Titan TTC-G4TZ Expandable Notebook Cooler

Introduction:

During the past little while, we've seen the introduction of many 'laptop coolers' designed to help dissipate the heat produced by today's portable computers. While laptops CPUs have certainly come a long way in reducing the temperatures associated with better performance, they still do produce quite a bit of heat in a small space. When coupled with a high-end videocard producing its own fair share of heat, this can create an unstable system.

These coolers are designed to sit beneath your laptop, and with a combination of aluminum and fans, help remove the heat that can plague your system. We've reviewed Titan's notepad coolers in the past, and today we'll look at the G4TZ, their latest addition to their lineup.

Specifications:

Like most notebook coolers, this one features an aluminum base to allow for good conduction of heat away from the bottom of your laptop. There are also four 70mm fans embedded in the base to add some airflow and help remove the heat. They are powered off a USB port on your computer, as you'll see later.

• Outline Dimension: 280~390 x 280 x 20 mm

• Fan Dimension: 70 x 70 x 10 mm (4PCS)

• Rated Voltage: 5V DC

• Power Current: 0.6A

• Power Consumption: 3W

• Rated Speed: 2000 ± 10%RPM

• Airflow: 61CFM

• Noise Level: <26.2 dBA

• Complete specs

Perhaps the most interesting feature of this cooler is its ability to expand to accommodate larger notebook computers. With the ability to slide open (like your dining room table), it'll support both 12" and 17" notebooks fairly well.

The Titan G4TZ cooler came DHL'd to me on a Saturday, via express service. It must've cost a fortune to send it that way all the way from Taiwan. Opening the parcel, I was greeted with the hard-to-open but display-friendly plastic packaging of the cooler. You know the type I'm talking about - it often requires a burglar-rated pair of bolt cutters to open, and frequently carries risk of bodily harm during the process. The sharp plastic edges and fragments formed during opening are classified as dangerous weapons in some regions. I would've preferred something more customer-friendly.

Plastic packaging of death.

Reverse.

What's included.

After destroying the packaging (and avoid injury), you'll find a USB power cable and four rubber feet to prop the cooler off a desk more for increased airflow. Because both sides of the cooler are made of aluminum (the four fans are sandwiched between these two layers), you can put your laptop on either side, depending on whether you want the cooler to blow onto or suck air from your laptop. Titan recommends using the extra feet only the blowing mode, as this will create more space between the cooling pad and the table, allowing for better air movement. The feet can only go on one side of the pad.

Overall, the cooler looks fairly nice, with stylized fan grills and no bright funny colours. It's isn't that lightweight 0.8 kg (that's almost 2 lbs for you folks) but isn't too hefty either. Besides the extra feet that are included, the cooler already has 8 rubber (thinner) rubber feet attached to each side, so there's no way either it or the laptop you put on it will be slipping anywhere.

Contracted.

Expanded.

70mm fans.

The cooler can be easily expanded or contracted, by using the side grips, to support 12" to 17" notebooks. I used a 15" Dell notebook for testing, which is right in the middle of these limits. This is probably the nicest feature, since you won't have to worry about the cooler not being designed for your extra huge desktop replacement or ultra-thin portable notebook computer.

Besides the fan vents, there are also vents on the sides of the cooler. To allow for effective use of these side vents, the fans aren't made like regular case fans in that there's no plastic housing surrounding the fan blades. Instead the impeller is mounted directly inside the cooling pad. The fans themselves are 70x70x10mm, making the overall thickness of the pad only around 20mm. If you use the extra feet, the overall thickness will be even more, so this is something to keep in mind if you're sensitive.

Side vents.

Inner side vents.

70mm fans.

The cooling pad has to grips on either side so that it's not awkward to pull apart or push together. The pad slides apart with a ratcheting feel, so that it securely stops at whatever width you've set it to. In the pictures below, you can see the rubber feet that are attached to each side. You can also see the place where the extra rubber feet used to proper up the cooling pad even more can be placed.

Side grips.

Both sides have rubber feet.

Rubber feet.

An on/off switch is also in place, along with an LED to indicate power. As mentioned before, this unit is powered from a USB port (though it's not really a USB device in the purest sense), and the specs rate this unit to draw 0.6 A. Some of you might note that some USB root hubs can only provide up to 500 mA, so this exceeds that rating. However, during usage I did not get any power warnings, unlike the Titan Mini 2.1 Speakers that I reviewed earlier. This is just something to be aware of.

Rubber feet with extra feet for blowing mode.

On/off button.

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