Enermax Archives - Beantown Review

Enermax Ostrog ADV Case Review

08/07/2017 By Zach Can

Over the past year, Enermax has given us at Beantown a taste of their higher tier products such as the Triathlor ECO 1000W PSU. Now it was time we checked out one of their cases. The Ostrog ADV mid tower case comes in three distinct colors: red, green, and blue. It has some defining features such as its wide array of light emitting diodes, a variety of lighting options, and its tool-less design. So, is the case worth your hard-earned money? Let’s find out and take a closer look in this Enermax Ostrog ADV case review.

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Read: Enermax Triathlor ECO 1000W PSU Review

Enermax Ostrog ADV Case Review

Design

Looking at the front of the case there’s a large acrylic window to the left with the standard black metal panel to the right. At the top of the front panel, there are three small metal mesh grills. These grills can be removed by pressing on the tabs to install your Blu-ray or DVD drives (or other various utilities.) Below this area is a large grill which can just as easily be removed. Behind that houses two 120 mm, 6-mode Vegas LED fans. The outline of the front panel is that of one giant LED strip.

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Moving to the top of the case are a series of buttons, lights, inputs, and one switch. On the lower row you’ll notice the restart button, hard drive activity LED, power LED, power button and the 3-speed fan controller. Fan speeds are 900, 1200, and 1500 rpm. The upper row features two USB 3.0 slots, microphone and headphone inputs, two USB 2.0 slots, and the lighting setting button. After that is a large metal mesh grill which is easily removed by a pull tab and outlined with another LED light strip.

On the back side panel of the case is your standard hole for the motherboard and removable grills for a video card. It’s worth noting that the video card grills match the color you’ve selected for the case. It should also be pointed out that your VGA card should not exceed a length of 414 mm.

Looking to install more fans, you can do so. Just check the specs below for the details.

The overall dimensions of the Ostrog ADV case are 19.41″ x 8.46″ x 20.31″. As you can see from these values, this case is quite a bit larger than the typical mid-tower case. The weight of the unit is 15.8 lbs.

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Specifications

Inside the Ostrog ADV

Depending on the color you chose, the backing on the inside will match. Looking in from the acrylic panel are six hard drive bays with three smaller drive bays on top. There are plenty of gaps throughout the case to thread wiring and even to bundle up wiring, with rubber grommets offering additional protection. There’s a third fan (an Enerflo model) in the top left corner. Installation of my hardware into the case was a breeze which took about an hour max. Everything was visible and right out into the open.

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There’s ATX, Micro ATX, and Mini ITX support, sufficient room around the top of the case to install water cooling, and the hard drive cage is removable for those huge graphic cards. There’s even plenty of color coordination inside to go along with the LED lighting making the case Pop.

There are two issues worth noting. The first point of concern is the amount of space between the right-side case cover and behind the main board tray, where all the hard drives are stored and connected in. The website states “a comfortable cable routing behind the mainboard tray.” It didn’t feel like that. I have four hard drives, and the amount of space that they provide you is minimal. I literally had to force the wires in to get the case cover on, which in turn makes it difficult to get the case on.

The second issue and one probably unique to us is the top piece of the case was cracked upon delivery. This crack could a problem with the design of the top piece, or it could be a packaging or shipping issue. We’ll never know for sure, but it’s something we passed along to Enermax.

A replacement part was issued, but when it arrived, it was missing a ton of wiring, a couple of the wire caps, and even the power button. Fortunately, we saved the original top piece, taking the missing materials from one and transferring to the other. We were a little disappointed that the new top piece didn’t incorporate the missing materials.

Read: Gaming: HyperX Pulsefire FPS Mouse Review

Conclusion

All-in-all, the Ostrog ADV is a fairly well-designed case which we enjoy using to this day. It’s vibrant and color-filled with red LED lighting. We did notice a couple of things that were a cause for concern. Some paint chipped off when we removed the video card grills, and a there’s a shortage of space to plug in your hard drives. We feel this latter one may be a big issue for consumers.

