The Chill Vent is shipped in a very sturdy cardboard box and all the contents were in good shape after travelling the long distance between his place and my doorstep, here in Belgium. What you find inside the box depends on what you ordered. The one thing which will be in there every time around is the Chill Vent unit itself which comes in 2 colours, blue and in see-through clear plastic, which really comes into its own when used with a LED-fan.
The Chill Vent with extra mounting piecesThe Chill Vent’s basic model will set you back $18.99 while the most expensive Chill Vent II “Ultra” is priced at $33.99. Between these two extremes the user is given wide variety of choices which boil down to the amount of fans you want included, a full list can be found
here. We received the Deluxe version which includes 1x80mm and 2x40mm fans.
The fans installedThe whole concept of the Chill Vent is to offer you a CPU/GPU cooling upgrade without installation hassle or high expense; by guiding cool air from the bottom of the case to your heatsink’s fan it can easily and efficiently drop the overall load and idle temperatures.
The included fans are relabelled, and are quite silent but move only a limited amount of air, pictured here is a close-up of the 80mm fanSince not every case is the same, you will have to modify the plastic duct to make it ideal for your specific case layout. This is done by removing some parts of the Vent which are marked by V-notched lines. This allows you to cut corners and open up the duct to allow more fresh air to enter. The use of knife and scissors to adapt the Chill Vent make the changes quite definitive, and it will probably be the most “daring” aspect of the whole installation.
The included manual outlines the needed steps without any illustration, as this kit is aimed at the hardware beginners; you might end up guessing “what goes where”. Although anybody who is able to read and comprehend the following quote, which comes straight from the manual, will have no problems:
The square opening of the Fan Duct measures 94mm x 94mm should accommodate the largest typical CPU Fan/heatsink with exception of Zalman Type Heatsink.
1) Remove all connections from the back of the computer.
2) Lay the computer down with the left panel facing upward.
3) Remove the securing screws and remove the side panel.
4) With CPU fan facing upward, install the fan duct bottom first and with the top “square” over the CPU fan.
5) For Intel P4 stock HSF the fan duct should be a bit below the stock fan and requires a slight pressure for proper seating. (Make sure the two levers clear through into the fan duct)
6) Install the bracket hanger onto the edge of the upper square.
7) Adjust the length and trim the bracket to proper length.
8) Use the Velcro tape supplied to secure the bracket onto the Power Supply side.
9) Install the lower brackets using the double sided taped.
10) Connect the 4-pin fan connector.
11) Final check to ensure proper alignment of Fan duct to CPU Fan.
12) Re-connect all connections, with panel still open and computer upright turn on the computer to ensure the system is in good running order.
13) Power down and re-install side panel.
14) Restart computer.
All this can be done in 10-15 minutes, depending on how much “trimming” there is to be done.
and now a picture of a birdie...
There you go, time to start up the first test system ->
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