December 1, 2009
Written by: Kenneth Kwok
Recently, I have been getting a lot of emails and even texts from friends asking about the reviews for Netbook Updates. Most of them wonder why I haven't been writing on here lately, and to be honest there was a very good reason. I'm currently studying at Simon Fraser University in my first year of computing science. Running from class to class, doing all the homework and worst of all writing all those midterms and exams, isn't exactly the most fun. But it will however, pay back in the future I hope. Anyways, I will be spending a lot more time on here after going through my first semester already and be back on track for new reviews, perspectives and even a Winter Giveaway soon. (I may have already said too much about it already, but that's ok, people will love the things we have in store this holiday season) I have been working quite hard to get not only a passing grade but also to get through all those tough exams. So speaking of new things going on, we also have a new company with new products that we will be taking a look at today. Anyways, we have a treat for everyone today with our latest review. It is from a company called Choiix which is a new subsidiary of Cooler Master. They are namely a more design innovated company, creating products that would fit everyone's needs. Anyways, today we have the Choiix Mini Air-Through for testing today, a cooler specifically designed for 7" to 10" netbooks. We will see how well it actually manages to cool our netbooks.
Choiix sent in their sample in a slightly oversized corrugated cardboard box from Choiix's head office in Taiwan, first when I received it I thought it may have been packed badly. However, after some careful inspection, I realized it was delivered by DHL. Yes, good old DHL, they somehow managed to totally destroy the box on arrival. It felt like it had been used to play soccer for hours on end. Seriously, there was a lot of DHL branded tape that had "Repackaged" printed on it with bold red letters. Man, DHL has really had a bad history with me and shipping products properly or even on time for that matter.
Just when I thought things couldn't be any worst, the whole bottom of the retail packaging was completely destroyed. As if that wasn't already bad enough, but to add on more hurt the box was completely soaked as well. Although I am 100% certain the retail packaging would look nice on display, this one here is hard to justify. The box itself was easy enough to open with a flap at the top to open the box. (It was also easy since there really was no bottom of the box)
Anyways, the design of the Choiix Mini Air-Through box was very clean with a white backsplash with a green and orange complement for the text and the bottom of the box. A giant picture of the Choiix Mini Air-Through can be found on the front. Specifically we have the C-HL02-WP which is the white version with the included USB hub located at the back. We will get into this a bit later on in our review.
On the rear side of the box is the listed specifications and features of the Choiix Mini Air-Through. There are also pictures of its usage as well as additional certifications. Most useful of all is the graph that supposedly shows the before and after results of using the Mini Air-Through compared to not using it. We will test how accurate these results may be in the tests portion of this review.
Before moving on to the meat of the review, let's take a look at the specifications of this device as taken from the Choiix website:
Application: Optimally designed for 7-10" netbook
Material: Aluminum, Rubber and Plastic
Dimension(W/H/D): 300 x 230 x 5~30 mm (11.81" x 9.05" x 0.20" ~ 1.18")
Fan Dimension(W/H/D): 70 x 70mm (2.76")
Fan Speed: 1500 RPM
Weight: 575g (1.27 lbs)
Luckily for us, the Choiix Mini Air-Through itself was not damaged due to its superior packaging quality. First there was a plastic bag that helped keep out any water damage or more likely dust and whatnot. Next, there were also two foam pieces that held the netbook cooler in place inside of the box. This managed to keep it from any damage that may have occurred during shipping.
Included inside the box were just four items: the instructional manual, a micro USB cable, anti-skid stickers and of course the Choiix Mini Air-Through. All of these were nicely packaged in a plastic bag as well, so nothing at all was destroyed by the water that came from DHL shipping.
In terms of design, the Choiix Mini Air-Through is very sound. It is constructed mostly of plastic and has a brushed aluminum top. It is very aesthetically pleasing and it has that Apple-ish design if I can call it that. The brushed aluminum is of good quality and had no machine scratches or any defects on it as well. The white plastic complements the brushed metal very well and is solid enough to be durable during travel and usage.
On the left side of the Choiix Mini Air-Through are three key items: one mini USB port, one AC adapter and a small plastic white button. The button feels a little flimsy, but it is actually solid enough to stay on and be used quite a lot. The mini USB port is used specifically to power this version of the netbook cooler. Another version uses a USB to DC adapter for powering the device.
