In the limelight of SilverStone’s new Noble Breeze series, the NB02B notebook cooler shines as one of the sleekest, yet practical coolers we have seen to date. Equipped with two 50mm silent fans, and a generous array of ports that doubles as a docking station, the NB02B offers superior connectivity over its competitors.

First Impressions
Packaged in a simple, yet attractive all-black box, the cooler was wrapped in a protective plastic cover and suspended between two Styrofoam blocks. While taking the cooler out of its package, the immediate feeling of the cool and sturdy aluminum material gave a good sense of how durable the cooler was designed

Upon closer inspection, the two 50mm silent fans are skewed to the left. Air is drawn from the front of the cooler and expelled through the top metal mesh. This may cause some issues with notebooks that have intakes located near the front and middle of the undercarriage, but for notebooks with rear intakes, it would be ideal.

Build Quality
The build quality of the NB02B is phenomenal. With an exterior engineered from aluminum, there is not one bit of flex throughout the entire cooler. The bottom of the cooler is equipped with 2 strips of rubber feet that are placed along the lengths of the cooler, making it extremely resistive from slipping along any desk surface. The corners of the cooler are sharp and can be easily classified as a child safety hazard. Make sure your infant child/children doesn’t mistake the cooler as a toy building block.

Cooling Surface and Cooling System
As we briefly mentioned in the above section, the cooling surface is composed of metal mesh which in our opinion, is the perfect material we’d like to see for the contact between the notebook and cooler. The cooling system however, is less than perfect unless you have a 15” or larger notebook with intakes near the rear. For our 2 test notebooks (14” Dell Precision M2400 and 17” Asus G71G-A1), the 17” Asus proved to benefit most from the 50mm silent fans while our 14” Dell saw little to no temperature improvements. The primary reason why the Dell did not profit from the cooling system is due to the fan and vent alignment between the cooler and notebook.

The noise that the cooler emits is almost non-existent. Even in a small and quiet room, the noise of your own breathing is bound to be more audible than the cooler itself.

If there was one thing we could change, it would be reversing the direction of air flow; having air pushed through the front of the cooler and sweeping underneath the notebook would have made this cooler perfect for all sized notebooks and not just larger notebooks with intakes near the rear

The Back, The Sides and Connectivity
The Noble Breeze NB02B is supreme in the connectivity department. Boasting a total of 6 USB 2.0 ports (two on right, three in rear, one Type B in rear), 2 audio line-in and 1 audio line-out jacks, and an Ethernet jack, the substantial array of ports allows your notebook to stay connected even for gadget fanatics whom tend to have numerous devices plugged into their notebook simultaneously. Every port we tested worked as advertized, however the USB ports do provide a little wiggle room when devices are plugged in. This doesn’t affect usability, but given the overall superior build quality, it would be nice to see the same quality extend to the USB ports as well.

One feature to note is that the cooler came with a USB Type A-Type B cable. This cable will allow your notebook to communicate with the cooler and must be plugged in if you wish to use the audio and Ethernet ports on the device. Another interesting feature (and not mentioned in the instructions manual) is that all 5 of the USB Type A ports will allow the cooler to operate without an AC adapter. This is great for those whom need to lug the cooler during trips without having to worry about the taking up extra space and the additional weight the AC adapter might

Benchmarks

Notebook 1: Dell Precision M2400 (14.1")

Notebook 2: Asus G71G-A1 (17.1")

Portability 
Although the NB02B is a tad bulky in shape, the cooler should fit in most 15” or larger notebook carrying bags and great for road warriors whom need the extra gust of air to help with their over-worked notebook cool to a more reasonable temperature. Tipping the scale at 3.74lbs (slightly heavier than a netbook), the weight is relatively reasonable to be carried around.

Conclusion In terms of functionality and build quality, SilverStone’s Noble Breeze NB02B represents a step beyond most coolers. Cooling efficiency will vary depending on your notebook intake placement and size. With a street price of $99, the NB02B is reasonably priced for an integrated cooler/docking station and extremely office friendly due to its small footprint and expansion capabilities.