The Choiix Air Through Stash Notebook USB Cooling Pad
September 21, 2009 Computer News
Computing in the global warming era has just got the one notch more advanced… These days one needs to ensure the 
notebook one operates on is equip with coping measures – for those unexpected circumstances of influx of heat.
This particular cooling pad, The Choiix Air Through Stash Notebook USB Cooling Pad, designed for Notebook users, is set apart in the fact it has additional USB ports via the integrated USB hub, which allows for an expanded storage capabilities.
So what are the pro’s and cons of this particular device?
Positive aspects:
• Integrated USB 2.0 hub
• Integrated 2.5″ drive dock
• Cooler can operate using just one USB port
• Tool-less 2.5″ drive dock
• Power button for fan
Negative aspects:
• No power supply included
• 80mm fan has ineffective cooling capability
• Fan is loud
• USB 2.0 hub uses single-TT
• USB hub only supports limited USB devices
• Bad build quality
• Inaccessible 2.5″ drive dock
• No grip for notebooks or portability
The Design:
The Choiix’s notebook cooler is available in either black or white. Its lightweight plastic frame, being designed for notebooks and netbooks up to 15″ in size, has quite a range of features – all of which quite impressively manage to be squeezed into one single cooler unit.
The Choiix’s notebook cooler constitutes of an 80mm fan, built into the center of the pad, covered by a thin plastic grill. This fan is powered by USB alone, which is connected from the cooler to the notebook via the included Y-USB cable. This included cable should be plugged into two Type A USB ports on the notebook/netbook in use.
The Choiix C-HL04-KP also makes use of a unique modus operandi, especially in comparison to alternative notebook coolers, what it does is it pulls air from the back of the cooler and then pushes it on to the back of the notebook’s base, ultimately venting it out of the underside of the notebook.
Another neat feature, situated on the side of the cooler is a button designed to control the on/off state of the integrated fan. An LED is then used to indicate if the fan unit is active or inactive. If in use, the LED will light up green. The LED will turn Amber when data is being transferred via the integrated SATA hard drive dock.
The integrated USB 2.0 hub has three USB ports, all strategically placed at the rear of the unit, to ensure optimal use of the notebook. Spacing between the USB ports is sufficient, ensuring that even the widest of USB devices should be able to populate all three ports. Unfortunately, Choiix decided to use a Single Transaction Translator (TT) hub chip, which generally will reduce the available bandwidth shared between devices when all USB ports are populated with a mixture of high-/full-speed devices.
With no gripping surface on the mixed matt and glossy plastic finish of the coolers top, the cooler will not fare well with notebooks that do not have rubber/polyurethane feet placed in the appropriate locations to prevent your notebook or netbook from sliding off. Choiix does include four rubber feet to attach to either your notebook’s belly or the notebook coolers top surface.
The design of the cooler also makes no accommodation for notebooks with expanded battery packs. This will cause a lot of the fan’s exhaust to vent straight out of the sides of the cooler without ever taking any of the hot air from the surface of the notebook with it as you’ll see in my temperature testing results.
The cooler does not feature any adjustable height options to change the angle of the positioned notebook and allow for comfortable typing so if your notebook keyboard is already slanted when placed on a flat surface, expect the angle to be exaggerated when placed on the Choiix notebook cooler.
Portability & Ruggedness
The Choiix notebook cooler is ideal for the individual looking for a portable notebook cooler, as the size of the Choiix cooler is just perfect for your backpack and the convenient low profile makes it ideal for storing in satchels, just don’t expect it to keep it’s near-new look if you are planning on moving it around a lot.
Recap
The Choiix C-HL04-KP notebook/netbook cooler is an interesting design for use on the road or on your desktop to dock your notebook to and expand your computers capabilities. Unfortunately, the inclusion of an 80mm fan is it’s biggest down-fall since it does the one thing it was meant to with only moderate success. One thing is for certain, he Choiix notebook cooler does bring with it many unique features that many netbook users may find appealing.
Comments (2)
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