Installation
– Performance
Installation
of the Turbine Card Cooler XT is definitely as simple
as it gets. Because of the way the frame is constructed,
it’s better to use the Turbine Card Cooler
on vertical cases – just unscrew two screws,
place the cooler, screw, finished! Of course this
requires a “traditional” case; for instance,
we tried to install the cooler in a ThermalTake
Soprano case, but because that case has a special
screwless slot arrangement we wouldn’t install
it.
Since we
are dealing with two 120mm fans here, you probably
realize that they cover a rather large area of your
PC – this also means that if you have several
cards installed in your PC, like graphics cards,
sound cards and the like, the Turbine Card Cooler
XT will help cooling those as well.
As far as
performance is concerned, the cooling solution from
The Card Cooler certainly delivered. We used it
for an extensive period of time (and for many days)
in order to measure temperatures with and without
the fans working, and we noticed an overall improvement
of the temperatures of all major components involved,
that is CPU, Case and Graphics card. Case temperature
seemed to benefit more from the twin fan’s
operation, with temperatures falling from 36 degrees
Centigrade to 32 degrees, a whole 4 degrees lower.
GPU temperatures (both ambient and load) also benefited,
with my X800 XL AGP dropping 3 degrees in ambient
temperature (40 from 43) and two degrees on load
(59 from 61). Finally, CPU temperatures dropped
by only one degree. If you think about it, you are
getting an overall drop in temperature by just installing
this double fan in your PC, which is something rather
remarkable for such a simple looking piece of cooling
equipment.
One last
thing we will mention is how it looks, because that’s
the main reason we buy coolers like that, to give
our PC that little extra that will make it stand
out from the rest. We used a rather ordinary PC
chassis to install the cooler, and I will let you
judge for yourself whether it improves its looks
or not, by looking at the pictures below.
Conclusions
The Card
Cooler may be a US-based company, but as they informed
us, they will ship to Europe, although they don't
have a European distributor. That is fortunate for
our European readers, because the Turbine Card Cooler
XT is a pretty remarkable product, which shines
simply because it does what it is supposed to do..
The airflow produced is more than enough to drop
all temperatures in your PC, plus it gives your
case that extra bit of touch it needs to
look cool. We especially loved the simplicity of
installation (although in some cases you may have
problems installing it) and the fact that by simply
removing the turbine fan heads and placing the supplied
fins, you have a totally different look for your
cooler. Couple that with the fact that it costs
$34.99 which is a pretty fair price for what you’re
getting, and we have no problem giving the Turbine
Card Cooler our DriverHeaven Silver Award and our
definite recommendation.
Pros:
- 16 blades per fan
- Improved airflow
- Super-easy installation
- From turbine look to “finned” look
with a simple change of turbine fan heads.
Cons:
- You may have trouble installing it in non-conventional
cases (like Thermaltake Volcano)
Special
thanks to Jacque Groll from The Card Cooler for
supplying us with a review sample
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