2CoolPC Turbo System Cooler – User Reviews

A review of an easy to use system cooler. — Forum Seniors Walter, DA Whip, Prose, Jon, William, Alan and Phiber and Joe Citarella.

SUMMARY: The 2 COOL PC Turbo can make a difference if your case is “airflow challenged” and you want a quick fix for it.

PC NUT, working with 2 Cool PC was nice enough to send us a bunch of 2Cool PC Turbo system coolers to test out. A number of our Forum Seniors took the time to try it out and, after running the Turbo in their systems, I asked questions of their experience.

Their results and conclusions are below:

1. When I saw the 2Cool the first time, I thought that it looked cheap. A normal fan with a duct that I could have made myself in an hour. So, actually I was a little disappointed.

2. The product seems fairly sturdy and put together well.

3. My first impression was that it looked kicka$$! I really liked the clear plastic duct – think it looks great. Upon picking it up it was very light, but felt sturdy enough. The fan was tightly secured in the duct, and showed no signs of ever coming loose – a good thing! (Just a note: during use, I’ve bumped it and banged it and generally used it, and it shows no sign of wear. Good!)

4. At first, I thought it was a bit cheap looking and feeling, but I’ve opened my mind a bit since then and realize that it is plenty sturdy enough for its use, as I really wouldn’t want a huge AND heavy duct to put in my PC. Even though it is a simple design, it really isn’t as cheap looking as my first impression told me.

5. I thought it was pretty good. I like the dual flow, the ducted part of the fan, and the nonducted part. The plastic is very flexible, which makes it feel cheap, but I never felt like I would destroy it if I dropped it. It will hold itself together, but not destroy your computer when you take it to a LAN party.

6. My first impression was that it looked cheap.

1. I think the 2Cool was very easy to install and uninstall, no problems there.

2. It is very straight forward and easy.

3. The 2CoolPC Turbo didn’t fit in my main case. The case is pretty narrow, and with my SBLive at the bottom, it just didn’t make it. So I put it in my second rig, which is a regular mid-tower case with 80mm intake and exhaust fans, one apiece. The tower houses an aircooled Duron 600 at 1102 MHz at 1.94V and a seriously overclocked GeForce DDR, so there’s plenty of heat inside the case.

   The only other hassle I had with the installation was that the power connector from the Adda fan does not fit easily. One of the pins is slightly the wrong shape. Not a major flaw, and I’m sure 99% of them would be fine.

   I love the addition of the stick-on velcro feet! I haven’t added them, but if that rig were my LAN party rig, then they’d be in there like a shot! Neat idea, stabilizing the 2CoolPC inside the PC.

4. Simple when putting in my full-tower Antec which happens to be the only case (out of 7) it would fit in without modification.

5. Extremely easy. The “manual” clearly showed what to do and how to do it. LOVE the velcro to secure it down; would have been great had it fit in my full tower (4Q Full Tower), but it perfectly fit in my midtower. No problems hooking it up, and it has a power pass through which some fans don’t have and necessitates that you provide your own. That is something I expect of a quality product.

6. Extremely easy to install, no problem at all. Could be done by any newbie.

Email Joe

1. I tested the 2Cool in a full tower Logic case. My 1200 MHz T-Bird was set to run 1330 MHz @ 1.81V, and my ambient temp was 23C all the time. First I took all my fans out of my case to see what temps I would get. Here is what I got:

   CPU: Load = 47C Idle = 42C

   MoBo: Load = 32C Idle = 32C

   Then I mounted the 2Cool, and started all over:

   CPU: Load = 44C Idle = 38C

   MoBo: Load = 31C Idle = 30C

   That’s 3C on the CPU and 1-2C on the MoBo.

2. I was initially going to install it in the kid’s PC, but it would not fit w/o modding. I really did not think that would be a fair evaluation, so, I took the temps of my system (full tower), which has 3-120mm Panaflo’s and 1-92mm Panaflo on a Rheobus:

   CPU – Load = 39c, Idle = 24c
   
   GPU – Load = 28c, Idle = 24.5c
   Case Temp = 22-23c

   I turned off all the fans (except HSF) and took readings:

   CPU – Load = 45c, Idle = 31c
   GPU – Load = 30c, Idle = 27c
   Case Temp = 26-27c

   I then installed the 2CoolPC Turbo (w/o other fans):

   CPU – Load = 42c, Idle = 27-28c
   GPU – Load = 29-30c, Idle = 26c
   Case Temp – 25-26c

   Not too bad, all things considered.

