Update: In light of some questions in our testing methodology, we’ve revised them to be more clear and easily reproducible. Parts of the review were updated to reflect the new results and testing.
Can’t stand the heat? Instead of getting out of the kitchen, it’s probably a better idea to simply invest in a good notebook cooler. More and more people are using laptops these days, but far too few are taking the prudent step of investing in a notebook cooling stand. At the same time, notebook cooler designs are getting better and better. The manufacturers are really starting to “get it.” One of the newest in this evolution is the Zalman ZM-NC2500Plus from Zalman who are well known for their excellent CPU Coolers and other computer accessories. It holds promise, but does it deliver? Let’s find out!
Features and Specifications
While it would have been nice to see an aluminum construction, Zalman did go with some higher quality plastics in building this notebook cooler. It has honeycomb-esque venting where your laptop would go, allowing for some good breathing room. There’s also a rubber grip strip near the front to prevent sliding.
It measures 314 x 390 x 65mm, accommodating notebooks up to 17 inches in size. Around the back, we find a pair of 50mm axial fans spinning at between 1700 and 2250rpm. There’s also a three-port USB hub and power for the fans can come either via USB (from your notebook) or with the optional DC adapter.
As an added bonus, the Zalman ZM-NC2500Plus comes with an integrated 2.5-inch SATA hard drive dock, giving your laptop some extra storage capacity as needed. Naturally, the drive itself is not included in the package.
As for retail price and availability, the ZM-NC2500Plus can be found for as low as $62.99 US while the optional power adapter can be found for as low as $11.99 US.
Not Much in the Box
Accessories? What accessories? Cracking open the rather large box for this rather large notebook cooler, we discover that there isn’t much inside. Then again, there really isn’t much that we should be expecting in here anyhow.
Removing the Styrofoam inserts and removing the cooler from its protective sleeve, we find some basic instructions, the USB cable (with two connectors in case your need more power), and a set of hard drive mounting screws. In my use, a single USB connection was enough to power this puppy with a single SATA notebook hard drive inside.
For those that require additional juice to power hungry USB peripherals there is that power adapter that is available for extra money. While the adapter isn’t really necessary or included with most notebook coolers on the market, the nature of this device demands it since you are not only powering a hard drive but also various USB peripherals as well. In this case, the adapter should be included as a measure of safety since there is additional power draw from this particular cooler with the drive installed.
A Different Kind of Notebook Cooler
When you look at most active notebook coolers (which is really the only way to go; passive coolers just don’t work as well), you’ll find that the fans channel cool air directly into the bottom of laptop. Such is not so with this product.
With the Zalman, the two fans are actually toward the rear of the notebook cooler, channeling air horizontally. This air then fills the cavity and is distributed through the base of your laptop through all of those tiny little holes. The idea is that the cool air can cover a larger surface area on the bottom of your laptop, rather than focusing on one or two specific locations. This may sound like a good idea in theory, but does it work in practice? We’ll get to that in just a moment.
The Bonus Integrated Hard Drive Dock
So, what’s with the “plus” moniker attached to the end of the model name? Presumably, the “plus” refers to the hard drive dock on its underside. And much like the Choiix Air-Through Stash, this dock requires you to remove the cover, connect the drive, and that’s about it. There are no drivers required and Windows will recognize it as an external drive.
This dock is fairly universal, accepting 2.5-inch SATA hard drives of varying capacities. Your read and write speeds will depend on the speed of the drive used, naturally, but you can expect performance to be similar to that of a regular USB-attached enclosure.
USB Hub and Fan Speed Control
If you’ve had the opportunity to read my wish list of features for the perfect notebook cooler, then you’ll know that I not only want to have a fan (or two) pushing cold air at my laptop; I want to be able to control the fan speed. Zalman accomplishes this with a simple dial at the rear of the product. I would have preferred the dial to be on the side, since it’s easier to access, but at least it’s there. Unfortunately, there is no power button and turning the dial all the way down doesn’t turn off the fans either. The option to completely power down should be there.
You’ll also notice that power, as mentioned earlier, can be provided either via the mini-USB port or an optional DC wall adapter. In between these two is the three-port USB 2.0 hub, which certainly comes in handy for all the accessories and peripherals we rock these days. As objected earlier, the fact that you can’t turn off the fans and the fact that a cooler with a notebook hard drive inside draws far more power than a standard cooler, makes this optional DC adapter necessary with all guns blazing. It should have been included in this product.
Is It an Effective Cooling Stand?
For testing purposes, I used my Dell notebook with an Intel Core2Duo T5300 processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 500GB Seagate Momentus 7200.4 SATA hard drive. The idle temperature is taken when a “cold” notebook has been fully booted into Windows XP and the hard drive is idle. The temperature is recorded (in degrees Celsius with CPUID Hardware Monitor) for about 15 to 20 minutes, noting the minimum and maximum temperatures during this time. The “load” temperature is taken with PCMark05 running its complete benchmark suite, which takes a little over 30 minutes on the Dell. Again, the minimum and maximum temperatures are recorded with CPUID Hardware Monitor.
No, you are not reading that incorrectly. Some of those temperatures are actually higher when the Dell notebook was placed on the Zalman ZM-NC2500Plus. There are some temperatures that are slightly lower on the cooler, but it’s inexcusable when there are any ratings that are higher. It seems that in the process of creating this “innovative” design, this notebook cooler doesn’t quite live up to expectations. It should also be noted that the fans were cranked up to max using the integrated control dial, so this is about as much cooling as you can get from the Zalman. Contrast this to the highly effective CoolerMaster NotePal Ergostand with its single massive fan directing cool air directly into the center of the laptop.
With a notebook at the upper end of its size range, the holes are completely covered. Our theory is that since the hot air simply circulates in the chamber below with no escape, the temperature just goes up. Similar tests were performed on a pre-unibody MacBook Pro 15.4 inch and unfortunately, seems to corroborate these results. It makes us wonder if the simple solution would simply be an adjustable vent so the hot air has someplace else to go?
Closing Thoughts
I applaud Zalman on taking a slightly different approach to the notebook cooler market by opting for a different way to channel the cool air. However, this different design leads to diminished cooling performance as well as some key issues.
The hard drive bay, fan speed control dial, and USB hub are nice features to have and the overall construction appears to be quite good. It is a shame, though, that there is virtually no height adjustment. You only get those tiny little “prop” things that you find on the bottom of keyboards. Notebook stands should have more adjustability than that. You also can’t completely turn the fans off and using all the ports, fans and the hard drive bay could cause some USB power brown outs which would be solved with the inclusion of the optional power adapter.
In the end, we can’t recommend this product not only because it doesn’t cool well, but it’s more expensive than better performing alternatives. After all, this is a notebook cooler, not a notebook USB hub and hard drive dock. Cooling is a test that it cannot fail, regardless of all the features. More disappointing is the fact that we know Zalman for such excellent CPU coolers. We expect the same high level of performance of all their products. Hopefully they take the feedback and can redeem themselves with something excellent the next time around.
Pros
- Unique dual fan channeling design
- Integrated three-port USB hub
- Solidly-built, accommodates larger laptops
- Hard drive dock can be quite useful
Cons
- Very minimal height adjustment options
- Cooling design appears to be less effective
- Rear-oriented hub/dial is less convenient than side-mounted
- Relatively expensive compared to other coolers
- AC adapter not included
Overall Rating: 5.5 / 10.0
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Zalman ZM-NC2500Plus Notebook Cooler – Photo Gallery
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