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Titan Serina Cooling Pad


Date
: 08/16/05 – 02:13:26 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Titan Computer Co. Ltd.

Price:
MSRP $119.00

This will be the second time we look at a product from Titan here at Overclockers Online and I have the pleasure of reviewing both items. Another cooling product from this large Taiwan based company arrived the other day via international courier. Titan has been around for a long time and since 1995 they have continued to expand their product line-up as well as their business. Recently they began to introduce their products with not only a name but a recognizable figure that has the looks of a female character you might find in any Final Fantasy game. Past cooling products released with such a theme include the Vanessa S-Type and Vanessa L-type, the Bianca, as well as the laptop cooling device we will be looking at today, the Serina.

The Serina is intended for use with notebook computers that will be used in a static location, like a desk or counter. With the optional USB cable to power the unit, it can easily go on the road with you as well. The idea behind the design is to draw the heat out of the bottom of the notebook and disperse it with fans out the front and sides, lowering the operating temperature of the notebook and components in the process. The Serina also offers dock type functionality with an optional all-in-1 card reader and 3 port USB hub. Let's have a look…

Page 2 : Package

I must say, I have enjoyed receiving products from Titan as the packages they come in are very esthetically pleasing.

The design and layout of the box is very similar to the other item from Titan that I have looked at, the Vanessa L-type. A small Titan logo appears in the upper left and a short list of features in the bottom right, which I have highlighted for easy viewing. The majority of the front is that of the beautiful character that is Serina. We also get our first glimpse of the very attractive cooling pad itself, just below the title.

On the underside of the package, Titan gives a full list of features and specifications as seen on the left of the image above. We also get a diagram that they have on their website that displays the basic function that the Cooling Pad has and flow of air. To the far right Titan provides images of the all-in-one card reader, USB hub, and cooling vents.

The narrow side of the box is black at one end, void of any info. However, on this end, it has a photo of the included optional accessories, depending on which options are installed in the cooling pad inside. There is also a list of the supported operating systems directing users to download the driver from the Titan web site should it be necessary.

On this side of the box, we see something that is quite interesting. Yes, that is a handle that pulls out allowing you to carry the box around. I find this interesting as I don't really see any reason for carrying the box around. If that situation ever should arise, however, the Serina box is up for the challenge. The other narrow side opposite of this just has the Titan logo as well as the Serina badge similar to this one. Titan has once again done a great job describing and showing the product that is inside the box.

Page 3 : Specifications

Being a cooling pad, USB hub and card reader, there is not a lot of specifications but plenty of potential features. Here is a list pulled from the Titan web site…

Features :

• Effective ventilation and attractive ergonomic design
• Ultimate cooling performance
• Sturdy & Lightweight aluminum construction in a brilliant finish
• Compatible with all notebooks
• 3 powerful silent fans (60x60x10mm)
• Fan speed control wheel
• ON/OFF power switch
• All in 1 card reader (option)
• 3 USB ports (1.1/2.0 version) (option)
• High quality and beautiful package design

  No where in the specifications does it state whether the USB hub is self-powered and high speed (480Mbps) or BUS powered and only capable of full speed (12Mbps). I did some looking through device manager and found that the hub shows up as self-powered even when the power cord leading to the AC/DC adapter is not plugged in.

  

  The two card readers plugged into the hub at this time are displayed using 500mA as well as the built in card reader, further indicating that it is running as a self powered USB hub. When we get to the testing we will see whether the USB hub is actually capable of speeds over 12Mbps or not.

  
  A diagram with the dimensions of the Titan Serina.

  Specifications:

  

  Model No. :

  TTC-G2TZ/A Fan Pad+Card Reader+USB
  TTC-G2TZ/D Fan Pad Only

  
  Page 4 : Contents
  

  One last look at the top of the box and the attractive Serina character that graces it before opening the lid to reveal a cooling pad that is just as attractive.

