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A quick look at the test system specs prior to
testing.
| Case: |
Casemaxx 210 Mid-Tower |
| Motherboard: |
Shuttle AS45GTR |
| CPU: |
Pentium 4 2.4GHz @ 2.6GHz |
| Video Card: |
ATI Radeon 9600 |
| Hard Drive: |
WD 40GB 7200rpm |
| Optical Drives: |
Lite-ON SOHW-1633S |
| Cooling: |
Thermaltake Tower112 (Heatpipe) |
Installation
**click to enlarge**
You are probably wondering by now how and where
this large unit is mounted on the case. Well, that's where the biggest
concern may be for many. The cooling unit slides into the bay adapter
and sticks out the front of the case. The best way I can describe this
product is by comparing it to a personal window-mounted Air Conditioning unit
you may have or have seen in someone's home. It is basically the same type of
system but for your PC case.
**click to enlarge**
You can see the bay adapter mounted on the case
does not look bad at all. Its when you slide the whole unit in that you
run into a problem and actually lose a drive bay along with it.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
Above are a couple of shots with the unit in
place so you can see just how meddling it can be for most users. While
you do lose a bay, there is just enough clearance for an optical drive on the
third bay.
**click to enlarge**
You can lock the unit into place using the
key-like mechanism located on the right hand side. Conveniently, here
you will also find the power toggle switch for the unit. It has three
modes as follows:
O Icon - Turn the unit off completely
Fan Icon - Switch to mode "Fan On" to
start fan operation by delivering the outside air into the system
Snowflake Icon - Switch to mode "Snow On"
to start "Air-Conditioning" operation which activates the peltier as well as
the top fan to move colder air into the case
**click to enlarge**
Finally, we have a shot to show the top LED fan
in operation as well as the LCD display. Again, the top fan is only lit
and activated when in "Snow On" mode.
Performance
Before we begin, you should note the following
regarding power consumption of this particular unit. Waffer Technology
recommends at least a 350W power supply to be used, however, considering that
this unit needs 52watts to operate properly, I would recommend a PSU with a bit
more power than that. It is also important to note that when you connect
the unit to your power supply, you do not share the molex connectors on the same
lead with other components in the case. For testing, I used the
excellent, high quality Ultra X-Connect 500W Power Supply.
On to the results!
Keep in mind that the case used for testing is a
Casemaxx 210. This small case is quite difficult to cool due to the poor
ventilation. However, you can see that with a high performance CPU
cooler, the results are quite impressive. Getting a CPU reading below
40șC in an air-cooled environment is quite difficult to achieve in most cases. The PAC
400 certainly does help in terms of lowering the ambient temperature inside
the case and also helps bring down the temperature of all the components within.
In addition to cooling performance, I want to
show you how the PSU is affected by the unit once in operation. Below
are the readings with and without the PAC 400 running.
**normal operation**
**PAC 400 Snow Mode**
You can see the 12V line go slightly under to
11.94V. This is with the system idle and not under stress, which
actually brought it down slightly lower as well. These are still well
within normal operation, however, that is why it is important that you use a
quality, high wattage power supply with this product. |
