I house my PC inside a 15" wide base cabinet below the workspace in my basement-level office. I have to keep the cabinet door closed (locked actually) to keep the children from turning the unit off and on. Unfortunately, the inside of the cabinet gets pretty hot from the PC due to the lack of circulation. I needed an inexpensive, convenient, and safe way to keep the cabinet cool. I purchased the Thermaltake Desktop USB Cooling Fan, cut a 3.5" square opening on the side of the cabinet, and installed the fan facing out of the openning to draw the warm air out. This solution worked perfectly! I can adjust the Thermaltake fan speed up if I'm running CPU intensive applications - like games or watching a DVD - to draw more air. The fan is very quite - unnoticable really, and the fan grill keeps little fingers from touching the fan blade. I would highly recommend this product. Thermaltake Mobile Fan II External USB Cooling Fan - Us
I use this to cool my PowerBook G4. The laptop is up on a simple stand, but it runs pretty hot; the CPU often runs up to 142+ degrees F, at which point the noisy internal fans turn on. With the little TT fan blowing across the keyboard area, the PowerBook seldom reaches 140 degrees, and the internal fans almost never kick in. The TT fan is nearly silent at its lowest levels, very quiet at the level I use (~halfway up), and not terribly loud even at its highest setting. It's definitely got a DIY-geeky look, but at least it's not geek-bling with pulsing LEDs or anything. My one big knock against it is its lack of an off switch. Seems like it would have been simple enough to have it click off when you turn it all the way down; as it is, I have to unplug it at the end of the day.
I have an external hard drive that is "air-cooled" but it is in a location where air circulation is somewhat blocked. This little fan takes care of that problem and keeps it running cool. I had tried battery-powered fans, but the batteries would die too quickly. If I'm not using the external HD, I just reposition the fan to provide extra circulation for the tower.
This fan is extremely quiet and works unobtrusively. I don't even hear it running. Since I normally shut off my computer when I'm done, I'm not really bothered by the lack of an on-off switch.
This fan is a great solution to one of life's annoying little problems. :-)
Both my PS3 and XBOX 360 have a pair of these each: One assisting with the 'heat exhaust' in the back of the units (helping to blow air OUT and away from the consoles) and one blowing towards the 'air intake' vents' and back. The hot air comes out noticeably faster out the exhausts of both consoles.
I've only tried the Pelican Air Flo for the PS3 (and heard the horror stories of Nyko intercoolers for XBOX 360),but that alone was horrible. Tried two units bc the fan didn't turn on (supposed to start automatically when it senses heat) and both failed! Stay away from these after market fans and get the Thermaltake Mobile Fan II!
TWO CONS: not as aesthetically pleasing (This might turn some people off, but I don't care about the aesthetics bc it does the job awesome) and with the XBox 360, it doesn't power down with the console. I have an older 10/06 Xbox and and Elite, and its the same with both. (The USB outputs still feed power after powerdown...ie to charge controllers via cable) With PS3, it starts up and powers down with the console perfectly!
Now if only someone could recommend a good powered USB hub that can work without being hooked up to a PC or console. We could alleviate hooking these up to consoles/laptops altogether and put that USB Hub AC Adapter on a X10 adapter for wireless action! Any suggestions?
Since this is a modified case fan, it's incredibly reliable and quiet. Those cute USB fly fans barely move any air and fail after a few weeks of use. If you can take the semi-industrial / geek look, it performs fine as a personal desk fan. You'll get lot's of comments from your cube visitors.
I am also using this to cool my A/V cabinet which contains an extremely hot running Motorola cable PVR.
Currently out of stock everywhere! Please make and sell more of these!
My Tivo was overheating during the summer because of poor air circulation around the built-in shelf on which it sat. I had tried other solutions, including a couple "laptop cooler" pads, but nothing worked particularly well. Then I bought one of these little fans, hooked it up to a USB port on the Tivo, set it to blow the warm air out of the shelf space to the front of the cabinet and watched the Tivo's temp drop a good ten degrees, well into the safe range.
These fans are extremely quiet (though I put it on a small rubber pad to cut down on vibration with the shelf.) As other's have noted, an on-off switch would be nice as I don't need it running all the time. Some kind of USB thermostat would make it perfect (but you wouldn't get it for anything like this price.)
Great product at a decent price. I'm going to order a couple more to cool a cabinet of network gear and the whole-house audio equipment I have in a closet.
I bought this product last week and it came pretty quickly. First thing i have to say is I like the fact that the fan speed can be controlled by a knob. Rather than only choosing between Hi, Lo, and Off, it stays on as long as the computer is on, but the knob allows you to set the speed you want it at (at least until it's at the max speed).
It's very quiet at the lowest setting to the point that unless there's absolute sound, I can't even hear it. So if you live in a city, the suburbs, or just have your window open, the fan's noise will already be drowned out.
At the highest setting, it runs just a little louder than my laptop when my laptop fans run (I own a vaio vgnfj170).
The retractable wire is nice. No wire-tangles. I bent the stands a little bit to direct the airflow downward.
My suggestion: If your laptop sucks air in from the bottom and exhausts it out the side or back, make a stand for your laptop and set your laptop on top of it(I used 4 erasers, one at each corner) and somehow angle the fan downward a bit. The airflow will definitely cool the bottom as well as provide easier airflow to the fan's computer should it be needed.
My laptop fan hasn't started up since I've used this item and I like it.
I'll have to admit though that the next day, the fan started making a vibrating sound. I fixed it a bit by just taking a chopstick and pressing lightly on the back of teh fan and it's quite now. - Usb - Usb Fan - Fan - Cooling'
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