Thermaltake X-Blower Review - PAGE 1

These days, Thermaltake is a company that comes to mind instantly of many cooling enthusiasts. The lineup has grown from the initial Volcano series of coolers into case fans, case accessories and even cases of their own creation complete with Thermaltake's own cooling systems. Thermaltake has grown to take on all aspects of cooling in search of the ideal solution for each end user. Today we get to bring to all of you the X-Blower system. A combination cooling solution to upgrade current heatsink intake fans and add an exhaust port blower fan that pulls hot air away from above and below the cpu area.

The pack in content is quite nice as it includes all of the info and parts that will be required for installation in most systems. The blower can snap into current housings found in many SOHO style cases these days or it can be mounted with the provided screws. In the case of the 80mm Smart Fan II it comes with two lengths of screws to fit the cooler into most heatsinks. Also as an added bonus, Thermaltake throws in a dual fan speed control panel to mount on the front drive bay area with two simple wires to connect into both fans for almost full control minus a safety zone left in to prevent a meltdown situation.

The replacement candidate in my system is the Volcano 9 by Thermaltake. The Smart Fan II on this heatsink came with it shortly after the heatsink debuted so it's most likely due for a replacement just as the Antec fan pulling air out the back is. Luckily the Antec case that I'm using features clips so I don't have to worry about figuring out what screws are best for the back to mount it with or to replace on the heatsink itself. After some cleaning up and measurements I figure it's time to install all of this and check out what we see from thermaltake as a result for lower temps. For those interested these are the basic specs to the system.