  

  As expected, there is very little that is in the box aside from the cooling pad itself. On the right is the USB cable to connect the notebook to the hub and the AC/DC adapter to power the cooling pad and its 3 fans. An optional USB cable was not supplied with my test sample that would allow the Serinas fans to be powered by a USB port. Without even pulling this piece of aluminum beauty out of the box, we can see just how sharp looking it is.

  

  Once out in the open, the Serina did not disappoint. An aluminum top riddled with slots for venting gives the cooling pad an elegant and sophisticated look, like it belongs sitting on a desk next to other high-end electronic gadgets that belong in an executives office. Titan could have easily ruined this design with an ugly attention grabbing logo but instead they opted for a raised aluminum badge sporting their logo, the same color as the rest of the top. It just sits down and hides almost un-noticed to the eyes as they scan over the surface. Having the aluminum top also adds to the units strength. The weight of the Serina is not too heavy and not cheap or light, it is a nice balance that gives the Cooling Pad a sturdy feeling.

  
  Turning the unit around reveals another bank of cooling vents letting the fans inside exhaust air out the front.
  
  That air is exhausted by the 3 60mm fans that can bee seen through the aluminum grill.
  

  All of the functions are conveniently located on each side of the Cooling Pad. Titan has very discretely located the all-in-one card reader towards the top of the unit giving room for side vents to exhaust the hot air drawn out of the notebook that sits on top. The card reader supports CF/MD, MS/MSpro, SD/MMC, and xD/SM.

  

  The opposite side of the Serina is where we find the rest of the function incorporated. Going left to right is the DC input that supplies power, the port for connecting the USB hub to your notebook, 3 USB 1.1/2.0 ports and the fan speed dial as well as the power switch.

  

  There isn't a whole lot going on with underside of the cooling pad, except a label that has more info about the Serina than I was expecting, but it was a nice touch. We also see rubber feet that keep the unit off the surface it is sitting on, allowing you to use the Serina anywhere without worrying about leaving any marks or scratches.

  

  The last of the contents inside the box are the AC/DC power adapter and the connection cable to link your notebook to the USB hub and card reader in the Serina. The power adapter has a nice long cord and the USB connection cable is fairly short. So short in fact that it had a hard time reaching to the rear of the IBM T-22 on the opposite side. If your notebook happens to have the USB connections on the left hand side then this cable will not reach all the way around and you will need to buy a longer cable.

  The next section will cover testing of the USB hub, card reader, and the thermal abilities of the Serina.

  
  Page 5 : Performance
  

  To test the cooling abilities the following notebook was used…
  [quote]Control:
  IBM T-22
  Intel Pentium III 900MHz Coppermine
  256MB RAM
  S3 Savage Integrated Video
  Windows XP Pro SP2

  

  Coolers:

  Titan Serina Cooling Pad

  Card Reader:
  SanDisk USB 2.0 CF Card Reader

  CF Card:
  SanDisk Extreme 512MB (10MB/9MB read/write)

  This old T-22 was a perfect candidate for testing the cooling ability of the Serina as it doesn't have the best cooling ability on its own. Newer notebooks may generate more heat with bigger processors and video cards, but they are inherently better at cooling the system because of this. I will run the following with the notebook seated on the Serina at both high and low fan speeds as well as with the notebook sitting on my hardwood floor. The three sets of temperatures will be recorded below. Setting the Serina up to work is as simple as plugging in the power adapter and turning it on. To connect your notebook to the USB hub and card reader you simply plug the included cable in an available USB port on your notebook and then into the Serina.

