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Havit HV-F2068
What we like
What we don't like
Havit HV-F2068
HAVIT isn’t the biggest name in PC gaming or in PC peripherals in general. However, we would bet our bottom dollar you’ve seen the company listed on Amazon every time you search for a laptop cooler. The flashy aesthetic and lights draw the eyes in. Additionally, the promise of five fans seems like overkill. Luckily, the HAVIT HV-F2068 mostly delivers on its promises. Here is our full review.
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What is the HAVIT HV-F2068?
The left side of the device contains two USB ports and the fan control slider. You need one of the USB ports to plug the cooler into your laptop, while the other functions as the USB pass-through. The cooler comes with a braided USB cable to connect it to your laptop. Next to those is a control wheel for your fan speeds. The wheel is red or blue depending on your light color choices. The lighting gets brighter as you increase fan speed with the wheel. Unfortunately, you cannot turn off the lights without also turning off the fans.
The HAVIT HV-F2068 obviously caters mostly to gamers, but the power user features and wide compatibility make it good for most people.
Underneath the device rest two feet that you can pop out to tilt the cooler. The feet give the cooler two tilt options: flat and elevated. The tilt isn’t too aggressive, and I had no discomfort while using my laptop with it. It easily fits my 17.3-inch machine with only a bit of overhang on the back. It should fit most 17-inch laptops.
The design is actually quite good but is subject to individual preferences. Some folks may feel uncomfortable using this in a professional setting. Gamers, on the other hand, should feel right at home. The cooler’s fans comprise of four 85mm fans in the top and bottom corners with a 110mm fan in the center. HAVIT claims the fans push out a maximum of 65 CFM of air. That’s above average.
How to set up and use the HAVIT HV-F2068?
How well does the HAVIT HV-F2068 perform?
We ran a total of four tests with the HAVIT HV-F2068 Plus:
- BIOS test — The BIOS is often very poorly optimized. We see if the cooler can keep up with it.
- Windows 10 idle — Once the laptop is fully booted, we test the cooler to see if it affects idle temperatures and leave it on idle for ten minutes to ensure it can hold those temperatures.
- CPU stress test — We use Intel XTU’s native stress test because we can easily identify things like temperature, whether or not it thermal throttled or power throttled, and the average CPU clock speed. We ran the test for ten minutes.
- One game of Halo Wars 2 — Halo Wars 2 is a surprisingly heavy game and, on my ASUS ROG G731GW, temps often spike up to the mid-90C range with GPU temps reading the mid-80C range. It’s a good benchmark for a heavy game on a powerful gaming machine.
- Something to note — During the explanations below I often refer to power throttling and thermal throttling. Thermal throttling is the laptop forcibly lowering CPU speeds to cool itself down. Power throttling limits the CPU to its base TDP and prevents it from drawing extra (boost) power. We expect laptop coolers to prevent thermal throttling at least.
The laptop was set to Windows Balanced for all tests with no modifications. The laptop cooler was at its maximum setting for the highest amount of cooling. The temperatures were recorded and double-checked with HWMonitor, ASUS Armoury Crate, and Intel XTU.
Without further delay, here are the results of the tests.
| Test | CPU temp | GPU temp | Fan speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test BIOS test without cooler | CPU temp 50 | GPU temp NA | Fan speed 2800RPM | |
| Test Idle in Windows 10 without cooler | CPU temp 45C | GPU temp 39C | Fan speed 2400RPM | |
| Test CPU stress test via Intel XTU without cooler | CPU temp 85C | GPU temp 42C | Fan speed 6400RPM (max) | Power throttle after 60 seconds, thermal throttle after 90 seconds. Throttled CPU speed was 3.2Ghz |
| Test One game of Halo Wars 2 without cooler | CPU temp 90C | GPU temp 80C | Fan speed 6400RPM (max) | CPU temp spikes up to 96C, GPU spikes up to 84C |
| Test BIOS test with cooler | CPU temp 49C | GPU temp NA | Fan speed 2800RPM | |
| Test Idle in Windows 10 with cooler | CPU temp 39-41C | GPU temp 36C | Fan speed 0-2400RPM | Laptop fans turn off when under 40C, causing temps to rebound to 41C |
| Test CPU stress test via Intel XTU with cooler | CPU temp 79C | GPU temp 46C | Fan speed 5400RPM | Power throttle after 90 seconds. No thermal throttle detected. Throttled CPU speed of 3.6-3.9Ghz |
| Test One game of Halo Wars 2 | CPU temp 84C | GPU temp 77C | Fan speed 6400RPM (max) | CPU temp spikes up to 93C, GPU to up 78C |
The HAVIT HV-F2068 had a decent showing in terms of thermals. It cooled my laptop to a point where the laptop turned off its fans, but couldn’t hold it there on its own. The CPU stress test and Halo Wars 2 test both showed changes of 6C in CPU, much lower CPU temp spikes, and lower GPU temps overall.
Laptops generally take extra thermal headroom and use it to run itself even harder. This is readily apparent in the CPU stress test where the temperatures were 6C different, but the CPU clock speed remained 0.4-0.7Ghz higher without thermal throttling. Additionally, the fan speeds didn’t max out as they did without the cooler, resulting in a quieter experience. The Halo Wars 2 temperature spikes for the CPU were concerning, but the cooler did a nice job holding GPU temperatures in check. The cooler does, in fact, work.
What I liked about the HAVIT HV-F2068
- The five fan setup provides adequate cooling. It should hit most laptop intake vents, and the cooler fits my 17-inch laptop without concern.
- USB pass-through, tilt option, and fan controls cater to power users.
- The braided USB cable, fan control wheel, and lights are all the same color. It’s not much but we like the small touches.
- Simple to use without any weird or complex instructions.
What I didn’t like about the HAVIT HV-F2068
- The aggressive plastic design and lighting cater to a specific crowd. At the very least we would’ve liked to turn the lights off without disengaging the fans. Thankfully, the lights honestly aren’t all that bright. 15-inch and larger laptops will cover them completely.
- Red and blue are the only options for light and accent colors. An RGB option would modernize the product tremendously.
- USB pass-through is only USB 2.0 and that limits its usefulness.
Is the HAVIT HV-F2068 good?
Read next: The best laptops you can buy in 2020
There are some quirks aside from the design, however. Thin laptops may be too short for the front lip and portability is a bit of a question mark depending on your backpack size. Still, for the price, the compromises are more than reasonable. Who cares if people in your office think blue or red lights are juvenile? It’s a safe recommendation and it should work fine for most people.