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NZXT Cryo S Aluminum Notebook Cooler


Date
: 07/15/09 – 03:12:03 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer
: NZXT

With summer finally here in North America, I've noticed an increase in the number of laptop coolers. I last looked at the simple Cooler Master D1 and today I have the more sophisticated cooler by NZXT.

The Cryo S is designed for 15′ notebooks but is compatible for anything between 10 to 15′. It sports a couple extra features to differentiate it from the competition.

Page 2 : NZXT Cryo S Package Content & Specifications

The NZXT comes in a relatively simple looking box. The front cover clearly shows what the NZXT Cryo S looks like. The back side lists all the features that'll we will reprint below.

Opening up the package the Cryo S is protected in a plastic bag and hidden below the cooler are the accessories: setup pamphlet, USB to DC power, AC power plug and USB male to female patch cord.

Built with thick, brushed aluminum, the Cryo S houses two adjustable 120mm fans that provide powerful cooling to any notebook up to 15 inches. Its rubber finish lifts the notebook up slightly to remove heat pockets and enhance airflow. The Cryo S can be powered via USB or the included AC adaptor and provides two additional USB ports to give users even more options for media, storage and input devices.

• Built with 3mm thick aluminum with sturdy construction
  
  
• Cools your notebook with two controllable 120mm fans
• Two USB ports for your input and usb thumb drives
• None slip rubberized plastic surface keeps notebooks from sliding
• Tilted surface allows for comfortable and relaxed typing
• Support for all types of notebooks from netbooks to 15′ notebooks
• Ideal for eliminating and reducing heat in performance notebooks

The features and specifications from NZXT say a lot and the brushed aluminum and rubber gives it a very masculine look. From top to bottom, this bad boy is either metal or rubber; it has a very sturdy build quality. The underside sports two 12cm cooling fans to blow air up to the bottom of your laptop. It wouldn't be hard to take the fans off and flip them around to suck the hot air out.

The fans are powered by a circuit board that also houses the USB ports and fan speed on the back side.

For those curious, I took the Cryo S apart to find out what type of fan is used. As you can imagine, it's an NZXT sleeve bearing brushless DC fan. The model number is DF120251SELN.

The edges of the mesh are padded with a rubber strip to reduce any vibration created by the fan. The bottom of the Cryo S also has a rubber strip so there's no metal to table contact. On top of that, your laptop will sit on rubber strips to dampen its vibration. As you can imagine, the amount of rubber padding has created a vibration free cooler. Even with the fan at full blast, you won't hear the cooler rattle against your desk.

Page 3 : NZXT Cryo S Setup & Testing

There's not a whole lot to do with setting up the Cryo S. Simple put your laptop on the cooling surface and plug in power and USB. As I mentioned in the previous page, you have the option of powering the Cryo S from the wall or drawing the power from a USB port. One thing I immediately noticed is the lack of a power switch. NZXT recommends you plug in the DC power cord if you plan on using the USB ports for high amperage accessories. If you decide to use the power plug, which I do recommend, the fans will
always be powered
. The downfall of this is that if you shut off your laptop, the fans will continue to spin all night and there's a bright green LED on the underside that will glow. The only way to have the fans turn off is if you power them using the USB to DC patch cord. You are now limiting the current supplied to the two additional USB ports and you've gained nothing in terms of adding USB ports to your notebook as you've added two but also removed two.

To test the cooling performance of the Cryo S I put my Dell XPS m1210 to use. The laptop is right in the middle of the compatible range for the Cryo S. I'll stress my laptop with Prime for 2 hours to get the maximum temperature and then I will let the system idle for two hours before recording the idle temperature. CPU Temperatures will be recorded by Notebook Hardware Control and I will use two thermal probes, one measuring the temperature of the exhaust air from the cooler and another taped to the bottom by the CPU.

Control

• Dell XPS m1210
  
  
• T5600 CPU @ 1.83 GHz
• Modified with a 64GB SSD & 2GB DDR2 RAM

Notebook Coolers

• NZXT Cryo S with fan at low and high speed
  
  
• Cooler Master D1 Notebook Cooler
• Light Laptop Stand
• No additional cooling

With the idle temperatures we see the Cryo S perform much better than than having the laptop sit flat on your desk. The exhaust temperatures are lower and the airflow lowers the overall laptop cover temperature, especially at high fan speeds. We can see that with the fans at low speed we have a big improvement in temperature.

With the fan cranked to high speed the CPU temperature according to Notebook Hardware Control matched that of the Cooler Master D1. However the exhaust temperature and the bottom of the laptop was much cooler, indicating better overall cooling performance. The fans at low speed are my personal preference as you gain a lot of the cooler benefits with little added noise. With the fans unplugged, the laptop is elevated which allows better airflow and hence we see a small improvement in temperature – nothing to get overly excited about.

Page 4 : Conclusion

I have always enjoyed the benefits for a notebook cooler, sacrificing a little bit of peace and quietness to maintain reasonable laptop temperatures. This is particularly important during the summer when ambient temperatures are generally higher than normal. Powerful laptops generally don't have the internal cooling capabilities of a desktop PC but accessories like NZXT's Cryo S definitely help.

At low fan speeds the Cryo S dropped the CPU, exhaust air and laptop cover temperatures without adding much noise. As an added benefit, the extra USB ports allow me to leave key accessories plugged in without taking up existing ports on my laptop. The only feature truly lacking with Cryo S is a toggle switch to turn the fans off at night when the laptop shuts down. If you can put up with that nuisance, I highly recommend the Cryo S for your notebook.

Advantages

• Rubber ends prevent vibrations
  
  
• fits a wide range of notebooks
• Great cooling performance at low fan speed

Disadvantages

• No power switch to turn off fan and LED

I'd like to thank NZXT for making this review possible.