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RiscX POLL:
What the heck is that!?
Breeze Maxx fan from PCToys looks totally kewl while keeping you and your desktop cool.
What the heck is that, what does it do, what's it for? Those are just a few of the first reactions I have got after letting selected visitors into my nerds-nest and allowing them glimpses of my enshrined puter altar. Well, quite simply the kewl looking, blue glowing thingamagiggy is the "Breeze Maxx," a cool looking Quad LED personal cooling fan by PCtoys. If your not familiar with PCToys they provide leading edge components, modifications, performance upgrades and aesthetic enhancements to your PC, and Mac.
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GETTING IT
The shipment arrived from PCToys in a few days via UPS, no visible signs of damage ;-) The box it shipped in was nicely filled to the brim with all the styrofoam popcorn you could shake a fist at. The individual product packing was nice too with indented plastic fasteners that let me open the package without resorting to an industrial blowtorch, i.e. grab edges, pull, pop, package open.
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SETTING IT UP
The content of the package contained the unit and a clear/silver five-foot long USB cable. The unit itself is a little larger than the palm of your hand. Setting up the Breeze Maxx fan was a relatively simple feat. I plugged in the included USB cable to the units USB port and the other end to my USB port on my keyboard, moved the switch on the fan unit from "OFF" to "USB" and voila! Nice! A cool blue light and a soft, gentle breeze blowin' on my sweaty digits. The unit's Quad blue LEDs light up the clear fan blades and provide a cool blue glow. There is a total of five blue LEDs altogether if you count the units power indicator light. The top of the fan has 3 grooves allowing the top outer-case to insert a flat peg which gives you 3 different angles of air flow. A red push button on the front of the unit lets you select from two fan speeds, slow or fast. The noise level doesn't really increase going from slow to fast, I did however notice a slight increase in LED brightness going to the "FAST" setting.
The Breeze Maxx fan also gives you the option of being totally free of cords/cables by allowing you to power the unit with four AAA batteries (not included). Un-clip the bottom of the base, pop in yer energizers or copper-tops, change switch selection to "Batteries" and you're free to place it anywhere your fan lovin' heart desires.
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USING IT
I have used a couple of "desktop" fans it the past and they have either been too big, cumbersome or just too noisy. The Breeze Maxx is none of these, it's very quiet, almost silent, and the self-contained flat base allows you to put it anywhere on your flat desktop, or monitor if you so like. The Breeze Maxx won't blow your socks off either; it simply provides a soft gentle breeze, which I tend to prefer while computing away.
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WHAT I LIKED
It looks too kewl, it's useful and it's not ridiculously expensive. I also liked that it's built in its own travel case making it easy to lug around from home to work to LAN parties. and besides its coolness factor it serves a useful purpose giving it even more geek value. It's extremely quiet
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WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
It doesn't produce a really strong breeze, which maybe be a good point depending on your particular air flow requirements.
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out of 5
OVERALL/SUGGESTIONS
I Likes this desktop geek fan just fine. A few suggestions, an extra USB port would have been nice and a third setting which would produce gentle gale force winds on my desktop would be a good addition. Also a illuminated power switch would be sweet along with a few choices of changing the fan illuminating LED color, like red, green, etc. One last suggestion would be a compartment in the main unit to store the included USB cable, nothing major though, just an idea.
LAST WORD
Spicoli: Hey bud! All I need are some tasty bits, a cool Breeze Maxx fan, and i'm fine.
E-mail Riscx
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