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The Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim is a stylish laptop computer cooler. It falls underneath the finances class with its $19.99 price ticket. It’s comparatively troublesome to search out good laptop computer coolers on this value vary as a result of good components price extra money. Cooler Master makes an try at it with the NotePal X-Slim, the smaller sibling of the way more costly NotePal U3 Plus. Does Cooler Master nail it like the corporate normally does or is that this one a non-starter? Let’s discover out.
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What is the Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim?
The Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim is the most cost effective possibility in Cooler Master’s NotePal lineup. It’s additionally one of many thinnest. It incorporates a single 160mm fan able to pushing 60 CFM. The physique and body are plastic and the cooler is roofed by a skinny steel grate on high. The design is smooth and minimalist, however in any other case unremarkable.
Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
The USB cable is completely connected. Additionally, the cooler comes with USB pass-through: an admittedly troublesome characteristic to search out at this value level generally. The Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim additionally has two tilt choices. You can pop the ft out to tilt the laptop computer or depart them closed for the flat expertise. The tilt is just not offensive in any approach and may work for most individuals.
Otherwise, the cooler is pretty unremarkable. It’s solely hidden by most laptops with solely little bits peeking out of the perimeters. Cooler Master does boast help for 17-inch laptops, however mine had some severe overhang on the again. Those with bigger 17-inch laptops ought to subsequently contemplate a unique product.
There aren’t any lights of any coloration and no fan controls. The 160mm fan hums alongside on the identical pace on a regular basis. In my testing, it’s louder than my laptop computer followers at idle however quieter than my laptop computer followers at full tilt. That’s about it, actually. We actually do recognize the USB pass-through, however we’d’ve most well-liked fan pace controls as effectively.
How to make use of the Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim
This one isn’t rocket science. You place your laptop computer on high of the cooler and plug it in with the completely connected USB cable. There is a USB pass-through, however solely with USB 2.0. We suggest utilizing it for a mouse or related peripheral. The fan spins by itself so there’s nothing else you’ll want to do. Those who do gamble that their bigger laptops match might have to regulate placement to ensure the followers truly blow air on the proper components, nevertheless.
Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
How effectively does the Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim carry out?
I examined the Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim with my Asus ROG G731GW 17.3-inch gaming laptop computer with 16GB of RAM, an Nvidia GTX 2070, an Intel i7-9750H, a 500GB NVMe drive, and a second 500GB SSD. My laptop computer’s vents are positioned on the high left and proper. The 160mm fan goals on the middle of my laptop computer so my vents obtained oblique cooling regardless of how I located it. Nevertheless, I did my finest to get as a lot air into the machine as doable.
Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
We ran a complete of 4 exams with the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus:
- BIOS take a look at — BIOS optimization is usually very poor. We see if the cooler can sustain with it.
- Windows 10 idle — Once the laptop computer is totally booted, we take a look at the cooler to see if it impacts idle temperatures. We then depart it on idle for ten minutes to make sure it may maintain these temperatures.
- CPU stress take a look at — We use Intel XTU’s native stress take a look at as a result of we are able to simply establish issues like temperature, whether or not or not it thermal throttled or energy throttled, and the common CPU clock pace. We ran the take a look at for ten minutes.
- One sport of Halo Wars 2 — Halo Wars 2 is a surprisingly heavy sport and, on my Asus ROG G731GW, temps typically spike as much as the mid-90C vary with GPU temps studying the mid-80C vary. It’s a very good benchmark for a heavy sport on a robust gaming machine.
- Something to notice — During the reasons under I typically discuss with energy throttling and thermal throttling. Thermal throttling is the laptop computer forcibly decreasing CPU speeds to chill itself down. Power throttling limits the CPU to its base TDP and prevents it from drawing further (enhance) energy. We anticipate laptop computer coolers to stop thermal throttling at the least.
