NZXT Cryo LX Notebook Cooler

Performance:

For our testing we were running the NZXT Cryo LX with a Lenovo ThinkPad T400, which is using an Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 processor. When powering up the three 120mm fans to high, the Cryo LX was a bit loud, but still within an acceptable range. When running at low the noise level was easily tolerable. As we mentioned already, one of our complaints about this notebook cooler is that the dial does not allow the fans to be switched off, unless just unplugging the USB cable.

For looking at how the thermal performance of the Lenovo ThinkPad T400 running Ubuntu 8.10 was affected, we had used the Phoronix Test Suite for monitoring the ACPI thermal readings. We had run the GraphicsMagick test in a batch benchmark mode to run all available tests and to certainly stress this Intel dual-core processor. While that was occurring, the Phoronix Test Suite was recording the CPU and system temperatures.

First is the reading when the ThinkPad T400 was simply running on a desk.

Now we have the thermal readings when the ThinkPad T400 was running atop the NZXT Cryo LX with the fans set to high.

As you can see from the graphs, the NZXT Cryo LX allowed the system and CPU to operate at a much lower temperature. The temperatures were also much lower prior to running the tests, as you can see from when the thermal recording first started.