From this perspective we can see the four USB ports and the integrated 70mm fan. These USB ports are a very good ideas for a netbook cooler as many netbooks have very little USB ports. Not only does it save money from having to buy an additional USB hub but it also adds a function into this cooler into more of a dock.
The 70mm fan is of interest to me, as there is a vent for the fan across the bottom of the netbook cooler. I don't know how much air it pushes but for it to be effective enough, it has to run at a high RPM. This usually means more noise, which isn't the most optimal solution for running a quiet machine. Also seen on the left side is the mini USB cable for connecting to the netbook. It is quite a bit longer than it really needed to be, but I have a feeling it is for connecting to the right side of certain netbooks.
Testing
The Choiix Mini Air-Through has no indicator for whether or not it powered, however, there is really no need for it since the fan spins when it is turned on a plugged in. It did fit our test system which is the Asus N10J-X1 quite well. We did not even need to use the non-slip stickers for grip since the bottom of the netbook already had good enough plastic non-slip pieces attached.
The specifications for our test system was as follows:
Processor: Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60 GHz
Chipset: Intel 945GSE
Ram: 2 GB
GPU: Nvidia 9300M GS 256MB
Hard Drive: 250GB
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium w/ SP1
Other information that is also useful is the room temperature which was 22c at the time. We used our Nvidia 9300M GS 256MB during this test instead of the integrated to get a better test of temperature difference as our Nvidia discrete graphics runs quite a bit hotter than the standard integrated Intel graphics.
Our tests were done in both an idle situation and a load situation. We used Prime95 to load up our system and let it ran for at least thirty minutes before taking the temperature of each of the part. The test system was running on high performance and had the LCD on about 70% brightness. The room temperature was also kept constant and all of the tests were done on a desk.
In the above results, it is pretty clear that there is a difference between using and not using the Choiix Mini Air-Through. The biggest difference as seen in our idle test was a 5c difference we obtained in both our HDD and CPU test. There was a smaller 2c difference for our GPU idling. The 5c on the CPU difference can certainly go a long way in terms of overclocking, seems ironic but the Atom really is quite underpowered when you look at it. The 5c for our hard drive is also another good result as it reduces the heat that dissipates onto the keyboard after some prolonged running. In essence the difference was quite good for a netbook on idle, especially one that runs as hot as our test system due to our Nvidia graphics.
Loading up our test system using Prime95 yielded similar results which is a good thing. The biggest magnitude of difference can now be found from our hard drive which had a 6c difference. As mentioned before, this greatly reduces the overall heat generated by the netbook that is usually conducted onto the keyboard. The change in the GPU was just as impressive with a 4c difference, which can really go a long way for running HD videos or editing them. Not to mention less heat usually leads to more stability in the long run. The final change in our CPU was also 5c as before, this is good enough especially considering how hot the Intel Atom runs at. With this additional cooling, it becomes much easier to overclock the system safely.
In both of our tests, the Choiix Mini Air-Through was overall consistent and surprised me quite a bit to be perfectly honest. The small 70mm fan was able to push enough air to cool our test system significantly for such a small cooler. Although the fan was running at a high RPM, it was still relatively quiet. To think of a good comparison, it was somewhat comparable to the sound of a fly buzzing around further off in the distance.
Considering all our results gathered from our tests and our inspection of the Choiix Mini Air-Through, I am quite impressed with the cooler overall. It provides a very clean and aesthetically pleasing designed combined with a pretty top notch build quality. The brushed aluminum really does combine very well with the white plastic. I would not be embarrassed at all bringing it anywhere. Adding that onto the compact size and weight, it really does bring a lot to the table. The four USB ports are also very useful for most netbook users and easily turns this into a viable option as a home dock as well. Test results for the temperature difference was quite significant for something of its size and brought great cooling potential. However, the cord was just a bit too long and was hard to hide, maybe an hideable cord or something along those lines would help. It would also be nice to see a bigger fan to increase airflow as well as reduce noise as it does get annoying at times to hear the faint spinning of the small fan running at high speeds. Overall though, this product is a great buy and on sale at time of the writing for only $14.99 with a free netbook sleeve and only $24.99 regularly, this really is a steal.
Shouts out to Selina from Choiix for providing us the sample unit
Awards: Harmony Award
Score: 84%
90%: It is near perfect, the positives far outweigh the negatives.
80%: Still a great product with minor setbacks that should not affect the reader.
More information on Netbook Update's scoring can be found on the About Us page.