Antec SpotCool System Cooler

Cooling has always been an issue and I could just never put a fan in the right place. Besides, no one can easily put an 80mm fan or have it hover above your memory modules. Many have tried starting of with the Zalman Fan Bracket series. Believe me, that was a great solution and being able to adjust your fan here and there is a key selling point, unfortunately, you just couldn't bend it or have it reach in those hard to reach areas. Fortunately for us someone came up with a novel solution to get cooling into those places and more. The company is Antec and today they present Antec Spot Cool. No need for explanations really as the function is self-explanatory; it's quite easy to imagine what it actually does but what it actually looks like is anybody's guess.Packaging:It weighs around 0.7lbs (310grams) encased in a solid plastic shell. A thin cardboard with the product name and model some sandwiched in between and a small manual. Nothing really fancy but what is inside is what matters most.The Merchandise:Well, the best way I can tell you what it looks like is a mechanical lollipop with a fan attached on the end instead of hardened candy, if you guys still don't get it, think of Sherlock Holmes and his magnifying glasses. The fan at the end can rotate like a gyroscope; on the other end is a strong base where you can attach a screw (included) to your motherboard mount holes or even the PCI slot mount hole. But it doesn't end there, the beauty of it is in the stick mount, it bends so it can be locked at the base and bent to reach your memory, motherboard and even chipset heat sinks.The product itself is made of durable plastic, the fan and casing it is in with the stick mount made of some metal alloy that can bend and lock into place. On the fan shell is a switch for 3 settings, Low (1800RPM), Medium (2500RPM) and High (3000RPM). The last thing about this product is the blue LED emanating when powered on. There are a total of four LEDs shining in a cross configuration. 3-Pin power cable is attached to the fan where fan speed can be detected by your motherboard.There really isn't much to explain how it is used. Operation is quite simple. Screw it your desired mount, bend the stick mount and point it to those hot spots, or vice versa. (I suggest you do the later to avoid damaging you motherboard as some force is required) Rotate the gyroscopic fan a bit and fine tune your cooling (I call it spotting) and set your desired speed. Power on and enjoy. I had my motherboard heating up to 45C on normal operations; it cooled it down to 36C and decreased my processor temp by 2C. You just need to point it at the right spot, I had mine installed where the fan was cooling my memory modules, motherboard and some part of the base of the heatsink. You can apply this even on your video card and Northbridge / Southbridge heatsinks. Finally someone listened up and designed something a little bit more flexible (pun intended).Recommendations:It is really hard to find something faulty about the Spot Cool. It does the job well. Unfortunately, since it is a new product, it does cost a bit. I got mine for 16USD including shipping but now the unit itself costs 11USD to 16USD alone. It definitely will be a popular item for enthusiasts and people looking for great aftermarket cooling solutions. It won't outperform a NB/SB heatsink with a fan (Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II) but the fact that it can do so much more is something you can consider. The stick mount unfortunately is not as "bendy" as one would expect and sometimes may recoil back to its original posture, so you may need to fix it in place. The fan is also generally quiet, low produces an inaudible hum, but moving it to medium or high produces a humming noise. It isn't irritating but those who are intolerable of loud fans would notice it at these settings. Another issue is for people with really big aftermarket coolers, it may take a little bit of placing and bending to get things right, I really can't say it would be a motherboard issue but with so many mounting holes all over, I doubt that your creativity will get the better of you. Finally, "spotting" is important so that it can cool as many PC parts as possible.Uppers:* Flexible and bending stick mount* Can be attached anywhere inside your PC, cool those hard to reach places, can cool your video cards, chipsets, motherboards and memory modules* Gyroscope-like fan* Three speed controller* Circulates air and really does cool them spotsDowners:* Stick mount is not as flexible as it seems* Fan power cable can ruin aesthetic design of a very clean case* Humming noise on medium and high settings* May cause some problems with big HSF and long video cardsWishlist:* Making stick mount more flexible* Make the fan power cable "invisible"Alternatives:* Zalman FB123* Tweakmonster Dual 80mm Fan Bracket