The Enermax Ostrog ADV case lists for $120 and is available for purchase at Fry’s, Newegg, and Amazon (see link below.) If you need an upgrade and some additional room in a mid-tower computer case, plus sick bright LED lighting, this is it.

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What do you think of this Enermax Ostrog ADV case review? Do you agree or disagree with our verdict? Let us know in the comment section below or via social media. We’re eager to hear your thoughts.

Don’t hesitate to head over to the Enermax homepage to see their current line-up of products. The Enermax Ostrog ADV case comes with a 1-year warranty. Should you need to reach Customer Support, click on this link.

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FTC Disclosure: Enermax provided Beantown LLC with one (1) Enermax Ostrog ADV Red chassis sample for review purposes. This writer’s opinion is 100% his own and not a paid product ambassador.

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Enermax Triathlor ECO 1000W PSU Review

06/20/2016 By Zach Can

Enermax Triathlor ECO 1000W PSU Review

Until recently, today’s high-end PC would consist of the following components: Two GTX970 cards, an Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, and a Maximus 8 motherboard. But what’s going to power all of those elements? That’s where the power supply unit (PSU) comes into play. Unfortunately so many first time PC builders buy a PSU last with whatever remains of their budget, and that’s a tremendous mistake. You just don’t want to buy a cheap PSU. By doing so, you take the risk of doing harm to your entire system. I’m talking about damaging the hard drives, graphics cards, RAM, CPU, and the motherboard. Building a high-end PC will empty your wallet. But you don’t have to buy the most expensive PSU on the market, to meet your high-end PC’s needs. Enermax has an economy version PSU. Don’t be fooled by word “Economy,” this power supply unit is a beast. Let’s take a closer look at this Enermax Triathlor ECO 1000W PSU review.

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Design

We all remember what Peter Parker’s (aka Spiderman) grandad said: “with great power, comes great responsibility.” Running two GTX970 cards will require a reliable, hardy PSU to handle that kind of responsibility and Enermax’s Triathlor ECO 1000W 80 Plus Bronze PSU packs the punch of what many high-end systems would need. Now this Bronze certified PSU doesn’t have a Titanium or Platinum rating, it did come close to earning a Silver certification when Ecova Plug Load Solutions tested it. The Bronze has 84-88% efficiency at 230 volts. Enermax went with a +12V single-rail design which yields 83 amps of current. This volume of amperage can easily power three top graphics cards in your high-end PC with plenty to spare. Go ahead and build that 3-way CrossFire/SLI setup with the Enermax Triathlor ECO 1000W PSU.

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All this power the PSU holds and the fans are barely audible. They’re silent if you’ve got an average pair of headphones on.

The Triathlor ECO PSU is semi-modular due to some cables already hard-wired: main ATX, one PCIe, and two CPU cables. The PSU comes with eight additional modular cables all fitting nicely in the supplied pouch. On my system, I added two cables.

It can get messy if you have a small case. I had to Tetris the cables in due to my GTX970 card taking up almost my entire case. If you have a big case, you won’t have this cabling problem.

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System Components

Intel Core i7-2600 CPU
NVIDIA GeForce GTX970 Card
ASrock P67 Extreme6 Motherboard

Conclusion

If your wallet has already suffered an emptying blow due to pricey graphic cards, then the Triathlor ECO 1000W PSU packs on the power, and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Currently on Newegg, the PSU sells for $125, and on Amazon, it sells for $133. The only other semi-modular, 1000W, Bronze-certified PSU’s around $100 are from Rosewill.

Have you purchased and currently use the Enermax Triathlor ECO 1000W PSU? Do you agree or disagree with our analysis? Let us know in the comment section below or via social media. We’re eager to hear your thoughts.

Feel free to follow Enermax on Facebook and YouTube as well as this very blog on Twitter and Facebook. And don’t hesitate to head over to the Enermax website to see their latest equipment.

The Triathlor ECO PSU come with a 3-year product exchange/repair warranty when purchased from an authorized dealer.