3. At first I was quite disappointed with my results. I got perhaps a 1C drop in CPU temp and nothing in the mobo temp department. This was at the tail-end of winter, so the case was quite cool anyway. Summer is setting in now with a vengeance; the past three weeks have been really hot already and all my temps are rising rapidly. The upside is that now I’ve been able to see the difference the 2CoolPC does make.

   No 2CoolPC Turbo:

   -Load temp (under SETI): 52-53C.
   -Case temp: 30C.

   With the 2CoolPC Turbo installed:

   -Load temp (under SETI): 48-49C max.
   
   -Case temp: 28C.

   A four degree drop in CPU temp is nothing to be sneezed at, IMHO. Very useful, in fact! The drop in mobo temperature is also quite significant, in that the mobo temp sensor lies directly beneath my large GPU hsf. If that drops in temp, then it means the air around the GPU hsf is cooler, which in turn means a cooler GPU (no method of measuring GPU temp directly). That can only be a good thing!

   Overall, I’m chuffed with the results.

4. My temps didn’t change as dramatically as others. I believe this is because of the number of fans I already have in this case – 3 80mm outtakes, 2 80mm intakes and 3 20mm intakes. Overall case temp dropped 1C. CPU temp did not change at all. I have an SK-6 w/Delta on my TBird 1.4 @ 1.67 and I don’t think anything short of watercooling will take it down any further.

   On the other hand, I was able to overclock my GeForce 3 and run it stable at 230/540, which I couldn’t do before for long periods of time as most of the air it pushes seems to be directed right at my video card. This was the biggest plus for me.

5. This is where I was most disappointed. Adding this to the two 80mm fans running only yielded a drop in temps on 1C (I lost my temp sheet). Running the 2CoolPC by itself was 1C higher than just the two case fans running, so it is helping the temps. I don’t have a probe for my GPU, but that is a Kyro II which isn’t exactly much of a heat producer either.

6. It took off 2 degrees from the case temp, but the CPU temp stayed the same, as the 2CoolPC didn’t even come near the Glaciator and CPU.

1. It’s not noisy, but I wouldn’t call it a silent fan either. I think the noise is tolerable.

2. Compared to my normal setup, it was fairly quiet. It is not objectionable

3. I did notice some extra noise from the Adda fan, but it is not an issue. The case remains quite. If I stand 3 metres away, I can barely hear it. When working next to it, it is not in the slightest irritating or annoying, and sounds pretty much the same as any other standard PC.

4. With 4 Deltas running in this room already, I was oblivious to any more noise it may have caused. Running it solo, however, it appears to be very quiet.

5. I had a Delta on the FOP 38, so I can’t hear anything. I thought the sound level was pretty good for the impressive airflow. Not super quite, but not loud. It is extremely tolerable noise level, just slightly louder than my 27cfm fan on my SVC Golden Gate.

6. Nope, noise level is fine. I really couldn’t tell that another fan was running, as my case fans and the glaciator fan were louder.

1. No I don’t think the 2CoolPC is worth the money. I tried to use a normal fan at the same spot as the 2Cool was placed, and it almost performed as well as the 2CoolPC. So I don’t want to get another one for my next case

2. $30 is stretching it a tad. $22-25 maybe.

3. As an international user, $30 translated to ZAR and then shipping on top of that would be too expensive. However, from looking at relative component pricing of other gear in comparison to the 2CoolPC Turbo, I don’t think $30 is too stiff for American buyers. A drop to $20 would make it a great deal, but I realize this is extreme.

   I feel a good compromise would be $25, in which case I feel it would be well worth the money. I realize that South Bay Engineering offers a lower power model for around that price, but I’m not sure how that would perform in a product where airflow is so critical.

4. Considering it wouldn’t fit in any other cases, I can’t really comment on the cost. It didn’t help my main AMD rig at all, really. Considering the fan used and the workmanship of the duct, I would say it’s not worth more than $25 to me.

