From the outside looking in, most people would assume that the vast majority of notebook coolers are much the same. There are some that come with fans and some that do not, but that’s about it, right? Not exactly.
Just as we are moving toward convergence in the mobile phone world, the same can be said about notebook coolers. One of the most versatile offerings in this realm is the Choiix Air Through Stash Notebook Cooling Pad, a product also known by its less memorable C-HL04 model name. Its core feature may be its cooling, but it does so much more than keep the temperature down.
Features and Box Contents
Compatible with notebooks up to 15-inches in size, the Choiix Air Through Stash is said to be an “easy and ergonomic way to add extra storage to your notebook.” That’s because in addition to the single 80mm fan in the middle for cooling, this product also comes with an integrated 2.5″ hard drive (or SSD) dock.
The Air Through Stash utilizes a simple plastic and rubber design, and the functionality is further expanded with the inclusion of a three-port USB hub on the back. It’s available in your choice of black or white and it’ll work with SATA II hard drives as big as 500GB.
The box contents are remarkably simple, giving you a single instruction sheet, rubber grips, and a USB Y-cable, in addition to the cooling pad itself. Even though there is a DC power outlet in the back, no wall adapter is provided.
USB Hub and Active Cooling
One of the pitfalls that you’ll need to overcome with a laptop-only experience is the lack of USB ports. This is especially true if you want to make full use of the Choiix Air Through Stash, since it comes with a USB Y-Cable that will take up two of your notebook’s ports.
Thankfully, there is a three-port USB hub on the back of the Air Through Stash, giving you the space you need for added expansion. This is great for when you’re on the road, since you can use these ports for flash drives, webcams, and other peripherals.
Since the ports are located in the back, they’re not really as accessible as they could be. This isn’t a big problem if you’re using it for a Bluetooth adapter or a wireless receiver for an external mouse, but it can be an issue when attaching flash drives on the go.
The active cooling comes by way of a single 80mm fan. Because this is a slightly larger fan, it doesn’t spin quite as quickly and, as such, noise levels are kept to a minimum. Unlike the highly adjustable fans of the Vizo Ninja HS, however, the fan on the Air-Through Stash has a fixed position.
The single fan is placed right in the middle. The design may lead you to believe that you can shift the middle portion backward and forward, but this is not the case. I would have preferred some level of adjustability, since the “hot spot” on laptops can vary considerably.
On the plus side, there is a power button to turn off the fan when it’s not needed. On the down side, you cannot adjust the fan speed.
Stashing an External Hard Drive
Flipping around to the underside, you’ll notice an easily accessible compartment that can house a 2.5-inch hard drive or solid state drive. The little plastic door slides off very easily, granting you access to a place where a “naked” hard drive can be housed. There are no messy cables, driver installation, or any kind of pre-configuration. You’ll just need to format the drive the same way you’d have to format any external hard drive.
Once mounted and formatted, the drive will show up like any other regular external storage drive when you have the Air-Through Stash connected to your notebook. Since the drive is a standard mass storage device, it will work with both Mac and PC, but keep in mind that if you format it for Mac, your PC notebook will not be able to use it so it is best to leave it as FAT32 if you want it to serve both worlds.
For the purposes of testing, I used a standard Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB 2.5 inch notebook hard drive.
Hard Drive and Cooling Performance
I ran HDTune 2.55 under WindowsXP to get some benchmark numbers. The drive produced a maximum, minimum, and average data transfer speed of 26.9MB/sec, 31.0MB/sec, and 29.0 MB/sec, respectively which is within the ballpark of other drives showing that the Air-Through Stash was not affecting the performance of the drive. The access time was clocked at 16.5ms with a burst rate of 20.8MB/sec.
On the cooling side, I tested the Asus G51Vx gaming notebook with SpeedFan 4.39. While sitting on a flat surface, I got readings of 60C on the GPU, 34C on the HDD, 35C on the temp sensor, and 38C for each of the two processor cores.
After letting it sit on the Choiix f or about 15 minutes, I ran Speedfan again. This time around, the GPU was 58C, the HDD was 34C, the temp sensor read 35C, and the two processor cores were 35C. This represents a drop of two degrees on the GPU and three degrees on the dual-core processor.
Final Thoughts
On paper, the Choiix Air-Through Stash C-HL04 Notebook Cooling Pad offers a lot of added functionality and versatility that you may not find with other notebook coolers. For people who want to get more out of their laptops, this sounds like a very sound option.
The ergonomic typing angle makes for a more comfortable experience, but you cannot adjust the height. Similarly, the single fan seems to be effective at cooling the notebook, but you cannot adjust its speed or placement to maximize it. The quality of the construction is decent, but I’d still prefer it in aluminum.
That said, the Air-Through Stash is a very convenient and well put together product. You don’t have to bother with a separate external hard drive, making for a more streamlined configuration overall with easy access to a backup medium. The USB hub is an added plus too.
Pros
- Plenty of bonus features and functions
- Easy to install 2.5″ HDD bay
- Power button for cooling fan
Cons
- Cheaper plastic construction
- No adjustable speed or placement for fan
- Minimal grip afforded to hold laptop in place
Overall Rating: 8.0/10.0
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Choiix Air-Through Stash Notebook Cooling Pad Photo Gallery
