Features and Performance
For those of you who haven’t seen the original U2 Cooler Master covered the entire top of the US and the US2 plus with holes. These holes work well for cooling all on their own but they also double as mounts for the U2’s two cooling fans. Keeping things simple, they put rubber on a few areas of the cooler to keep it from sliding as well as protects your laptop when you place it inside.
That right, on top of putting your notebook on top of the U2 Plus it is also designed for you to be able to put your laptop inside of it. This is for traveling, it means the U2 will take up hardly any more space than your laptop while still giving you a cooler to use when you get where you are going. To go along with this Cooler Master includes an elastic strap to hold your laptop in place when it is inside of the cooler.
I mentioned before the aluminum cooler has all of the holes for fan placement but it is the fan design that makes it all work. As you can see below the fans have a button on the side that slides the pins over and allows the fan to slide in and lock into the holes. This means you can move the fans around to blow into a vent on the bottom of your laptop. One of the things that Cooler Master changed with the U2 Plus is the grills on the cans. Before the fan grills were chrome wire grill covers but the new fan covers are a black mesh that covers the fans a little better, take up a little less room, and look better.
For power the fans hook up via USB with a pass through connection. That means if you have limited USB ports on your laptop you don’t lose a valuable connection.
The other main change with the U2 Plus is actually right on the rubber “feet” on the end of the U2 Plus. Cooler Master added an area on the end of each side where you can wrap your extra cords to keep the wiring on your desk clean.
Unfortunately my larger gaming laptop wouldn’t fit the U2 but I did have an old laptop laying around that I could test it with. For the most part the U2’s functionality didn’t change when going to the U2 Plus. I was still able to place the fans under the vents on my laptop to blow air directly into your laptop for additional cooling. The amount of cooling you will see is highly dependent on your notebook and what you are using your notebook for. For me with my U3 I basically have to have a cooler any time I am gaming or playing videos. This is what makes the U series great, being able to have a cooler that you can take with you means you aren’t limited when traveling.
What you do is put your laptop inside of the cooler and then slide it right into your carrying case or backpack. I’ve found that it actually does a great job of protecting your laptop as well because of its all metal design. Basically your laptop now has the equivalent of a bullet proof vest on, but for the bumps and bruises you might run into when carrying your notebook around.