The laptop computer used Windows Balanced for all exams. We didn’t modify any settings to sport the exams. The laptop computer cooler was clearly at its most setting for the best quantity of cooling. The temperatures had been recorded and double checked with HWMonitor, Asus Armoury Crate, and Intel XTU.
Without additional delay, listed here are the outcomes of the exams.
Test | CPU temp | GPU temp | Fan pace | |
---|---|---|---|---|
BIOS with out cooler | 50C | NA | 2800RPM | |
Idle in Windows 10 with out cooler | 45C | 39C | 2400RPM | |
CPU stress take a look at with out cooler | 85C | 42C | 6400RPM (max) | Power throttle after 60 seconds, thermal throttle after 90 seconds. Throttled CPU pace of three.2Ghz |
One sport of Halo Wars 2 with out cooler | 90C | 80C | 6400RPM (max) | CPU spikes as much as 96C, GPU spikes as much as 84C |
BIOS with cooler | 50C | NA | 2800RPM | |
Idle in Windows 10 with cooler | 39-41C | 37C | 2400RPM | |
CPU stress take a look at with cooler | 80C | 42C | 6400RPM (max) | Power throttle after 90 seconds. No thermal throttle detected. Throttled CPU pace of three.6-3.7Ghz |
One sport of Halo Wars 2 | 86C | 80C | 6400RPM (max) | CPU spikes as much as 92C, GPU spikes as much as 81C. |
The Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim didn’t do a horrible job, but it surely’s removed from the perfect. The largest distinction was a 6C swing throughout the idle take a look at. From there, it drops 5C throughout the CPU stress take a look at and 4C throughout the gaming take a look at. Basically, the extra my laptop computer labored, the extra the NotePal X-Slim struggled to maintain up. The cooler objectively works because the numbers present. It simply appears to do its finest work with lighter masses on laptops with decrease specs.
Still, there are some encouraging numbers. We didn’t detect a thermal throttle with the cooler throughout the CPU stress take a look at — an enchancment over the laptop computer’s efficiency with out the cooler. Additionally, the CPU stayed at 3.6-3.7Ghz with the cooler throughout the stress take a look at when it might ramp down to three.2Ghz with out it. It stays comparatively heat, but it surely nonetheless helps eek out a bit of further energy.
What I preferred concerning the Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim
- The slim design appears actually good in virtually all settings.
- It’s light-weight and simply transportable to be used on airplanes, espresso retailers, or your workplace.
- The $19.99 price ticket is sort of cheap for a laptop computer cooler.
- There is USB pass-through. We all the time give a thumbs up for that!
What I didn’t like concerning the Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim
- There aren’t any fan controls so the 160mm hums at a continuing pace.
- The cooler struggles with heavier workloads on highly effective laptops.
- It undoubtedly didn’t match my 17-inch laptop computer very effectively. I needed to modify the laptop computer a number of instances to ensure the fan was hitting as a lot of it because it might.
Is the Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim good?
The Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim is common. We principally suggest this one for units like MacBooks, Ultrabooks, and netbooks. Believe it or not, that is truly a wonderful cooler for different units like routers as effectively. You can plug it in, neglect it’s there, and it dramatically helps with units that don’t have a fan however ought to. The fan isn’t very loud so it doesn’t add a lot to the ambient room noise.
My 17-inch laptop computer noticeably overhangs from the again of the NotePal X-Slim
Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Those with greater finish gaming machines ought to undoubtedly look elsewhere. The extra stress I placed on this factor, the much less it cooled. It’s simply not designed to pump air into a robust laptop computer. It helps much more for units that run scorching naturally at idle and wish a bit of additional airflow versus laptops that run scorching since you’re stressing them.
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Luckily, it solely prices $19.99. That makes it a wonderful finances possibility for folk who need one thing that appears good and cools sufficient to take the sting off. Just don’t anticipate any miracles and you have to be pleased with this one.
(This story has not been edited by Newslivenation workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)