| Vizo Xena Notebook Cooler |
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Test Unit:
Our test unit was a Sager 8790 laptop that has had its' cooling improved by lapping the heat plate to the heat-pipes and using artic silver wherever possible. The test units specifications are Pentium 4 w/ HT @ 3.20GHz , 2Gb of DDR Ram , Raid-0 array, 17" WSXGA wide aspect display.
Thermal Test:
Our tests were performed with an ambient temperature of 25 C. We then allowed the laptop to run for 10 minutes to allow it time to achieve a normal temperature at this ambient and recorded our numbers from MobMeter . We then ran the laptop thru 5 minutes of QuakeIII Demo to heat the unit up from a gamers point of view and recorded the numbers from MobMeter. We then allowed the laptop to cool by turning it off for 30 minutes, during which we placed the laptop ontop of the Xena Notebook Cooler. After 30 minutes had passed, we turned the laptop on along with the Xena Cooler. Again we recorded our temperature numbers at idle after 10 minutes and then proceeded to run the QuakeIII demo again for 5 minutes with the Xena running. Below are our findings.
Without the Xena Notebook Cooler:
Idle: 42C
Load: 59C
With the Xena Notebook Cooler:
Idle: 39C
Load: 51C
You can see that although idle temperatures did not vary greatly (3 C) in our tests, which was probably due to the laptops' fans cooling it adequately enough that it cannot be improved upon at idle; we noticed that the load test results show that the Xena improved the laptops ability to shed heat quicker by 9 C; that translates to 15 deg F less heat. During these tests we noticed that the fans push alot of air, yet are very quiet and hardly noticeable which was very nice to our ears.
Conclusion:
I really like the Xena Notebook Cooler with all of its features and disk backup capabilities and would recommend it to anyone considering purchasing a laptop cooler, that also wants a "little more" in functionality with its' 3 port USB 2.0 Hub and Backup System. It would also be extremely nice, but probably pricey, if Vizo included a version with a 2.5" hard drive as these are not as common or easy to find.
The only downside I found with the Xena unit was that in order to use the SATA hard drive and backup system, you needed to use the external power supply to power the hard drive as SATA requires more power than an IDE drive of the same size, since the IDE drives can be powered by the USB BUS. This downside is a result of thinking through what would happen if I wanted to use the Xena's backup system in an area where I was not close to a power source (outlet), the result being that I would not be able to use it. The weight of the powersupply is very lite/small and therefore does not present an issue with having to pack it in your laptop bag when you take it away from your desktop, only that it would be one more thing to pack should you want to use the backup system granted that you can "park" yourself near a wall outlet.
Given all of our tests and review time with the Xena, I really appreciate the innovative approach that was taken in creating this model.
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