CyberPowerPC's New Gaming Laptops Are Ready To Chill With An External Liquid Cooler
CyberPowerPC is refreshing its Tracer gaming laptop line with its upgraded Tracer VIII series, and once again buyers can optionally choose to pick up a detachable liquid cooling setup to keep temps at bay. It won't set you back a ton of cash, either, though buyers will have to decide if the added cooling is worth the up-charge, as that money could be spent on core hardware upgrades. More on that in a moment.
There are three main tiers to the Tracer VIII series, including the 17.4-inch (2560x1600, 240Hz) Tracer VIII Edge, 16-inch (2560x1600, 240Hz, 100% sRGB) Tracer VIII Gaming, and Tracer VIII Ultra that's available in a 16-inch (2560x1600, 165Hz, 100% sRGB) or 15.3-inch (2560x1600, 120Hz, 100% sRGB) form factor. CyberPowerPC pitches the Ultra as giving gamers "the best of the Edge and Gaming models," but oddly enough it's not available with a 17.4-inch display like the Edge.
What the company is referring to is the combination of Intel's 14th Gen mobile processors and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs, also in mobile form. Specs and pricing vary by configuration, with CyberPowerPC saying that base pricing starts at $1,999. However, we spotted a config (Tracer VIII Edge I17E 100) that starts at $1,885.
That setup includes an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor (24C/32T, up to 5.8GHz, 36MB L3 cache) paired with 16GB (2x8GB) of DDR5-4800 memory, along with a GeForce RTX 4070 8GB GPU, and a 500GB Kingston SNV25 PCIe Gen4 solid state drive. It also features Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, a mechanical keyboard with RGB backlighting, a 4-cell battery, and Windows 11.
The most expensive starting configuration we found was the Tracer VIII Edge I17E LC 500. It features the same CPU, but upgrades the graphics chip to a GeForce RTX 4090, doubles the RAM to 32GB (2x16GB), and quadruples the storage to a 2GB Adata Legend 800 Gold series SSD.
Circling back to the external liquid cooling box, it's a $149 add-on, which we feel is pretty reasonable. It consists of a reservoir tank with soft tubing and a quick connect system. It's an interesting accessory for anyone who might want to use their laptop as both a desktop replacement and a mobile workhorse—attach the cooler when at home and detach it when traveling for work or vacation.
That said, there's no mention of how temps compare to the stock air cooling setup. In theory, it should lower temps and help stave off throttling for longer periods of time, but without hands-on testing, we can't say for sure. It's also worth noting that the external liquid cooler is available on select models, including the Tracer VIII Edge I17E LC, Tracer VIII Gaming I16G LC, and Tracer VIII Ultra I16U LC
We've only seen renders, but based on those, the contraption looks similar to the one that XMG debuted with its Neo 15 gaming laptop a few years ago, albeit an updated version. According to CyberPowerPC, it activates via magnets, while "removing the connector will automatically trigger the valve to close and prevent leakage." The company says it's easy to use even for first timers.
If you're interested, you can head over to the Tracer VIII landing page to spec out a system, with or without the external liquid cooler.
