MaximumPC 2006 06

W

e’ve long been fans of Slim Devices’ audio-streaming boxes, having

praised both the Squeezebox 1 and 2 with Kick Ass awards. So we

won’t keep you in suspense: We can find no reason not to do the same for the

Squeezebox 3.

The guts are basically the same as the previous-generation box, but they’re

packaged in an elegant brushed-aluminum and black-plastic housing. The gray

lens over the 320x32 vacuum fluorescent display renders the text an attractive

aqua color, which is even more legible than the Squeezebox 2’s green text.

And both antennas on the 802.11g wireless version we reviewed are discretely

hidden inside the case. Both the wired and wireless models are equipped

with 100Mb/s Ethernet ports; and the wireless model can operate as a bridge,

enabling Wi-Fi access for other non-wireless Ethernet devices.

On the software front, Slim Devices has added Pandora to its

SqueezeNetwork. Pandora’s interactive online music service analyzes the

artists you like and then automatically plays other music that exhibits similar

characteristics. When we told Pandora to create a radio station based on folk

singer Guy Clark, for instance, it offered up songs from Clark contemporaries

Doc Watson and Townes Van Zandt. No surprises there, but we had to give a

thumbs-down to its recommendations of mainstream country crooners Clint

Black and Randy Travis. Pandora then responded by streaming songs from Son

Volt, Caroline Herring, and several other acts we weren’t familiar with, but that

we really enjoyed—widening our musical horizons in the process. (Pandora is

free for 90 days; a one-year subscription costs $36.)

The Squeezebox 3 uses the same sweet-sounding 24-bit Brown-Burr

DAC as the Squeezebox 2, and it offers both analog (RCA) and digital (optical

and coax) outputs. Support for WPA Personal and WPA2-AES encryption sets

it apart from most competing products, which limit your wireless network to

the less-secure WEP. We’d like the Squeezebox 3 even more if it supported

subscription music services like Rhapsody natively (there’s a third-party plu-

gin, but it hasn’t worked in a year), but it offers so many other features and

it sounds so delicious that its

one major shortcoming ends up

being pretty minor.

—MICHAEL BROWN

Squeezebox 3

It just keeps getting better

W

e all know that water-cooling delivers more cooling power to the CPU

than air-cooling does, but even water-cooling has an Achilles’ heel. It

can’t achieve temperatures below the ambient room temperature. The Coolit

Freezone gets around this limitation by using six thermoelectric coolers (TEC),

aka Peltier coolers, to chill the water to below room temps. It’s a fantastic idea,

and it seems like the best CPU cooler ever made, on paper. In practice, how-

ever, it’s not quite as awesome as we expected.

The factory-sealed unit is similar to Cooler Master’s Aquagate Mini. It

features a water block that connects to a combination TEC/reservoir/pump.

TEC’s have a hot side and a cold side. The cold side of the TEC chills the

water, and a 9.2cm fan keeps the hot side cool and serves as the unit’s

mounting point. The unit attaches to either a 12cm or 9.2cm fan mount—it’s

not compatible with cases that have only 8cm mounts. Motherboard removal

is required for LGA775 CPUs, but not for AMD boards (as long as the AMD

backplate stays put once you remove the retention bracket). The full-color

instructions are exceptional and easy to follow.

During testing, the Freezone delivered

the lowest temps we’ve ever achieved,

albeit with considerable noise from the

unit’s 9.2cm fan. Its idle

temp of 21 C exactly

matched the ambient tem-

perature of the Lab, and

its load temp shot up to 36

C. Its full-load temp and

overclocking performance

(235MHz) are on par with that achieved by Swiftech’s Apex Ultra (reviewed April

2006)—the current king of our water-cooling benchmarks.

But here’s the rub: A temperature delta of 15 C is good, but not impressive

(the Apex Ultra boasted a 7 C delta). And what’s more, the unit is loud at full-tilt,

pumping out 37dBA. You can set it to “quiet” mode, but then temps skyrocket,

reaching 57 C under full load. Coolit recommends you set the fan speed

somewhere between the two extremes, which we did, but the fan was always

audible. It also consumes around 70W of power.

The Freezone is an intriguing product and it works as advertised, but

as a CPU-only cooler it’s very expensive at $400, a bit noisy, and a

smidge underwhelming.

—JOSH NOREM

Coolit Freezone

An interesting concept that falls short

0 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2006

reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED

The Freezone looks like a standard water-cooler, but eschews

a traditional radiator in favor of six thermoelectric coolers

that help chill the water.

7

COOLIT FREEZONE

$400, http://www.coolitsystems.com

SQUEEZEBOX 3

$300 ( wired: $250),

http://www.slimdevices.com

9

MA XIMUMPC

KICKASS

The Squeezebox 3 offers all the same audio-streaming goodness

of the Squeezebox 2, but in a sleek, sexy new package.

BENCHMARKS

COOLIT SWIFTECH STOCK HF

IDLE (C) 21 29 40

100% LOAD (C) 36 36 54

Best scores are bolded. All temperatures were measured via the onboard sensors, using the utilities provided by the motherboard manufacturer. Idle

temperatures were measured after 30 minutes of inactivity and full-load temps were achieved running CPU Burn-in for one hour.