Update coming soon on my latest gaming exploits.

 

Packaging

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the fancy packaging the radiator came in because I tore into it before I decided to write this review. But it's nothing to get excited about either. It's your typical, hard to open, blister packaging that you see with most electronics and accessories today.

 

Aesthetics

 

Overall it's a pretty good looking cooler. It's manufactured of plastic that very closely resembles the gloss and texture of the Wii's housing. When installed, you can hardly tell that it is an accessory to the Wii rather than actually part of the Wii itself. The only complaint I have is the power LED on the back of the cooler itself. Intec decided to go with the tried and true green LED to indicate the unit has power. I think they should have kept with trying to match the Wii and used a nice blue LED instead but hey I don't work for Intec. (Although maybe they're accepting applications? Hint Hint)

Function

Well, what can I say? It works. It works damn well. I love my WiiConnect24 service so I leave my system in standby all the time. Before installing the radiator, the side of the Wii, when in it's vertical position, was noticeably warm to the touch. After installing the radiator and letting it run for a few minutes the side became as cool as if the system was never on in the first place. Use of the radiator does take up one of your USB ports as the fan gets its power from it. As you can see from the photo above, though, you still get to use the other port via a pass through port on the side of the radiator.

I've got no temperature probe to give you hard numbers, but I'm sure it dropped the internal temp of the Wii's case by 10, if not more degrees. The only drawback to all this cooling capacity is noise. This thing makes quite a racket while it's running. It's nearly as loud as my PC and that has five fans ranging from 80mm to 120mm. The sound is cancelled out though, once you fire up the console and start playing some games. The radiator fan spins at high RPM, although I can't find specs anywhere online. A Google search for the model number found on the fan turns up nothing. I can tell you it's a sleeve bearing fan, so don't expect it to last quite as long as your nice ball bearing PC case fans. Overall it does it's job well so long as you can stand the constant hum that comes from your Wii once installed.

Conclusion

I'd say for $15.00 you can't go wrong. If you leave your Wii on standby with the WiiConnect24 on, then I'd say pick one of these up. It will definitely keep your console cooler and possibly lengthen the life of the components resting inside that shiny white case. 

Hey folks. Long time no post. Not like I've got a fan base one million strong anyway. But as the title says I got a Wii on launch day along with Zelda: Twilight Princess and an extra "Wiimote" and Nunchuk. After 40 some odd hours of gameplay I finished Zelda and I must say Wow. Best Zelda game I've ever played. Obtaining the Wii was definitely the highest act of nerdiness I've performed. That's right. I camped out at a Toy R Us for 12 hours waiting for the Sunday morning launch. That was after being turned away at 3 Walmarts for the midnight launch. There I was at 25 years old huddled into a shoddy sleeping bag laying on concrete at 3 in the morning playing New Super Mario Bros. on my girlfriend's DS.

It was then that I had the revelation that I was a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge dork. But I relish the dorkiness that is me. All in all it was worth the near freezing temperatures and constant drone of passing traffic waking me every five minutes. I was 6th in line to get my hands on a Wii and Zelda. Unfortunately I was so tired once I got home from the hour drive and twenty eight plus hours awake, that I passed out and slept for six hours. After the nap I woke and fired up the Wii. Thus began my eight day long addiction to Zelda: Twilight Princess. Now it's over and I gotta find a new fix. Hrmm, maybe I should fire up Zelda again and complete those side quests I missed. See you all in eight days!