My North Bridge fan burnt out a while back and when the NB heats up, you best be sure, your PC will not be happy. Thankfully, my unit shuts off when the chip reaches a certain temp. So last year, after this nightmare, I purchased a simple fan to replace the heat sink. It turned out to be great -- I got another 6 months of a happy PC and then it happened... the little fan I piggybacked to the NB chip died out -- resulting in same over heating scenario as the above mentioned. Since the fan was cheap enough, I decided to purchase another. A few months passed and now the newer fan began to spin down and occasionally stop. I actually had to manually start it up with my finger by giving it a quick few spins. So once again, my NB would heat up when the fan decided to take a break.After the grief, I opted for this Antec Spot Cool, however, I decided to leave the previous fan connected since the majority of times, it would hold a spin . Well, it's been two weeks and I've had no problems with my PC so far. The fan was simple to install, however, the "pose-able" arm is pretty weak and won't retain its position without a fidgety fight. I finally got it to stay put and it's been perfect since. The Antec SpotCool is no big blast of wind. Still, the back up plan worked. I have it aimed at the NB in case the crappy one ...crap's out. Very satisfied, and the blue light helps me see if the thing is spinning!Oh, make sure your motherboard has the pins for a spare fan (this one uses 3 pins)!

Bought 2 of these to try and offset the temperature discrepancy between my two video cards running SLI. Naturally, the top card gets more load, and less airflow, there being hardly any space between the two cards. I positioned one of these fans on the far-right center motherboard screw and pivoted it such that it was in front (relative to the front of the case) of my top GPU, blowing into the gap between the two cards and slightly on the top card. What a difference it made...I went from getting 78-80C on the top card to maxing out at 70C during a Witcher 3 session.Somethings to note about issues I encountered and additional tweaks I made:1) The mobo screw will come loose while you are adjusting it if you screwed it on first, this is why you must do the bending of the arm you want prior to installing it. Once you have the bending down, secure it to the motherboard with the screw and tighten it as much as you can. Either that, or put the screw in, then expect to re-tighten once you're done.2) Use a cable tie to tightly secure the arm to a cable if you feel paranoid.3) I loosened the nut that fastens the mobo screw holder to the arm so I could reposition it slightly, allowing myself for a better angle, then re-tightened it.

To be Fair, this is better suited to a case with poor airflow. I have a full tower corsair 600t, and airflow is already very good. This didn't really drop temps off vrms even when right over them. Noisier than my case fans at lowest setting and unbearable at highest. Biggest issue for me was the stupid LEDs cannot be turned off. I have a windowed case with a very well planned out lighting scheme using a NZXT Hue RGB LED controller. This almost bleached them out.May be fine for some if you can bear with noise and dont mind the LEDs. I would look for someway to mount a standard 120mm fan first though

I use this cooler for my LSI MegaRAID 9271-8i controller. It is an enterprise grade controller and requires cooling as it only has a heatsink. The card on its own reaches about 90C. After removing the thermal paste from the heatsink and applying Arctic Cooling MX4 thermal paste, the spot cooling at medium fan speed dropped the controller temperature to 56C, and that is great.This is the second time I purchased this fan. The first one did not last for more than 7 months, as it was constantly running I guess.

I've never had this permanently installed but it's an incredibly useful thing to have if you do a lot of system building. It's a bit restricted in how you can angle it (don't expect to get 90 degree bends out of it) but as long as you're creative with where you mount the foot of it you can generally point it at most parts of your computer's internal workings.Build if good, the stalk is strong and stays where you point it, fan is not silent, if you're aiming for a very quiet rig this will disrupt things, but it's not a particularly noisy fan either.

Really surprised at just how great this fan is, surprisingly large and generates a lot of cooling, the screw base is a rather strange design as it bends outwards, only some screws on my motherboard aren't surrounded by ports and wires that would block it. I would have given it 5 stars if only one could disable the LED's which at best are just a power drain.

Decent spot cooling solution, Will need to use a cable tie or 2, depending on what position/angle you want to achieve.