Enermax, one of the pioneers in power supplies, has gone through some changes over the years. Alike Corsair the lineup has extremely diversified, starting with the addition of enclosures. Later on to be followed HDD enclosures, peripherals, moving on to processor air/water cooling and even notebook coolers have been added to the lineup. The TwisterOdiO 16 is a notebook cooler, nevertheless don't just consider the TwisterOdiO 16 as a basic cooling device, it has another build-in-extra up the sleeves. The included Dreambass technology and build-in speakers should be able to lift your notebook sound experience to a new level. Time to put the TwisterOdiO 16 for a spin and see what it can bring us in cooling as in the sound department.
Unboxing
The TwisterOdiO 16 is presented in a sturdy card board box with flashy box art. Immediately we noticed the light weight of the whole package, even thinking the box was close to being empty. The unit itself only weighs 780 grams.
The TwisterOdiO 16 features a brushed aluminum design, making it less dull looking as many of the competitor's offering. The dimensions are 352mm x 270mm and a height of 52mm, supporting thus laptops of maximum 16" size. Putting the TwisterOdiO in a bag shouldn't pose too much of a problem.
For cooling the TwisterOdiO 16 utilizes a 120mm Fan, being adjustable from 0 (off) to 1400rpm via a manual Fan speed control. Due to the fan thickness of only 18mm, the TwisterOdiO's design could be kept extremely slim. The two 40mm speakers are integrated on both sides of the housing.
A thick rubber stripe on the bottom part of the TwisterOdiO 16 avoids that your laptop slips off this notebook cooler. Even our 17 inch, read non compatible notebook, remained firmly in place.
A Closer Look
The Fan speed can be adjusted from off to max speed the 120mm can deliver, which is 1400rpm. The manual speed adjustable turn wheel is positioned on the right hand side. Enermax lists the emitted noise level from 25-32dBA. The Audio is connected to the TwisterOdiO 16 via a jack, which is plugged in the Notebook's output connector. The power for the unit is fed from one of the available laptop USB ports. Hooking up the TwisterOdiO is indeed pure child's play. Too bad we didn't find any cable routing on the unit, nor extra USB ports. The two 40mm full-range satellite speakers are protected by a meshed grill.
Once we open the TwisterOdiO 16, we directly spotted the vast amount of free space. A 140mm Fan could also feel perfectly at home here. Both the speakers are safely housed into a plastic tube, this being damped by big rubber rings. The fan speaker/control unit is housed on a tiny green PCB.
Test Setup and Methodology
To test the cooling performance of the Enermax TwisterOdiO 16 we gave it a spin with a MSI GT70 gaming notebook. The MSI GT70 is already equipped with a pretty beefy cooling solution, made out of two heat pipes. One designated for the i7 3610QM CPU and one for the nVIDIA GTX670M graphics card. Even though the GT70 is a 17 inch model laptop, we didn't encounter any issues with the TwisterOdiO 16.
We tested the TwisterOdiO 16 in a few different scenarios:
The GT70 in its original state
The TwisterOdiO with the fan speed at the lowest Fan setting
The TwisterOdiO with the fan speed at the highest Fan setting
We opted to use Futuremark's 3DMark Vantage as it's pretty strenuous on both the processor as the graphics card. Each test setting completed 3 loops of the complete Vantage suite. Realtemp and GPU-Z were used as monitoring and temperature logging tools. The measured ambient temperatures in the [M] lab are around 20°C. Idle temps were measured after the first boot, then the CPU and GPU temperatures were monitored during 10 mins of idling. The load temps in the charts are the average results of the stress tests.
Here is a snapshots of one of our many temperature test screens:
For the sound test we opted to step away from the MSI GT70 as it already features an enhanced audio system. The ASUS AX75 laptop was used as guinea pig, to see how well the TwisterOdiO 16 could improve the sound experience.
Cooling Performance and Sound Test
A similar remark to start off with as with the Cooler Master SF-17 notebook cooler:
Take note that the below results are close to being the best case scenario outcome. The MSI GT70 has large vents on the backside, thus the created airflow of the SF-17 notebook cooler has maximum effect.
Looking at the IDLE results we can conclude that the TwisterOdiO is in the same ballpark as the CM SF-17. Not much extra cooling to be expected when testing at idle speeds. Plain logic as the CPU and the mobile GPU clock down when being idle. Only at the maximum fan setting we spot up to a 1°C decrease in CPU/GPU operating temperatures.
Now let us see what happens under the 3DMark Vantage load...
Even though the TwisterOdiO 16 is only rated compatible with up to 16inch sized notebooks it still manages to handle the temperatures of our 17inch MSI gaming laptop. Besting, when running at full blast, the high quality heatpipe cooling solution with an average of 2°C for both the processor and the mobile GTX 670 graphics card. At the low fan speed things hardly change versus the stock cooling. Imagine what could be achieved if Enermax would equip the TwisterOdiO V2 with a beefier 140mm fan.
Noise wise, there's hardly anything to mention then that the entire unit is pretty silent, even with the Fan spinning at 1400rpm. For the purists, it's audible if you listen closely, but will never ever become disturbing. Also no grinding noises at low rpm were observed as with the CM SF-17 Notebook cooler.
Audio wise is where the TwisterOdiO really comes into action. Without any dBA tests we just let the below video footage tell the tale. The Asus notebook was tested with the integrated speakers set on maximum, thus once we hook up the TwisterOdiO, things get very loud ! Maybe even too much for our Canon camera too handle lol...
Conclusion
What can we say about the Enermax TwisterOdiO 16 besides that it is a sleek looking and pretty okayish performing notebook cooler. That it is silent in operation, even when being used in the high performance mode. That it is pretty lightweight and acceptable in dimensions, thus making it easy to take it along inside your notebook bag. Especially the latter argument is one of the stronger selling points of this Enermax TwisterOdiO 16. The far improved audio playback is the second strong point. Thanks to the included DreamBass technology it makes this humble notebook cooler a treat for those that tend to abuse their notebook speakers with pounding music.
For those that look for a high performance notebook cooler need to look at specific models with bigger sized Fans. Though might directly need to take into account that not all of these higher specced models are enjoyable during their high performance operation. It is all about giving and taking once one thrives for best performance. Secondly the higher cooling notebook coolers are usually also far bigger in size. Thus not so carrier friendly as the today tested Enermax TwisterOdiO 16. Now the addition of two extra USB ports and some sort of cable routing management system would really have topped it off.
Retailing around 32 euros, this price for the Enermax TwisterOdiO 16 is competitive and justified. The end user is getting a great combination of aesthetics, weight, acceptable cooling performance and especially enhanced audio enjoyment, this all in one package. Therefore MadShrimps proudly awards the Enermax TwisterOdiO 16 with the Novelty Award.
PROS:
Light weight and compact dimensions
Great enhanced sound experience
Acceptable cooling for a 120mm Fan
Price versus package bundle
CONS:
No extra USB ports
No Cable management
Madshrimps wishes to thank Benjamin from Enermax for the TwisterOdiO 16 sample
