Hard Drive Cooling System
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Today we have the Antec HD Cooling System in the OCA labs for review. A rather controversial piece of hardware from the outset, as most folks believe with proper air flow in your case, you can achieve optimum cooling of your hard drive without additional devices.
| Company: Antec Inc.
Product: HD Cooling System
Price: $29.95
Availability: Now
Written by: Mack "SPeeD" Littleton
Reviewed: September, 2002 |
The Antec HD Cooling System is billed as more than your standard HD cooler, it is also a monitoring device as well. Keeping track of both HD temperatures and another item of your choice, such as case temp, GPU temp, etc with the 2 provided thermal probes.
Overview: Upon first inspection of this piece of hardware, it appears that Antec really has a high performance product on their hands. The unit comes complete with 2 relatively beefy looking 40mm fans capable of speeds of 3500rpm and 5000rpm. A filter unit to block unwanted particles from being sucked into your case. And also an excellent digital readout that gives you temperatures of both probes in either Celsius or Fahrenheit. Lets checkout a few pics of the item.
The packaging is adequate for a product of this sort, and instructions are on the paper wrapper inside of the clear plastic box. The unit also comes with mounting screws and small bits of tape for applying the thermal probes to their respective hot points, although they are small and rather weak so you may want to use a thick strip of electrical tape instead. The 40mm fans are of the larger sort, which makes you think Antec was careful about which ones to include with the cooling system. On the last pic above you see the unit from the top. Very reminiscent of car stereo amplifiers which are constructed in such a way as to passively dissipate heat from their internal components. Lets checkout a few more pics before we move on to installation.
Here are a few pics with the faceplate taken off. You can see the 2 40mm fans with the dust screen. You can also see the switch which makes it easy to swap from Fahrenheit to Celsius.
Another cool aspect of the unit is it's ability to sense heat and adjust fan speed to compensate for the added heat. At °30C the fans switch on at their lowest rpm and their speed increases by °5C increments until they reach their top speed at °45C. This is not adjustable however.
Specs: Here are the specifications from the manufacturer
Special Features: | | | - Aluminum heatsink for maximum heat dispersion | | - Two built-in temperature sensors to monitor hard drive & case | | temperatures | | - Celsius or Fahrenheit LED display | | - Built-in EMI shielding to meet stringent industrial standard | | - Supports IDE or SCSI high speed hard drives |
Specifications: Size:
Weight:
Material:
Fan:
Fan Speed:
Display:
| 7.25" x 5.86" x 1.65"
600g / 1.32lbs.
Aluminum alloy (6061) heatsink
ABS 94V0 fireproof front panel
Two 40 x 40 x 25mm fans
3500 RPM at 30°C (86°F)
5000 RPM at 45°C (113°F) 0°C (32°F) ~ 70°C (158°F) +/-3%
70°C (158°F) ~ 90°C (194°F) +/-6%
LED blinks if temperature >45°C (113°F)
Sensor indicators switch every 5 sec.
to indicate 2 different temperatures
monitored by each sensor. |
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Installation: Installation was a snap. All you have to do is lay the HD down into the Antec HD cooler, screw in 4 screws and push it into an available 5 1/4" slot. Of course you'll want to have attached the short temp probe to the HD chip and you can place the long one in a spot of your choice. You'll also need to connect the 4pin molex to a PSU lead in order to get power to your fans and the monitoring unit. One of the cooler things is that Antec incorporated both fans and the digital readout into 1 molex. They could easily have used 1 for each fan and 1 for the readout, but instead they are all combined to make it a much easier and less bulky way to connect to a power lead, although the length of the connector is a bit too short and can be a pain to connect. Lets take a look.
Above is a shot of the temperature probes, and then one that was taped to the hottest chip I could find on the HD. First pic is of the included tape strip and second pic is of the tape I ended up using. This little baby gets quite hot when the HD is in use. All depending of course on the cooling provided.
Above are shots of how to mount the HD into the cooling unit, and then a thumbnail pic of the HD cooling unit sliding into the Antec DH-01W server tower.
Next: Conclusion page 2 >>
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