Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler Review
By Bones (Ed T. Toton III)
September 23, 2002
(Review unit not supplied; purchased for use)
OVERVIEW
This will be a short review since there's not much to say about
such a simple product. :)
This device is pretty much what the name implies. It's a hard
drive cooler, and a damn good one at that. You won't find another
one on the market (that we've seen) that uses a spring-retention
system to ensure positive contact between the drive and heatsink.
Most inexpensive drive-bay cooler units are nothing more than
hard-drive brackets with fans at the front. Often those fans are
loosely mounted, and can begin to vibrate and rattle over time.
The twin Evercools on this thing are tightly bolted to the heatsink,
and are thus unlikely to ever move on you, keeping the unit quiet
and cool.
The only drawbacks are a relatively plain grill for the front (not
shown in the picture on the right), and the lack of a temperature monitor. For
this reason, it may have been ousted by a new Antec product that
has both a more stylized faceplate, and also an LED display twin-channel
temperature monitor, and sells for a similar price, which we will review in
another article. However, considering the unique spring-system this device
has, the "Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler" could be exactly that for it's price.
Features/Specifications:
- Two 40x40x20mm Evercool fans (0.07 Amps, 0.84 Watts, 13 CFM)
- Spring-loaded blue-annodized aluminum heat sink
Pros:
- Springs hold hitsink firmly in place
- Large aluminum heatsink for good heat dissipation
- Reasonably powerful small fans
Cons:
- No temperature monitoring (if that's what you're looking
for, though not really a "con" as such)
- No dust-filter (some newer ones do have this feature, the one
reviewed was older and did not)
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