  

  Unfortunately the processor in this notebook does not have a temperature probe so we will not be able to monitor that directly, but a temperature probe was placed on the underside of the T-22. I taped it to the outer shell right where the processor sits. Speedfan will also be utilized to monitor the hard drive temperature and that will be recorded in the graph. For testing I will run Prime95 for 3 hours at the same time as transferring a 24GB handful of MP3 files to the notebook via a wireless network. This will get the processor, RAM, and hard drive working and in the process generate a good amount of heat. At the end of the 3 hours Prime95 will be stopped and all activity on the laptop will cease aside from Speedfan and any other services running in the background. The system will then idle and the temperatures from the probe on the underside and the Speedfan reading for the hard drive will be recorded after 1 hour. Here are the results…

  

  The numbers don't lie folks, the Serina Cooling Pad really does take a good chunk of heat out of the notebook. The difference between the highest and lowest setting on the fan really does not make much of a difference and the fans are pretty much silent. They cannot be defined from that of the notebook fan so in most situations they will be left on high. The difference between the notebook sitting on the Serina and sitting on the floor is substantial. A total of 13 degrees was removed from the underside of the notebook when under load and 10 degrees at idle. I really would like to have had a processor with a temperature probe in it to see how much that would be affected as the hard drive sensor showed a solid 6 degree difference. In the end though, I must say I was pretty impressed with the Serinas ability to cool the notebook.

  The next tests I ran were to see how the USB hub and card reader performed. Now I wish I had an external hard drive to give the USB hub a real test, but as it were, I didn't. Instead I had to rely on my trusty SanDisk CF Card Reader and a SanDisk 512MB Extreme CF memory card. I also tested the CF card reader from the all-in-one. These were basically a comparison to see how much speed would be lost going through the Serina as opposed to going through the SanDisk plugged directly into my computer. This was not a proper benchmark of the USB hubs ability. SiSoft Sandra's Flash Benchmark was utilized for the results below.

  

  As you can see the numbers are all very similar with the performance of the USB hub with the SanDisk card reader plugged into it being exactly the same as the SanDisk card reader plugged directly into a USB port on the back of my machine. Obviously this is not an exhaustive test, but all I had access to. The all-in-one card reader under performs what appears to be substantially when compared with the SanDisk card reader. The results equal out to about 20 seconds when uploading a 512MB card full of high resolution images. It is an uploading difference of 30%.

  The highest result of over 10,000KBps is equal to about 80Mbps which far surpasses the 12Mbps limit of a full speed USB connection. This is the evidence that proves to us that the hub is actually a high speed USB hub capable of 480Mbps. The reason the results max out at 10,000KBps is because the memory card I used for the benchmarking is only capable of that speed.

  
  Page 6 : Conclusion
  

  When I first found out that I was getting the Serina from Titan, I wasn't sure what to think. I have always taken my tower cooling seriously but never really worried about my notebooks. I was always under the impression that they were designed to run hot and if they were too hot, the manufacturer would have changed something in the design. After seeing the results of what the relatively simple Serina can do, my view has changed somewhat. Being able to remove the amount of heat from the underside of the notebook that it does will do nothing but increase the lifespan of your notebook.

  The Serina is a beautiful accessory that you will not hesitate to have on your desk and not only does it help cool your notebook, it also adds function. With the all-in-one card reader and additional USB 1.1/2.0 ports via the high speed USB hub, you can almost think of the Serina as a mini docking station. For people with older notebooks that tend to run on the hot side, I would highly recommend the Serina. It is usually the older notebooks out there that will have only one USB port and no card reading function, so the Serina really adds to its value with those options. For those with newer notebooks that have more hardware packed into them than ever once imagined, the Serina is a definite plus.

  I had no complaints when testing the Cooling Pad aside from the slightly poorer CF card reader speed. Other than that the Serina did all that it was advertised and did it quite well. The slight incline that the notebook sits at when perched atop the Serina is just perfect and angles the notebook keypad to match most keyboards out there, I found it to be quite comfortable. The Serina is well designed, well implemented, and a solid offering from Titan. The increased durability and cooling of the aluminum top plate not only add to its value but also its prestige as this is one of the most elegant Cooling Pads I have seen.

  Advantages:

• Stunningly beautiful
• Exceptional cooling ability
• Plenty of additional function

  Disadvantages:

• Lackluster CF card reader performance
• Expensive

  Overclockers Online would like to thank Titan for making this review possible.