Evercool That Case
I’ve done a lot of case reviews
recently. If you’ve read them you’ll probably notice I’m one for cooling the
interior of a case as much as possible. I sometimes even modify a case while
I’m testing it for a review. Why? I’ll test a case in its normal configuration
and then find that I’m not satisfied with how hot my components are running.
After a few minutes of studying a case I can usually find a way to improve
the cooling of a case with a minimal amount of work. Unfortunately, for most
of us, it’s hard to know exactly how you will cool that case until you’ve
pulled it out of the box and are staring at it. If I can explain to you in
a review the extra steps I took to cool a review unit, and the amount of work
that was involved to do it, then I think you can make a more informed purchasing
decision.
A couple of weeks ago the folks from Evercool
sent me a care package. Inside were a few things that will do wonders to help
you cool your case and keep your hard drive happy. When I did the Addtronics
7896A case review I came across the 120-mm Evercool intake fan. I was impressed
not only with the volume of air that it moved, but also with how quiet the
unit was. That led me to investigate Evercool’s
site and I was blown away with the number of cooling products they have. A
couple of weeks later I found the Ultimate Hard Drive cooler and a couple
of case fans on my doorstep. You may remember the Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler
from Oleg’s harddrive cooler shoot
out. It took the blue ribbon there. Coupled with the fans that Evercool
sent I had enough products to show how you can cool your case and the harddrive
easily. So here’s an easy how-to that can help you with your cooling problems.
| Ultimate Hard Drive
Cooler: |
80-mm case fan: |
92-mm case fan: |
- Two 40x20 mm fans
- A large heatsink that attaches to the
harddrive
- Held on with spring tension
- Mounts your 3.5" HD in a 5.25"
bay
- An attractive 5.25" grill is provided
for your bay
|
- High CFM air flow
- Ball bearing design
|
- High CFM air flow
- Ball bearing design
|
|
|
|
|
Installation:
The Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler (UHDC) is quite
easy to put together. You simply mount your 3.5" hard drive onto the
heatsink, and allow the springs on the heatsink to push the hard drive firmly
to it. After that, mount it in a 5.25" bay and plug in the power harness.
The last step is to install the grill into the 5.25" bay opening. That’s
it. It makes quite a difference, and should really help 7200-RPM IDE drives
and SCSI drives run cooler. Since the Addtronics
7896A case I was using has an area in its top to mount one 5.25" drive
I mounted the UHDC there. This mounts the cooler in the rear above the power
supply, and even has cooling holes that are drilled in the rear of the case
that allow the UHDC to draw air into the case. One benefit of mounting the
HD in this area is how little noise gets transmitted through the case, but
there was quite a bit less noise than before. This made me suspicious, so
I went ahead and mounted the UHDC in a 5.25" bay. There was no discernable
HD noise being emitted from the case. So not only does the UHDC do a great
job of cooling your drive, it also makes the HD much quieter.
The 80-mm and 92-mm case fans were next. Both
were supplied with standard 4-pin power plugs so installation was a snap.
I placed the 80-mm fan in the low intake area of the
7896A. The case is already equipped with the Evercool
120-mm case in this area. Installing the 80-mm fan above the 120-mm monster
really makes the 80-mm fan look tiny. Does it make a difference? In short,
yes. Though it definitely can’t pump out the airflow that the larger fan can,
it does add to the intake air charge. With a big 120-mm fan doing most of
the intake work you wouldn’t think that a small 80-mm fan could help the situation
much. This is one of those pleasant surprises. I noticed a 1.2 to 1.4 degree
F drop in internal case temp. This was also with the help of the 92-mm fan.
One great side affect of all this intake air is that now instead of having
dust bunnies stick to my clothes they are all stuck on the intake filter of
the case.
I placed the 92-mm fan on one of the side intakes
of the case (the case will hold four of them). These are mounted onto the
framework that holds in the peripheral drives and are designed to use 80-mm
fans. That didn’t stop me though. With a couple of plastic zip-ties I mounted
the fan to the grill opening in the case and plugged in its power connector.
It was that easy. Immediately I noticed a 15 degree F drop in temp around
my CDRW on top of the drop I’ve already mentioned in general case temp. The
CDRW temp drop occurred while burning a couple of CD-R discs. If I decide
to mount three more of these fans I won’t have to worry about any of my bay-mounted
peripherals getting too hot, not that they do now. Even with only one 92-mm
fan mounted in this fashion I noticed that all the components were cooler.
Add to that the benefit of more air being pushed onto the UHDC’s heatsink
and suddenly I felt very good about running a 7200-RPM HD on an out of spec
PCI bus.
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Pros:
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Cons:
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- The UHDC definitely delivers on its
promises
- UHDC = HD muffler
- The 80 and 92-mm fans are very quiet
- Many different vendors sell the UHDC
under different names
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- You may have some trouble locating Evercool’s
case fans
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Conclusions:
The 80 and 92-mm case fans are very quiet and
they deliver a great amount of airflow. The Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler is
a very valuable piece of insurance for fast IDE drives and those who can’t
do without their SCSI drives. If you run a SCSI or IDE 7200 RPM drive then
I highly recommend you make an investment in keeping that hard drive alive.
A big bonus is that I haven’t heard that drive in a while and anyone with
a very loud drive can appreciate that.
I contacted Evercool about a distributor of
their products here in the United States and they recommended CWC-Group.
If you contact them they should be able to help you with any of these products.
When I gave their site a quick lookover I couldn’t find these products listed
and it looked to me like their site hasn’t been updated in some time. I wrote
to CWC-Group and asked for their pricing
on these items but never heard back from them, so at this point I can’t give
you their pricing on the case fans or the UHDC, or verify that they carry
them for that matter. For a little comparison shopping, the Ultimate Hard
Drive Cooler retails for $22 dollars at
3dfxcool. Bart at 3dfxcool calls
this unit the hddHO-Fan. I contacted
Addtronics to find another vendor
for these case fans. Cindy at Addtronics assured me that these case fans also
could be bought from Addtronics.
Victor
Oshiro
00/03/27
