decide which would be best for the average user. The NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler is touted as the first notebook cooler to feature triple 120mm adjustable fans and a full 3mm aluminum frame. But will it do the job? We'll find out. About the company: NZXTNZXT has been manufacturing chassis' and power supplies since 2004. They are well known for well made items. Recently they have decided to branch out into accessories for laptops and notebooks. For a little more information about NZXT here is what I found on their website:
Features & Specifications
Cryo LX Closer LookAs you can see the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler is a solid piece of work. It is well built with an aluminum frame and rubberized areas on the surface to keep the laptop from slipping. There are ample cutouts so airflow won't be restricted.
It folds out to support the base of the laptop. There are additional rubberized grips on the fold out as you can see below.
It has three adjustable 120 mm fans. The plating over the fans allows significant air intake if you need the Cooler to run on high. There are six rubber feet to prevent scratching of a desktop and to keep the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler slightly raised.
As you can see from the picture below the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler is wide enough to support laptops up to 19" wide. The laptop pictured has a 15.4" wide screen so there is plenty of room left over for a larger laptop.
Cryo LX Detailed FeaturesOn the back of the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler there are five USB ports and one DC port for the users convenience.
When I placed the laptop on top of the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler I noticed that they placed the ports exactly where they were needed for easy access.
The NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler comes with two cables. One that is USB to USB and one that is USB to DC. The USB to USB cable is for data transfer and the USB to DC is to power the fans.
To regulate the speed of the fans there is a dial on the right hand side of the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler.
Taking a closer look at the fans you can see how well designed for airflow the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler is.
Testing & ResultsTesting MethodologyAfter removing the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler from the box I was initially surprised at how large and heavy the cooler was. I figured that something the size of a laptop must require more power than I had anticipated from looking at the box. So first we wanted to see how much power the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler would draw since it would be plugged directly into the laptop. We used the Kill A Watt EZ Model P4460 to measure the difference between the laptop after it had been turned on and left idle by itself and also with the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler both on low and high. In addition to the power usage we wanted to determine just how much cooler the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler would make the laptop when turned on. To test the temperature of the laptop we used the EVEREST Ultimate Engineer Version 4.20.1170. We took readings from the side, rear, and bottom of the laptop while the laptop was on and left idle and with the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler on high for five minutes. Test System
ResultsThe tables below have the results of both the readings from the Kill A Watt EZ Model P4460 for power usage and the EVEREST Ultimate Engineer Version 4.20.1170 for temperature readings.
As you can see from the above table the difference of power usage without the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler versus with the Cooler on Low and High is not horribly significant. Truthfully I expected it to be higher. I was pleasantly surprised.
The laptop used for this test was a Dell Inspiron 6400 with a Core 2 Duo processor. The Core 2 Duo tends to run cooler. There is a slight difference in temperature, as you can see in the above table, which may have been more significant had we used a laptop with a Pentium 4 processor. I found these readings a bit disappointing. Considering the size of the cooler and the fact that we had the fans running on high I expected a much lower number. NZXT Cooler Final ThoughtsThis is a pretty good product for laptops that run cool. But only if you leave them on your desk. This cooler is not made for use in your lap. I had a difficult time finding a price for the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler but when I saw that some sites were quoting $70.00 I was a little stunned. It is a well made solid aluminum product but it isn't convenient for the user on the go who would be more likely to need and use this type of product. The home user may find this a bit more their speed and may or may not be put off by the $70.00 price tag. The lack of any type of manual was a bit of a surprise also. I found a download-able version on the NZXT website. It was one page and simplistic. But considering that any user would be able to figure out how the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler works, it wasn't much of a surprise. But still it sometimes helps to have a manual enclosed in the box so the user doesn't have to go find it. The type of fan speed dial was not something I had expected to see. It reminded me of a volume control on a small battery operated radio rather than a speed control for fans. I expected something that was a little more graded with marked nodes for low, medium and high (and maybe a few in between). The rest of the construction was exactly what I expected from NZXT; solid and thought-out.
NZXT Cryo LX ConclusionThe NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler arrived in a very attractive package. It set the standards just a bit higher because who doesn't judge a book by its cover. When I removed the NZXT Cryo LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler from the box I was surprised at the weight of the cooler. It is solid aluminum so it is heavy. It is extremely well put together and has ample rubberised grips to protect your laptop. The fans are well placed and there is ample airflow. It wasn't made for use in your lap so that was a bit disappointing. Also, it didn't cool as well as I had hoped but it didn't use as much power as I had expected either. The price of $70.00 was a little much for something I don't think would be easy to transport for those on-the-go users. It is better for those who leave their laptops at home on a desk. I thought it was a pretty decent product. It worked like the box advertised but not quite to the degree I was hoping for. The power usage was better than expected and it is extremely well made so I would recommend this product to any user who has a laptop for their primary computer and doesn't travel. Pros:
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Comments
i would like to buy this cooling tray??
how cani buy it ??