FTC Disclosure: Enermax, Inc. provided Beantown LLC with one Triathlor ECO 1000W PSU sample for review purposes. This writer’s opinion is 100% his own and not a paid product ambassador.

All photographs are the copyrighted property of Beantown LLC 2016.

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The Aeolus Laptop Cooling Pad from Enermax: A Review

08/27/2015 By Hakan Can

Introducing the Aeolus Laptop Cooling Pad

What can I say about fans? We’ve been using them all our lives, so much so that we take them for granted. They’re used in so many places, so many applications that we often overlook them. So how does this relate to a laptop cooling pad review? Stick around, you’re about to find out.

It’s Summer here in North America. Many of us wake up with a ceiling or floor fan cooling us down in the house. Ignoring you bicycle riders out there, we drive to work in our cars, cars which use 1-2 engine cooling fans. We arrive at our workplace, where the air-conditioning employs the use of cooling fans. At said office, we perform our daily tasks on our desktop computers which use no less than 2 cooling fans. And all this takes place before lunch. We can skip the afternoon and evening as they continue on this track.

Now think about this for a moment. Without adequate cooling, none of these devices would function for very long. And we can count this time in minutes on 1 or 2 hands.

This brings me to the following thought. Your desktop computer uses many fans to keep everything functioning. Yet your laptop may only use one, or none in most cases. So why should you expect your laptop to function as advertised when there are so many horror stories out there involving overheating? The answer is You Shouldn’t. Hence the need for proper laptop cooling.

A Bit of Research

While conducting research on laptop cooling pads, I noticed two things:

There was a shortage of written reviews.
There was an abundance of video (YouTube) videos.

To my surprise, Enermax is not widely known for its laptop cooling pads/products. After searching under the phrase “Laptop Cooling Pads” on Newegg, Enermax appeared only 3X in the Top 50 listed products. This is quite unusual as they’re well known for their cases and power supplies, both of which heavily rely on cooling fans. If there’s one brand out there that knows cooling, it’s Enermax.

Within this Top 50 search, the high majority of cooling pads listed are poorly constructed, cheap, and flimsy. This is one reason for their low pricing, typically in the $20-30 range. If you’re in the market for a cooling pad, it is highly suggested to get one that is well-constructed and durable. Having owned 3 cooling pads over the past decade, take it from me. Firsthand experience will show you the need for this type of product, and a well-constructed one at that.

Features, Specifications & Pros/Cons

There’s plenty to like about the Aeolus cooling pad, and little to dislike. The biggest benefit is that proper cooling extends the life of your product.

The Pros are as follows:

The Enermax Aeolus is the most durable, well-constructed cooling pad on the market today.
There’s smart cable management on the upper two feet. All 4 feet (edges) are non-slip rubber.
There’s an extending USB port
A moveable magnetic 4-color, 4-pattern (Sparkle, All-On, Flash, & Off) super-quiet LED fan. With this moveable fan, you can target the cooling more effectively.
The pad has a wide cooling area capable of handling 17″ laptops.

The Cons are as follows:

I would have preferred a 200 mm fan over the 180 mm fan provided.
Offering feet (edges) in a variety of colors would have been preferential. The colors Blue and Purple come to mind. Red has a tendency to stand out.
Portability–see the section titled Traveling.

Technical Specifications:

Compatibility: 17″ Notebook (Laptop)
Material: Aluminum + Metal Mesh
Color: Black
Fan Size: 180 x 180 x 20 mm
Fan Speed: 900 rpm ± 150 rpm
Fan Noise: 18 dBa
Power Source: USB Bus Power +5V
USB Port: USB 2.0 x 1 (For Power Input)
Cable Length: 500 mm
LED Color: 4-Color (Blue, Red, Green, & White)
LED Modes: 4
Dimensions: 464 x 386 x 59 mm
Weight: 2.3 kg (5 lbs)
Product warranty for the Aeolus Vegas CP007 pad is 1 year.

