Usage

Welcome to the jungle, we've got fun and games...

The operation of this unit was nearly flawless. However, when I would power down I found that the fans running off it lose some power and tend not to run at full speed. Another small issue I had with it, since I'm a neat freak I tend to hide and tuck away all of my wires. As you can see it has turned my neat case into a freakin jungle, not a problem that can't be fixed, just merely an inconvenience... lots of new cables to find spots for.

Temps

I did run tests to find if this thing actually did help. The tests I ran on my AMD TBird 1GHz running at stock speed showed that the only thing it really did was help the chip cool down faster, without this unit there was no raise in temperature after power down, just a slower decline in temperature. So it took 5 mins to get a noteworthy temp difference. You can draw your own conclusion from these figures, but they don't lie. =\

With the unit installed, I recorded the following after shutting down at a temp of 41.3C :

• @5 sec: 40.5C
  
• @10sec: 39.7C
  
• @20sec: 38.2C
  
• @30sec: 37.6C
  
• @1min: 35.9C
• @5min: 28.7C
  

Without the unit installed, I recorded the following after shutting down at a temp of 41.3C :

• @5sec: 40.3C
  
• @10sec: 39.5C
  
• @20sec: 38.1C
  
• @30sec: 37.7C
  
• @1min: 36.8C
  
• @5min: 33.1C

Conclusion

The unit itself is very high quality... lots of various options and features. Installation and operation are pretty straight forward. It does have a couple of issues such as the fans not running at full speed after power down, and the fact that Tarzan can now live in your case if you don't take the time to wire it neatly. I would recommend this product to everyone, but frankly, this thing probably won't help your machine much, if at all.. I could possibly see it beneficial in overclocking situations where temperatures exceed 40-50C while running normally. I guess it could be considered insurance if you're already running some max temps and you're afraid the instant that fan stops when you shut down, it'll go higher. That doesn't seem to be the scenario though.

To sum everything up, good idea, solid product, easy to use, but for $25 , It's not a great value.

I'd like to thank PCMods for letting me check this unit out. If you'd like to pick one up for yourself, you can do so right here.

<< Introduction | Back to VH FrontPage >>