MaximumPC 2007 02

A

sus has solved one of the most common problems download junkies

face: By marrying a Wi-Fi router with a hard drive and built-in BitTorrent

client, the company has eliminated the need for you to leave your power-

hungry PC running 24/7.

Asus doesn’t limit you to BitTorrent, of course; the device is capable of

using ftp or http for file transfers, too. It’s also a decent solution for anyone

interested in hosting their own website, blog, or online photo album. But with

the wide availability of free solutions for the latter, peer-to-peer file sharing is

this router’s obvious raison d’être.

It’s equally obvious, however, that Asus didn’t spend much time design-

ing the client software—optimistically called Download Master—which

comes preloaded on the router’s 160GB PATA hard drive: The user interface is

crude and there’s virtually no documentation. It’s easy enough to figure out if

you know the basics, but green-peas will be lost.

Asus’s Photo Album Exporter is only slightly more refined: It allows

you to create a crude online photo site by transferring digital photos from

your PC or a USB memory key onto the router’s hard drive. Once there, you

can add captions and then organize the images into albums. You can’t add

borders or anything else, but the software does automatically rotate and

resize every photo. In fact, you don’t need to fire up your PC to transfer

files from a USB thumb drive, either—plug a thumb drive into one of the

router’s three USB ports, push a button, and the router automatically sucks

up the drive’s contents. Upgrading the router’s built-in hard drive voids the

product’s two-year warranty, but you can plug in a USB drive or two to cre-

ate a rudimentary array.

As a router and wireless access point, the WL-700gE is a solid, no-non-

sense part. Asus shunned the shifting sands of Draft 802.11n in favor of the

more predictable performance of 802.11g, and it installed a staid four-port

10/100Mb/s switch in the back instead of a sexier gigabit switch. One thing

the WL-700gE is not is cheap: At press time, we found it street

priced at $235.

—Michael Brown

Asus WL-700gE Wireless

Storage Router

All that and a built-in BitTorrent client, too!

A

round this time last year, we were able to get our hands on the predecessor

to Zalman’s CNPS9700 LED CPU cooler—cleverly titled the CNPS9500. The

blooming, copper-finned device not only rocked our socks off but also beauti-

fully cooled them as they went sailing through the air. Kick ass, indeed.

It comes as no surprise that the 9700—more than 200... well, some-

things... greater than last year’s model—is just as noteworthy a cooling unit.

Installing the device is a breeze. For AMD folk, the 9700 clamps right on to

your chip’s stock mounting bracket. Intel lovers have to mess with back plates

and clip supports, which will necessitate a motherboard removal, but the instal-

lation isn’t any more difficult than it is with similar products. The only potential

pitfall is in airflow direction. Make sure that the 2,800rpm blue LED-lit fan is

pushing your case’s air in the correct direction and you’ll be OK.

Said fan is moderately loud at its top setting, which is the default speed

if you plug the 9700 directly into a motherboard. But Zalman must care about

your ears because the company includes

a fan-speed-adjuster knob in the box.

While the knob will look goofy if you

tape it to the side of

your case, at least you

won’t go deaf.

We cranked the

fan to the max during

testing, and go figure:

The 9700 performed flawlessly, showing a slight improvement over its prede-

cessor’s cooling marks. Even at its lowest setting, the 9700 delivered accept-

able cooling on our Athlon FX-60-equipped test bed. Our only, ever-so-slight,

hesitation with the 9700 comes from the sheer size of the device; it’s almost

twice as heavy as the maximum cooler weight that Intel and AMD specify.

But really, that’s an almost meaningless consideration for someone

who just wants a cooler CPU. And in that sense, the 9700 fulfills the prime

criteria for a CPU cooler—it’s easy to use and works great, with

the added bonus of looking

“cool” while doing so.

—DaVe MUrPhY

Zalman CNPS9700 LED

Baby, it’s definitely cold inside

74 MAXIMUMPC february 2007

reviews Tes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized

zalman cnps9700 led

7

asus wl-700ge router

$235, http://www.asus.com

$80, http://www.zalmanusa.com

asus’s wl-

700ge is a

wireless router,

but it can

function as a

wireless print

server and

BitTorrent

client, too.

it’s hella big and

can get hella

loud, but the

cnPS9700 will

cool your cPU

better than a

“hot” spring on

hoth.

10

MAXIMUMPC

KICKASS

stock cooler zalman cnps9700

benchMarkS

Idle (C) 29.5 20

100% load (C) 53.5   39.5

Idle temperatures were measured after 30 minutes of inactivity, and full-load temps

were measured after running CPU Burn-in for one hour.