Vizo Xena NCL-220 Review - Notebook Cooler

Page 3 - Testing

Installation

The HDD installation into the stand is pretty easy. You have just to place 4 screws, which attach the HDD to the plate, which then simply is inserted into the corresponding slot. After you close its lid you have to plug the USB cable to your laptop and can use the built in USB hub. Problem here is the need of external power in order to use the additional disk space, provided by the HDD, sitting on a secure and cool place into the chassis of the stand. This is somewhat strange, because most external 2.5” SATA HDD enclosures do not need any additional power besides the one provided by the USB port. But on the other hand, do not forget that in this particular case you power two additional fans and we can say that it really is possible at some point to be short on current when you plug 1-2 additional USB devices to the USB hub, which on the whole is quite possible (you have to power somewhere at leas your external mouse).

Another shortcoming on this topic is the plastic cover of the HDD opening and the weak hinge, which holds it. You won't probably use it very much, but still it doesn't look at all reliable.

Here we have one more remark, which prevent the stand from receiving perfect score. If Vizo's engineers replace the HDD mounting sledge with one of their external USB enclosures and use the slot only for USB connection to the hub, this would be the perfect product. After all it is much more probable to use the HDD, residing outside your mobile computer, to carry around data, rather than using it only for backup functions and keeping it warm (cool at the occasion) at home.

Comfort

As with the other Vizo product we tested not long ago( Ninja ) here we count on steep work angle and low front end. The same as last time, we found out that this configuration is extremely comfortable and this is one of the main advantages of these stands. Xena's front still is quite low, regardless of the large tooth, and does not interfere with normal operation. The rubber feet attach well to the surface and prevent slipping around, reduce the vibrations, the front tooth hods the laptop well in place and on the whole working with this stand is quite comfortable and stable.

Software

The bundled software is PCClone EX Lite by Fnet Corporation. It is extremely intuitive and easy to use. It enables creation of automatic backups, overwriting of full backup, even adding separate files to an existing backup. You can set up separate hotkeys to every backup job you create, as well as you can manage it through the button on the back of the stand.

Noise

Viso Xena is not of the most quiet ones, it resides in the perfect middle. The good thins is that Vizo put a switch on the back, which can be used to stop the fans,if they bother you. The biggest problem with this fat comes when you turn off your laptop and use the external power adapter – then the fans do not stop and if you use the stand in your bedroom it is not very pleasant. This makes you use the switch. If you do not use external power, this problem is not relevant.

Build quality

As we already mentioned, the pad on the whole is with pretty high quality. The finish, print, the whole chassis, even the back panel when looked at imply reliability and literally reek of quality. But the effect is spoiled regrettably by the HDD door, as we already mentioned. Here we must also report one more concern – the back rubber feet are not screwed, but are just glued to the stand and it is quite possible when moving the stand around at some point to unglue them.

Cooling

Naturally we did not miss the standard temperature testing which we put through every such product. At the time of the test the environment temperature was 21C and the test laptop featured Intel T7250 Dual Core 2 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache processor and X3100 Integragted Graphics:

As you can clearly see definitely there is effect. You can draw the conclusions yourself by the shown results.