Conclusion
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Speaking of the hard drive, on the left side of the cooler is the small bay that fits a 2.5� SATA hard drive, which is the hard drive size commonly found in a laptop.I�m a little surprised that Vizo chose to make the cooler compatible only with SATA drives instead of IDE drives; certainly IDE laptop drives are more common at this point (perhaps there is a compatibility reason).Installing a drive into the cooler is painless; simply attach the hard drive into the provided hard drive tray and slide it into place.
The cooler comes with the same PC Clone Ex software that came with the previously reviewed Vizo Uranus hard drive enclosure.The software takes some practice, but overall it�s a fairly simple backup software utility.The software can be configured such that you can back up the entire system or just certain files, and the one-touch feature, is certainly handy for those quick backup tasks.If you are lazy about backup up files like I am, the handy backup capability that the cooler provides should help improve your backup frequency.
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As expected, there is no installation involved in this cooler; simply set it on the table, set the notebook on top, and plug in the USB and power adapter. The first notebook I sat on the cooler was a Dell Inspiron 9300 widescreen notebook, measuring in at 15.4 inches wide. As you can see, the notebook cooler was a little on the small side for this size of notebook, especially since the feet of the notebook did not come into contact with the cooler at all. While the cooler does still work with a widescreen notebook, I think the cooler is better suited for a smaller notebooks under 14�.
After flipping the easily accessible power switch, I was surprised to find that the notebook cooler was quieter than the previously reviewed Ninja cooler; likely due to the enclosed bottom that is lacking from the Ninja.As with the Ninja, I really liked the ergonomic angle at which the cooler elevated the notebook; typing felt more natural.
Testing:
Test System:
Dell Inspiron 9300
Pentium M 1.6GHZ
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 256MB
Hitachi 60GB HDD
Idle temperatures were taken running Windows after 30 minutes and full loads were taken while running SiSandra�s Burn-in Module.Temperatures (in degrees Celsius) were recorded for both the CPU and the GPU, with the results compared with the previously reviewed Vizo Ninja notebook cooler and without a cooler.Ambient temp was about 22C.
Cpu temp:
Overall, the cooler provided similar results to the Ninja cooler; likely because it uses the same fans and has a similar layout.As seen by the CPU results, the notebook cooler didn�t lower the CPU temperatures by very much, though there was a measured difference.Also, the system fan did turn out at a slightly later time when the notebook cooler was used.
Gpu temp:
The results for the GPU were better, which is likely due to the fact that the GPU vents/fan were closer to the cooler fans.
Conclusion:
The Vizo Xena Notebook Cooler is a well-designed cooler that is really three products in one: a cooler, a USB hub, and a hard drive enclosure, all are wrapped up in a lightweight Aluminum frame. However, there are a couple of things that should be considered when choosing this cooler; namely, use of less-common SATA 2.5� drives, and a small size that doesn�t work well with larger notebooks.If you can get past those �gotchas� and pick up the Xena cooler, I suspect it will be a fixture underneath your notebook for a long time.
Pros:
+ Handy backup capability with solid software
+ Good ergonomic angle
+ Noticeable cooling performance
+ Lightweight, aluminum construction
+ Quiet operations
+ Convenient USB ports
Cons:
- Not suited for larger widescreen notebooks
- SATA drive might be a limiting factor
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