| Vizo Propeller Card Cooler and Mirrorbox Card Reader
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Propeller Basics:
Removing the Propeller from the packaging reveals that it is very simple. As you can see in the first picture, there is not much to it. I have seen expansion slot fans in the past, but the Propeller looks quite a bit nicer than the traditional black ones. As you can see there is nothing to block the airflow of the fans at all.
 
Vizo has included a simple fan controller for the Propeller which pokes out of the expansion slot. As you can see in the below left image, it is a simple slider that will either increase or decrease the fan speed. While it is on low, the fans are silent. However, if you turn it to high the fans will drown out the rest of your computer with the noise they produce. I was actually surprised at how loud they were on high. However, if the cooling is enough, you might be able to justify the increase in noise. The biggest problem I have with the controller is that it requires you to have access to the back of your computer.
 
In the above right image you can see the power connection, which is a standard 4-pin connection that actually uses only two of the pins. I would have preferred to have a standard three pin fan connection so you could use other, more typical fan controllers to control the fans.
In Use and Testing:
In this picture you can see the Propeller installed and in operation. There is plenty of room for it to fit between two video cards (in SLI or Cross-Fire configuration).
The way the Propeller looks is one thing, however how it cools is obviously more important. I will monitor my video card's temperature on both the low and high fan speeds. In order to push my card, I will run 3DMark06 and Everquest 2 for several hours while monitoring the temperatures.
As you can see in the chart above, the Propeller cooled my eVGA 7900GT KO Superclock card 4 degrees Celsius better than the stock cooler alone while on low speed. On high speed, the temperature dropped another 1.5 degree Celsius for a total drop of 5.5 degrees Celsius over the stock cooler. The noise produced by the high speed setting might not be justifiable considering the minimal drop in cooling, but the silent operation and 4C drop at low speed was definitely welcome!
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