5. I think think this product needs some work, but I will discuss later. I think with a Dremel, some fans, and some work, you can get better results. But for the minimal effort to install, it is a good deal. I see this as more of a product for the “average joe” versus myself and others who aren’t afraid to break out a Dremel. $30 is not a bad price, but $20 would be much more reasonable; I don’t think it costs too much for what the product is made of.

6. No, never. I think I could have made a similar product out of a shoe-box (!), so for any handy-man I can’t recommend it. However, for newness that do not feel like modding their case, I like the idea. If you have bad airflow, the 2CoolPC could help you out – but anyone with just a fair case airflow doesn’t really need a 2CoolPC.

{mospagebreak}

Email Joe

1. I think the 2Cool would perform better if the duct covered the hole fan, instead if only half of the fan.

2. Cut off the top part and have it just duct up onto the system

3. If there’s one thing that could be changed about the 2CoolPC, it’s the footprint. The unit didn’t fit in my main rig, and I’m sure others would have the same problem. Perhaps the footprint could be made smaller by placing the fan at an angle, instead of perpendicular to the mobo. I don’t think this would hinder the airflow, and could decrease the unit’s depth quite a lot.

4. Not knowing how much it would affect the performance, it could be of smaller size to accommodate more cases. I know many people with generic mid-size towers are going to have a problem.

5. Yes! The fan ducts onto the Graphics card right now. While this is nice, it would be wonderful if it could duct to right above my heatsink. I think this would dramatically lower temps on the CPU and make the installation of a duct mostly unnecessary. It provides good airflow, but 1.5″ taller would be better (though it wouldn’t fit in some cases – then, maybe an extender feature or something).

   Also, I would really like it to be easy to place my own fan in there if I want a high performance 92mm fan. The fan is a good one, but being able to put my own fan in would be great. Perhaps a duct only product would work? I know it can be changed, just would require more effort that I think would be necessary to change it.

6. Perhaps have the plastic covering all of the fan, so all the air would go through it. Perhaps also make the “opening” bigger. Another idea would be to drop the plastic duct and use some kind of “hose” instead. This way the user could move it around to any hot-spots on the mobo.

1. I’m going keep it in there until I get a new CPU cooler and mode my case so I can use a normal fan.

2. No, I have too much money in fans and a rheobus to let them just sit. But for a beginner or one who wants to knock a few degrees off, it is not a bad product

3. Definitely. It’s found a permanent home.

4. You Bette!

5. Definitely – it helped my temps on the CPU and I think it is a good product. I don’t have time right now to do the work it would take me to beat this product, so it stays. Plus I am not worried about it going all over the place in the case at all. It looks nifty there as well!

6. No

1. I’ll give it 2-3 point’s.

2. Rating 3.5

3. I’d give the 2CoolPC a 4 (in summer). Point subtracted for the price alone. If I lived in a cooler climate, I expect my results would not have been as good, and it would receive a lower rating.

4. Since a lot of my findings I am now considering inconclusive, I’m going to give it a better score than I would have a few weeks ago, as I feel a lot of the problems I have are specific to me and me only. I give it a 3.5.

5. 3.5 for now. It has a lot of potential in it, and is good for the “average Joe” to better his cooling by a good bit with minimal effort and computer knowledge.

   If that had been the target audience, I would give it a 4.5. I feel the changes I proposed would make this a much better product suitable for overclockers and computer enthusiasts everywhere. The price is a bit steep right now, I would like to see that come down as well. It is a wonderful idea, and one that should be better by 2.0 if they do that.

6. I’d give it a 2:

   + easy installation
   + nice idea

   – PRICING
   – performance

Phiber, one of our Forum’s seniors, posted his review on his website
HERE.

Based on our test panel’s findings and my own use of it, the 2 COOL PC Turbo does a nice job of increasing airflow through the case, IF you don’t have extra fans already. I would also add that it will work best if you have sufficient air openings in the front of the case. Aggressive pricing would be welcomed.

Many thanks to our Forum Seniors Walter, DA Whip, Prose, Jon, William, Alan and Phiber for taking the time to test out the 2CoolPC! And many thanks to PC NUT and 2 Cool PC for providing test samples to our Forum Seniors.