Review: tacens mars gaming mnbc1 refrigerator base

This base includes two 160mm fans illuminated in red and rotating at 800RPM in its main zone, a switch to turn it on and off, and a pair of USB2.0 ports to receive power and connect a peripheral. The set is completed with non-slip feet that can be adjusted for two heights at the rear. Let's see how this interesting product behaves.

Technical characteristics

We refer directly to the specifications given by the manufacturer:

Tacens Mars Gaming MNBC1

It is strange to find under the subtitle Gaming products as disparate as the one we are analyzing now. I will say that personally I am not very fond of this distinction, but if there is something that is undoubted is that the games sell, and as long as neither the quality nor the price are affected, welcome.

The box uses the usual color combination of tacens in its Mars Gaming series, black and red, in more than correct packaging for the team's range, with bubble wrap inside.

The aesthetic appearance is impeccable, and the quality of materials even better than we expected, with a plastic body but a metal grill for the upper part

Detail of the rear switch and the two USB ports, of which one is used for power and the other can be used for data as if we had connected it to the laptop directly

The bottom does not clash either, we can see the model and consumption of the fans on the sticker, as well as the folding feet to regulate the height, with thus non-slip rubber in both positions

In terms of aesthetics, little can be objected, as we have anticipated, we liked the detail of the metal grille and the general quality. We understand that it is a perfect base for our laptop to support long charging periods, probably with games, giving a bit of reason to the perhaps unnecessary “gaming” label in this type of product.

Performance and noise tests

A first advantage that we find when using one of these bases is that we will no longer have problems using our laptop on soft surfaces such as sofas or beds, since most laptops include the air intake grilles at the bottom and the low cooling does not usually give coarse.

In addition, we will lower the temperatures of our components, which translates into less noise from the fans of the laptop, and in the most extreme cases, a longer useful life for them.

We must note that a cooling base should not be a substitute for periodic cleaning of the cooling of our laptop, but a complement to them. A laptop completely flooded with dust and dirt is going to have worrying temperatures no matter how much we use it with a quality refrigerator base like this.

To check the performance of this base we will use an ultrabook, specifically a Zenbook UX32VD R400, which turns out to be a model with fairly fair cooling, for mounting a dedicated graphics in such a small format as this.

Note: The temperatures shown as 100ºC above ambient in the graph represent tests in which we observe temperature throtling in some of the components, they should be treated as failed tests.

We see that the improvements are clear, and we must add that, in addition to the degrees gained with this Tacens, the processor multiplier was, on average, 1/2 points higher thanks to the improvement in cooling even at similar final temperatures, so The actual gains are bigger than it may seem, as we're gaining performance (and heat, so temperatures aren't dropping significantly) by allowing the processor to go up to a higher turbo frequency thanks to better cooling.

To measure the loudness we use the "measures" application for iOS, duly calibrated, measuring 25dB at 40cm. It is a very good value, slightly higher than that of an external hard disk, it is difficult for us to hear this base above the cooling of our laptop, except if our laptop is passive at rest and is totally stopped, which is not usually the case if we are using minimally demanding programs or games. We note that dB and dBA should not be confused, the latter being a weighted unit to give more weight to the mid frequencies, which are those that best capture the human ear. This base specifies 14dBA (+ -10%) according to the manufacturer, which is an excellent value.

WE RECOMMEND YOU MARS GAMING INTRODUCES ITS FIRST MK3 H-MECHANICAL KEYBOARD

The maximum consumption of this base is approximately 4W according to the specifications of the fan, which gives us an autonomy of 12 hours with the battery of our zenbook. Of course, a base affects the autonomy of a laptop, but we see quite good values at this point.

conclusion

Tacens has managed to take out a high-quality refrigerator base, endow it with a design that does not match in its Mars Gaming series, and also launch it at a very competitive price.

Few bad things can be said about this product. The performance is good, the sound is quite measured, and it does its job well. As a small flaw, personally I would have appreciated the option to turn off the LEDs, as much as aesthetically they are very good in night use they can be somewhat annoying. Various fan speed adjustments would also have earned him points, although as we say with the generously used fans we have a very good compromise between performance and noise.

This refrigerator base can be found around € 15 in most Spanish stores, a price difficult to miss.

We recommend the purchase of this product to any user who has purchased a laptop up to 17.3 ″ with a fair amount of cooling, or simply to those who want comfort when it comes to supporting their laptop or simply pampering its components a bit.

ADVANTAGE

	DISADVANTAGES
+ GOOD COMMITMENT BETWEEN PERFORMANCE AND NOISE, VERY LOW NOISE LEVEL AND ENOUGH GOOD FLOW	- AESTHETIC MAYBE SOMETHING AGGRESSIVE FOR MANY. THE LEDS CANNOT BE TURNED OFF WITHOUT STOPPING THE FANS
+ QUALITY MATERIALS, METALLIC GRILL ON THE PART THAT SUPPORTS THE LAPTOP	- ONLY ONE SELECTABLE SPEED
+ USB 2.0 PORT TO CONNECT A PERIPHERAL TO THE BASE, ON / OFF SWITCH
+ VERY ADJUSTED PRICE