I have looked at a lot of cooling hardware the past few months. Some worked well, some have not. Some cost a small fortune, some were reasonable. Some have been easy to install, some were difficult. The 2COOLPC system cooler has the best of all worlds.
When I was asked by Dave over at 2COOLPC if I would like to review one of their coolers, I was really interested. What interested me was the design was that of a "ducted" system. Using an air duct to direct airflow exactly where it is needed. Ducting is one of the best ways to improve PC Cooling. The only drawback is the time needed to build such ductwork. A task not for the faint at heart.
The 2COOLPC is essentially a plastic duct with a 92mm fan mounted at the intake. The unit is extremely easy to install, just open your PC, connect the 4 pin Molex passthrough connector to an existing power supply connector, set the unit in the bottom of your case and put the cover back on. Can't get any easier than that!
The 2COOLPC come in 2 versions. The 2COOLPC for $24.95 and the 2COOLPC plus for $34.95. The only difference between the two is the "plus" has a higher output ball bearing fan.
(Pictures courtesy 2coolpc website)
Performance:
The first system I installed one in was one of the Web Servers that run parts of Overclockers. This machine is a dual PII 400 with UW SCSI drives and I've always had a hard time keeping this system cool. I immediately saw a 7F drop in processor temp and the ambient case temp dropped by 15F. The surface temps of the hard drives dropped by 20F! Installation took about 3 minutes and I didn't have to bring the Server offline to do it.
I then installed one in my PCNUT Crusher Athlon system. The processor surface temp runs around 114F at idle and will go as high as 120F under load. The temp inside the case runs about 90F and the Motherboard temp shows to be 90F - 95F. With the 2COOLPC installed, the idle temp of the CPU was lowered to 93F at idle and 105F under load. Case temp dropped to 84F and the motherboard temp also dropped to 84F!
Conclusion:
In my opinion, you can't find an easier to install cooling add-on that will perform this well! Your performance will vary and I'm sure results will be better in some systems. At $34.95 for the 2COOLPC Plus, it is not a cheap solution but it is well worth the money spent. I will be ordering 2COOLPC's for all of my PC's.
This review and comments are just my personal observations and opinion. As with any products and services, please research throughly before making any purchases. The reviewer and overclockers.com shall not and will not be held liable for any damages cause by products reviewed in this article.
