The NZXT Cryo LX Notebook Cooler

Every now and then you come across something in the IT industry which you personally think you wouldn't need. This was definitely the case with the NZXT Cryo LX Notebook Cooler. They claim it to be the world's largest aluminum notebook cooler. When it comes to notebooks, talking about "big" is not something I'd be proud of. But the fact is, it's just big enough for high-end desktop replacement class notebooks, like the one I use personally, the MSI GX700. Any smaller and it would be hanging off the edges.

When I received this cooler, the first thing I had to do was to work out how to test the thing! I could measure the surface temperature of the actual notebook with my Raytek Raynger ST portable IR thermometer, but that wouldn't really tell me what benefit the notebook is getting, aside from me having a cooler lap. It didn't take me long to discover a new utility from the guys who make CPU-Z, CPUID. They recently released a little program called HWMonitor (Hardware Monitor). This tiny tool reads everything from voltages and fan speeds right through to CPU, GPU and hard drive temperatures. The perfect little tool for this article!

The first thing I had to do was measure the temperatures of the notebook under normal circumstances, without extra cooling. The things I tested were how hot it runs when idle, real world gaming (giving myself the opportunity to play UT) and also during stress, using 3DMark 2006.

The Tests Begin

To my surprise, the notebook CPU cores were idling at 55-58° C (130-136° F) and peaked at 62-65° C (143-148° F). The reason for the variance between the two cores is because core 0 was sitting there doing nothing and core 1 was warming it up as it did all the work.

On the GPU side of things, it sat at a steady 65° C (148° F) not doing any intensive work.

The Samsung hard drive also sat at a constant 40° C (103° F).

All these temperatures are a lot higher than most of my desktop PCs. After seeing the Core 2 Duo sitting at 58°C, I instantly went and modified most of my desktop fan speeds (turning them down - and along with it the noise levels) since I know they can run idle at that temperature, since I've been using this notebook for months now without issue. I have experienced some crashes and odd graphical errors in some games after prolonged use. But I put it down to being a notebook - I knew it was getting hot and I didn't think there was anything I could do about it. The fan ports would blow air out of them that was as hot as a hair dryer and I have no doubt that if I let it sit on my lap long enough whilst gaming, I'd burn a hole in my pants. Let's see what the temperatures were when I play something like Unreal Tournament.