Zalman ZM-NC3500 Plus Notebook Cooler Review

Audio Quality

As mentioned in the introduction and as shown by the packaging, the inclusion of audio is the unique selling point of this product. What sets this apart from most other notebook coolers is the fact it has integrated speakers. We can tell from the design that the included speakers are 2.0 speakers – i.e. there is no sub-woofer. However, that doesn’t detract too much from the quality of the audio. The Zalman ZM-NC3500 plus speakers are noticeably better quality than a standard notebook’s speakers. They have powerful lows and vibrant highs, easily able to take on double bass or screeching guitars as well as films and gaming (depending on whether your notebook is capable). Yet bass lovers may find the bass lacking due to the absence of a sub-woofer.

Occasionally it may sound like the mids can get a bit muffled, but they are still substantially better than the speakers found on most notebooks. Its also worth noting the audio goes significantly louder too, and that audio quality doesn’t degrade at all with increasing volume. The integrated speakers are like a pair of good 2.0 speakers, except without the hassle of being big and causing cable management issues. The USB sound card integrated onto the notebook cooler really does provide a better audio experience.

Everything is as simple as plug and play with the audio (although sometimes a system restart can be required to get the audio drives for Windows to update). As long as you have USB cable connected, then the buttons on the side will allow you to turn the audio on, mute it and turn it up or down. The Zalman speakers project the sound a lot better than integrated notebook speakers.

USB Hub Performance

The USB hub is useful for someone who has a lot of USB devices. Although from the design you can clearly see, and this is backed up from our testing, that all 4 ports on the USB hub share one USB port’s bandwidth. Our testing reveals roughly 36MB/s of throughput, which is close to the USB 2.0 maximum of 37.5MB/s. So if you’re intending to connect storage drives then we’d say consider the bandwidth limitations first. Other than that it certainly does what it says on the tin, it provides 4 USB ports from 1 USB connector. The provider cable splits at the end providing 2 USB connectors, you can plug them both in but we noticed no difference in the audio or the USB hub when only a single connector is plugged in. That eliminates the issue we had with the 2 USB connectors being “too big” to fit them both into some notebooks where the USB ports are really close together – because it doesn’t matter if one or two are plugged in. Although it’s worth noting that if you’re not using the optional power adaptor then two USB ports can provide more power than one which is useful if you have lots of USB devices.

Acoustics

Using our decibel meter, we ascertained that the background noise level (with all electrical devices switched off and windows/doors closed) was 35 dBA. Taking that into consideration it is impressive that the Zalman ZM-NC3500 Plus added just 2 dBA to the noise output at its lowest speed. Raising it to the maximum added a further 7 dBA. The fan noise is noticeable but thanks to no bearing noise it really is very quiet. Most of the time your notebook’s noises (like the audio, hard drive noise and CPU fan) will be significantly louder than the fan which is just an underlying murmur. Its worth noting if you didn’t read our testing methodology that these results were acquired 10cm above the fan – so actually very close. As a result we found it easier to just leave the fan at 100% as it wasn’t a disturbance.