Page 5: Use, Conclusion
Use
Well, the SF-19 Strike Force certainly has performance up its sleeve. But how easy is it to actually use? Well, that really depends on what you want from it. The most obvious knock against it is the size and weight. When Cooler Master say it is for up to 19" laptops, they aren't joking around. Even a laptop as intimidating to see as the test XPS M1710 is completely dwarfed in all dimensions by the cooler. You certainly won't be taking it with you anywhere without some effort, in any case.
That being said, most people with laptops exceeding 17 inches barely carry them around anyways, so it isn't so much a flaw as it is meeting the expectations of the target market. Similarly, the fans on this get really loud at max speed. On the other hand, the gamers that buy laptops that need these sort of things usually have headsets, and the laptops themselves aren't too quiet under high load situations either.
It really is an odd set of circumstances. For any normal person the SF-19 represents such a huge amount of overkill for what they would need it to do. On the other hand, for the kind of person who would conceivably need something like this not only would be able to overlook the drawbacks, but it is almost as if they wouldn't exist for them anyways. Think of it like having a Ferrari as your only car, but all of the roads between your house and wherever you go are racetracks with no speed limits. The drawbacks are still there, but you would never likely use the item in a way that you would notice them.
One thing to note: During our testing, we discovered something fiddly with the USB hub. We tested several peripherals with it, ranging from Playstation 3 controllers to external hard drives to card readers to several types of USB flash drive. All of the things tested with it worked without flaw, with the exception of a Lexar JumpDrive TwistTurn 4GB USB flash drive. It would randomly reset itself and act as if it had been removed and then plugged back in. We were unable to replicate this with any other peripheral, but it consistently did it with the Lexar no matter what we tried. While this actually points towards some incompatibility with the flash drive itself, it is an interesting thing to see nonetheless.
Conclusion
The Cooler Master Storm SF-19 Strike Force is a bit of an odd duck. It has the performance to back up its claims, but it does so at the cost of many things that people tend to associate with a more "typical" laptop cooler. And at a price of around $80 as we go to press (Newegg Link, Amazon Link), it is also quite a bit more expensive than a typical laptop cooler. At the same time, though, the people in the market for a cooler such as this don't tend to have a "typical" laptop. In the end, we at ASE Labs can certainly recommend the Cooler Master Storm SF-19 Strike Force. However, just make sure that the equipment you are using it with justifies the extra costs.
ASE Labs would like to thank Cooler Master for making this review possible.
Well, the SF-19 Strike Force certainly has performance up its sleeve. But how easy is it to actually use? Well, that really depends on what you want from it. The most obvious knock against it is the size and weight. When Cooler Master say it is for up to 19" laptops, they aren't joking around. Even a laptop as intimidating to see as the test XPS M1710 is completely dwarfed in all dimensions by the cooler. You certainly won't be taking it with you anywhere without some effort, in any case.
That being said, most people with laptops exceeding 17 inches barely carry them around anyways, so it isn't so much a flaw as it is meeting the expectations of the target market. Similarly, the fans on this get really loud at max speed. On the other hand, the gamers that buy laptops that need these sort of things usually have headsets, and the laptops themselves aren't too quiet under high load situations either.
It really is an odd set of circumstances. For any normal person the SF-19 represents such a huge amount of overkill for what they would need it to do. On the other hand, for the kind of person who would conceivably need something like this not only would be able to overlook the drawbacks, but it is almost as if they wouldn't exist for them anyways. Think of it like having a Ferrari as your only car, but all of the roads between your house and wherever you go are racetracks with no speed limits. The drawbacks are still there, but you would never likely use the item in a way that you would notice them.
One thing to note: During our testing, we discovered something fiddly with the USB hub. We tested several peripherals with it, ranging from Playstation 3 controllers to external hard drives to card readers to several types of USB flash drive. All of the things tested with it worked without flaw, with the exception of a Lexar JumpDrive TwistTurn 4GB USB flash drive. It would randomly reset itself and act as if it had been removed and then plugged back in. We were unable to replicate this with any other peripheral, but it consistently did it with the Lexar no matter what we tried. While this actually points towards some incompatibility with the flash drive itself, it is an interesting thing to see nonetheless.
Conclusion
The Cooler Master Storm SF-19 Strike Force is a bit of an odd duck. It has the performance to back up its claims, but it does so at the cost of many things that people tend to associate with a more "typical" laptop cooler. And at a price of around $80 as we go to press (Newegg Link, Amazon Link), it is also quite a bit more expensive than a typical laptop cooler. At the same time, though, the people in the market for a cooler such as this don't tend to have a "typical" laptop. In the end, we at ASE Labs can certainly recommend the Cooler Master Storm SF-19 Strike Force. However, just make sure that the equipment you are using it with justifies the extra costs.
ASE Labs would like to thank Cooler Master for making this review possible.