A little bit ago I took a look at a ram cooler from CoolIt systems, today for review I have something that looks similar but is made to cool your PCI cards. The CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster as it is called mounts to your PCI slots holes and directs an 80mm fan onto all your cards and motherboard components to help keep them cool and stable.
CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: CoolIt
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster
Provides direct air flow to cool PCI components.
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Simple to Install
-Simple bolt-in to any standard 7 slot PCI bay
-Plugs into any available fan header
Cools PCI Components
-Provides direct airflow to cool all PCI cards to increase stability and reliability
-Guaranteed to reduce temperatures on video cards
-Maximize overclocking potential
Price: $24.99 USD
Find more CoolIt products at ShopZilla!
A Better Look at Things
:
The CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster comes in the dreaded sealed plastic clamshell that you need a sharp knife to open. You can plainly see the Cooling Booster right through the package.
On the back of the package we can see a nice picture of the PCI Cooling Booster in action and some general information is listed as well.
Opening the package up with the aid of my trusty LeatherMan, the only thing we find is the CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster itself. The Cooling Booster is made from shiny aluminum and has an 80mm fan mounted to the underside of it.
Each side of the CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster has a set of thumbscrews for mounting purposes.
The 80mm fan does include a couple blue LEDs in it as well to add some nice lighting effects to your case. I would have liked to have seen a fan grill on the backside of the fan though. The fan connects to your motherboard via a standard 3-pin header connection.
The mounting screws on the sides are actually two screws on each side, I like the mounting system actually, it works very well and is very easy to use.
The four screws are exactly the same, so you can’t mix them up. They have holes in the top of them to attach the other screw to. For installation you screw two screws into two free holes on your PCI slots, and then use the other screws to screw into them to secure the PCI Cooling Booster.
Find more CoolIt products at ShopZilla!
Installation, Testing and Comparison
As I mentioned the CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster is very easy to install, a couple screws and you are all done. I installed it into my test rig with a Connect3D X1800GTO video card to see how well the PCI Cooling Booster would cool my card.
Here’s a couple close up shots of the screws and how they work on the installed PCI Cooling Booster.
The blue LEDs in the 80mm fan are fairly bright and will illuminate your case a little bit as well, overall it does create a nice effect, especially if you window in your case.
It’s worth mentioning that the PCI Cooling Booster is a bit on the loud side, at least for me, others might not care to much about the noise, but it is audible over the other components in the system. It’s not terribly loud though, it is bearable to an extent.
To get load on my video card I ran 3dMark05 and checked the temperatures with the CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster installed and without. I did find that it did actually cool the card a bit.
You can see that while idle I only got a two degree drop in the temperature of my video card with the CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster installed, but under load I got a four degree drop while using the CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster.
It works as advertised, nothing drastic but I still got a drop in temperatures. A note would be that the CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster might not be compatible with all cases, especially the types with the tool less PCI slots. The way the mounting screw system is made, you won’t have to worry about loosing a PCI slot either as the mounting screws will be used to hold your video cards and other PCI slot cards in place.
Find more CoolIt products at ShopZilla!
Summary:
The CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster can be a useful addition to you computer if your video card is running a bit hot, or if you wish to get a bit more airflow inside your case to help cool all your components. Overclockers should appreciate a product like this as even a couple degree drop will help with the stability of their overclocks. Overall though the CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster is a bit too loud for my tastes, and a couple degrees can’t justify the added noise to me, others might not care as much as me though about a little added noise.
DragonSteelMods gives the CoolIt PCI Cooling Booster a 4.5 out of 5 score.
Pros:
-Very easy to install
-Brightens up case
-Cools as advertised
-Looks great
-Low price
-Cools all PCI cards and motherboard components
Cons:
-Loud fan
-Not compatible with all cases without some adjustments
I would like to thank CoolIt for the chance to review the PCI Cooling Booster and for their support of DSM.