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The front, rear and bottom of both cooling pads
are virtually identical as well. The Serina coolers
are very nicely designed and constructed almost
entirely out of aluminum. This makes them more efficient,
lighter and good looking. I will not rate the aesthetics
of the Serina, as that relies to everyone’s
taste, but I do consider it very well looking. The
cooling design of the Serina is simple.
The air comes inside the Serina from the vents
at the rear and sides, while the fans blow the air
directly at the bottom of your notebook. This will
especially work with notebooks which have their
air intake at their bottom. At the bottom of the
Serina there are 6 anti-skid pads, which make the
Serina very stable on your desk. The Serina is mostly
laser cut, so there are no sharp edges at all to
worry about.
Serina TCC-G2TB/A
Serina TCC-G2TB/A
Serina TCC-G2TB/D
Serina TCC-G2TB/D
The sides of the G2TB/A and G2TB/D Serina notebook
coolers are the only parts which distinguish them
apart. The left side of the G2TB/D is bare, with
only air intake vents present. The G2TB/A has the
card reader present there, which can read CF/MD/SD/MMC/xD/SM/MS/MS
pro flash cards. The card reader is a simple everyday
card reader, with an access LED light for every
one of the 4 slots. The left side of the G2TB/D
has the power connector, an on/off switch and a
fan speed control rheostat beside the air intake
vents. You can use the rheostat to adjust the speed
of the fans to your preference. The G2TB/A additionally
has a USB hub which provides you with 3 more USB
ports. Both also have a power LED right between
the on/off switch and the fan rheostat.
The Serina notebook coolers sure look nice, but
how much can they aid the cooling of your notebook?
Unfortunately I do not have a really powerful notebook
to test the pad with; however my IBM R50e should
be adequate to give you a good idea on how much
the Serina coolers can aid you. The chassis temperature
is read by a thermal probe which I inserted beneath
the keyboard, right at the middle of the notebook.
Load is created by running Prime95 continuously.
The room temperature at the time is 23 degrees Celsius
and the detailed specs of the notebook follow:
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for a jpeg
As you can see, the Serina certainly aids the cooling
of your notebook. Unfortunately the Celeron M360
does not pose much of a thermal threat to the Serina,
yet it still managed to lower its temperature by
7 degrees after 60 minutes of stress testing. The
Serina is going to mostly help people with more
powerful laptops, especially desktop replacement
laptops and those with powerful GPU solutions.
Final words and conclusion
The Serina series unquestionably are of the highest
quality notebook cooling pads I have ever seen.
There is no comparison to the cheap, plastic pads
that exist on the market. Their design and build
quality are excellent, as well as their performance.
However, these aren’t flawless either. The
metallic cooling pads are mostly designed to be
on your desktop, not for your lap. They might feel
a little awkward for placing on your legs while
waiting in an airport for example. Also, the USB
cable of the G2TB/A and the power cable of the G2TB/D
feel a little short, especially if your notebook
only has USB ports at the left side. Although I
did not have any problems with the IBM R50e which
has USB ports only at the left side as well, other
users with slightly larger notebooks may need to
purchase a little longer cables. Also, the Serina
series sell for considerably more than many cheap
notebook coolers, but you get what you pay for.
But these minor ‘problems’ aside, the
Serina is a very noteworthy notebook cooler, a great
compliment for powerful laptops and desktop replacements.
My thanks to Susan Chien (Titan DE) for providing
us with the review samples needed for this review.
