Introduction

In the age of the netbook, we have striven for smaller lighter notebooks, though in this quest some manufacturers have chosen to omit cooling systems inside their systems and are relying on the Atoms CPU low thermal load. One lovely example we have here is Dell’s Inspirion Mini 10v (1011). The cooling system employed in this netbook is a thermal pad on the chipset and CPU attached to the keyboard! This makes a very poor cooling solution, and can make typing uncomfortable when hot. Thus, the laptop if kept within specification cannot be used when the air temp is more than 30^oC. This could be a problem in hotter climates than Britain.

Company Background

Step in Coolermaster and Choiix. Coolermaster is most well-known for its popular HAF, Cosmos and Storm series of cases as well as other cooling products. From them today we have not one but two notebook coolers. One is passive and the other is active. Choiix is a less well known company but actually is a subsidiary of Coolermaster aimed at “offering a diversity of digital lifestyle products, with joyful, colourful, user-friendly and touching characteristics. Every simple yet quality design is for people who wish to create their own unique chic lifestyle.”

Introduction

In the computer industry, cases are a rather hit and miss affair. With some monstrosities such as the forthcoming Thermaltake Ten to the elegant Lian Li cases, we have seen computer chassis come and go.

Remember the days when computer cases were a drab off-white colour and full of razor sharp edges?  In those days building a computer was considered baptism by fire!  The nearest a consumer could get to an elegant case was from Apple and these had the resemblance of boiled sweets  In today’s  world we  see many types of computer enclosures and in many interesting shapes. To add another factor into this ‘whirlpool’ of chassis configurations; we now have the consumers themselves making their own cases!

Company Background

Fractal Design was founded in Sweden in the year 2007 by a Mr Hannes Wallin! They first entered the Scandinavian Market in 2007 and two years later they had explored additional markets in Europe; namely Germany, France, Switzerland and the UK amongst others.  They also have recently signed a contract with their new distributor in Australia.  In addition, during the second Quarter of 2010 they will enter the North American market!

Their goal is to be widely recognized for a high end level of design and products.  Fractal is putting great effort into choosing the right partners in each region, and their strategy is to work with a good structure of selected distribution partners and retail/e-tailers!

One of the core ideas of Fractal Design is to provide products with an extraordinary design level. The principles of their products have been stylish, simplistic and clean; which they prefer to call the Scandinavian design! Their ethos is to produce products that incorporate the above, but without compromising quality, functionality and pricing.