Intro

Boy, I can remember back to the day when had drives where measured in double digit megabytes. Today things sure have changed; hard drives are now pushing upwards of 200 Gigabytes and beyond. Along with this mass of storage unfortunately comes more and more heat. Modern Hard Drives can run extremely hot, and if you are running a RAID array, some sort of HDD cooling is simply a must. The name Antec has always been known for high quality products from power supplies to case fans. Lets take a look and see if their Hard Drive Cooling System meets up to those same high standards.

Specs

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: 7.25" x 5.86" x 1.65" -Weight: 600g / 1.32lbs.
- Material: Aluminum alloy (6061) heatsink
- Fan: Two 40 x 40 x 25mm fans
- Fan Speed: 3500 RPM at 30°C (86°F) 5000 RPM at 45°C (113°F)

Display:
- 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.

The Unit

When I first received the new hard drive cooler from Antec I was pleasantly surprised at its seemingly well designed construction. What's so special about this hard drive cooler, aren't they all alike, you ask? Definitly Not.

Inside of the box you will find instructions, a bag of miscellaneous screws, 2 pieces of thermal tape, and the hard drive cooling unit itself. The majority of the unit is a large 5 1/4 Aluminum heatsink in which the hard drive sits. On the front of the unit is a hinged door with a smoked window that covers the LED temperature display. The LED displays the temps from temperature probes, and "flips" ever 5 seconds to the other probe. Right next to the window on the front face are the intake vents for the fans. The front panel is hinged and will open up with a simple push on the windowed side. A definite plus of this design is it makes the front bezel very easy to remove for painting (we can't have it not match our case now can we! Or in other words, PTFD!)

Once the front bezel has been removed we can see this unit is cooled by 2 Y.S. Tech Variable Speed 40mm Fans. Under maximum RPM these little baby's will move about 5.7CFM at 22.4 dB, that's not much CFM compared to their bigger brothers, but its along the average for 40mm fans. And at 22 dB, you are not likely to notice the fans over your existing cooling solution. Definitely the most innovative part of the Antec Cooling package would have to be the 2 thermal probes coupled with the two YS Tech Variable speed fans. This package allows the HD Drive cooler to only be active when needed. For example above 30°C (86°F) the fans turn on to 3500RPM, and above 45°C (113°F) they crank up to 5000RPM's.