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My History with Laptop Cooling Pads

A decade ago, I purchased an HP laptop for my dad. On any given day, the laptop would just shut down after 1-2 hours use. On warmer days, the laptop lasted even less. At first I didn’t know the cause of the problem. After a bit of research, I came up with a solution, and an inexpensive one at that. How did I resolve this problem? Well, I purchased my first laptop cooler. Problem solved.

A handful of years later I purchased a second laptop, this time a Toshiba, for my mom. I’ll give you one guess as to what happened next. The very same problem with overheating and shutdown occurred. How did I resolve the problem this time? Well, I purchased my second laptop cooler. Problem solved.

If you’ve done any research on this topic, then you’ve probably come across numerous articles on laptop overheating. A quick Google search under the phrase “Dell laptop overheating” yields thousands of results. I mention Dell because 5-6 years ago, I had one of their laptops cook on my thighs. At that moment, I knew exactly how an egg or a pancake felt. Would you pour hot coffee on your own lap? I think not. You may have even seen the video of a Sony VAIO laptop whose battery caught fire during a work conference. Just imagine that starting on your lap.

So here’s my professional advice. If you or your company have purchased a pricey laptop, then I highly recommend you invest in a reputable laptop cooling pad. You’ve spent good money on the laptop. Now go spend a little more to cool its engines. And as I mentioned a couple of times already, do yourself a favor and get a well-constructed one.

If you’re a DJ, a heavy gamer, an architect or a designer, you already know what I’m talking about. Nothing is more frustrating than your laptop overheating, shutting down and losing your data.

BTW, both of my laptops mentioned above work to this day, although the batteries are pretty much shot.

Traveling with a Laptop Cooling Pad

I’ve been scratching my head over this one. Is the Aeolus cooling pad too big to take on a business trip? If you’ve actually seen/held the pad, then your immediate answer would be Yes. But the truth is, the answer is a bit more complicated than this. Let me provide two examples and discuss the challenges:

Let’s say you’re taking a trip by air (or maybe rail–Amtrak still runs) for a few days or less. Typically, the suitcase you bring is a carry-on. Finding room for the pad, or maybe even fitting it into a carry-on will be a problem. Likely outcome–you leave the cooling pad behind.
Let’s say you’re taking a trip by air (or maybe by car) and your length of stay is a week, or longer. The suitcase you bring may be quite large. Now there’s no space restriction in the luggage. If you came by car, your car’s trunk is like an ocean–there’s ample room. Likely outcome–you bring the cooling pad with you.

There’s also the matter of how long you’ll use your laptop for, and under what conditions. It’s these types of concerns, some minor, some not, that you should think about before you travel with/without a cooling pad.

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Where to find the Aeolus Laptop Cooling Pad

The Aeolus cooling pad is available for sale at a variety of websites, many of which are on the Enermax website. My advice is to look no further than Newegg and/or Tiger Direct. The price of the Aeolus cooler is $50. While some of you may think this is a bit pricey for a laptop cooler, I would say think again. Remember all that talk about construction and durability?

Should you happen to be at a large gaming convention like PAX East, then you can see the Aeolus cooling pad firsthand. Plus, you’ll have the chance to speak with one of their product specialists. A win-win in my book. If you would like more product information, please visit the Enermax website.

Final Notes

I’d like to thank the management at the Microsoft Store in Burlington, MA. They allowed me to use their largest laptops with the Aeolus cooling pad for review purposes. This way, you’re able to see photographic proof of how current product fits with the laptop cooling pad. The employees I interacted with were blown away with the Aeolus. It’s too bad that Microsoft Store doesn’t sell any laptop cooling pads. I bet they could sell plenty.

For those of you wondering if this laptop cooling pad was named after the sidekick in the Hercules TV series from 20 years ago, I have the following two responses: 1) Excellent memory, and 2) It was not. That characters name was Iolaus, not Aeolus. I bring this up because this question was actually asked to yours truly and I wanted to dispel any myths.

All photos are the property of Beantown LLC.

FTC Disclosure: A press sample of the Aeolus laptop cooling pad was provided to Beantown LLC for the purpose of this review. The sample in no way affected the authenticity of the review.

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