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CoolIT USB Beverage Chiller Review

If you spend long periods of time at your computer, chances are you eat, drink, and probably even sleep there too. For centuries men have long attempted to add tools and features to their places of habitat. Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor perfected this image in the TV show "ToolTime". We have ice chests built into couches. Cup warmers for your desk. Anything and everything to allow us to reside in a spot without having to move to gather some of life's necessities.

Company:

CoolIT Systems, www.coolitsystems.com

Price:

$39.99 US at CoolITSystems.com

Ratings

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Usability:
Support:
Average Rating:

Getting Started

One of the best booth visits I had at CES in January was with CoolIT Systems. At their booth I saw some pretty COOL hardware. CoolIT's primary product is their Freezone CPU Cooler utilizing Liquid cooling. In the display PC, CPU temperatures appeared to be very cool and noise levels were very low. Stay tuned for a future review of their CPU cooling products. Using this same technology, the CoolIT team developed their very original and very cool USB Beverage Chiller. Let's take a look at this invention.

As I sit at my computer I usually have a cold drink. With 6 or 7 PCs, 2 or 3 LCD and CRT displays, multiple printers, speakers, and several other electrical gadgets leave my office on the warm side. Even with fans and airconditioning my drinks get warm. With this new USB Beverage Chiller I not only a viable option to cool my drinks, but a great conversation piece as well.

Click on picture to enlarge image

Usability

The intended use of the USB Beverage Chiller is to keep a cold drink cold. Although it will chill a warm drink over time, it does a better job of keeping a cold drink cold to the last drop. Most of us have had some kind of science or physics class and should have a decent understanding of how heat transfers between objects. If you are overclocking or modding your PC, you better have a good understanding of these properties. Obviously the chiller will work best with metal or glass objects containing liquids. Plastics will not work as well.

In my testing I left a pop can on the chiller for 24 hours. The can came from the fridge and remained on the chiller. Although at the end of the 24 hours the can was not as cool as it was when it came out of the fridge, it was cool to the touch and the liquid contents tasted cool and refreshing. Now I didn't take the time to actually measure temperatures of the liquid or can surface during the testing. But I'm suggesting my taste buds and mouth could tell whether the chiller kept the drink at a cool enough temperature to be worth drinking. The intent is to keep your drink cool to the last drop. How many times have you opened a drink and left it sitting for an hour or so and gone to take another drink to find it warm? The USB Beverage Chiller does its job and will keep your drink cool enough to enjoy until it's gone.

Features

• Plugs into your computer's USB port
• Coldplate chills to 45°F
• Keeps your beverage cold

Pros:

• Very cool item
• Actually keeps your can cold
• Great conversation piece

Cons:

• Fan was at a noticeable level. Wish it was a little quieter.

Adding It All Up

While at CES CoolIT CEO Geoff Lyon gave us a rundown of their current products and mentioned they have several new items in the works. We even took a look at their XBOX 360 liquid cooling set up pictured above. The temperature difference between a stock set up and the one modded with CoolIT liquid cooling was quite noticeable. The USB Beverage Chiller is just an example of the ingenuity and creativity from the CoolIT team. So stay tuned for some more great product offering from these guys!

Because of their ingenuity and the "Cool" factor, we are awarding the CoolIT USB Beverage Chiller the UpgradAdvisor.com Recommended Upgrade Seal of Approval!!!

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