DreamWare Computers

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Canon 400D, Canon, Panasonic TZ3, Canon IXUS 70, Canon IXUS 75, Canon 40D, Canon G9, Canon S5, Canon A720, Nikon D80, Canon IXUS 860, Canon IXUS 950, Pentax K10D, Canon 5D, Olympus E510, Canon A550

Installation:
There is practically no installation for a device of this type, just unfold it and plug it in! NZXT says you should plug in both the USB-USB and USB-DC cables to properly use the pad. However, I found that the device would power up using just the USB-USB cable. Although this won't provide the extra voltage for doing things like bus powering external hard drives so it's probably best to use both cables just for that extra safety net!

Testing:
The two key areas I looked at when I was using the Cryo LX was how effectively it could actually cool and what the noise levels were like on it.

(Fan speed dial)

The noise level can obviously change because of the ability to manually adjust the fan speeds. At full you could certainly notice it - they are three 120mm fans after all! Although it was definitely quiet on the lowest setting, I found sometimes in a very quiet room that I was wishing I could have turned them down even further. Perhaps if NZXT makes any future cooling pads it wouldn't be a bad idea for the dial to have a larger range to it (this is probably just an easy resistor tweak).

	Idle	Load
Laptop	42C	72C
w/Cryo LX	40C	66C

As you can see from the chart above, I managed a 2 degree Celsius temperature drop when the laptop was idling and a fairly impressive 6 degree drop when at full load! Keep in mind that the cooling ability of the Cryo LX will vary depending on your laptop and how it is designed, some vent heavily out the sides and others have lots of ventilation out the bottom which will make the pad even more effective. Considering my HP ZV5000 I tested the Cryo LX on is one of those laptops that has the majority of the ventilation holes out the sides, I was impressed to see such a huge temperature drop from just pulling the excess heat off the bottom panels.

At the same time as proving itself as a very functional cooling pad, the Cryo LX also adds some extra ergonomics to your laptop experience. It provides just enough elevation for the screen that I found it far more comfortable to view on my desk without having to always look down on it like I used to.

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