THE HEATSINK GUIDE:: The Vantec Ultimate Hard Drive cooler

The design


The Vantec "Ultimate Hard Drive cooler" consists of a flat heatsink that is in direct contact with the upper side of the hard drive. It is equiped with only two fans, but they are larger than the ones used on other hard drive coolers - Vantec uses 40x20mm fans (ball bearing, made by Evercool), the other competitors use 40x10mm fans.

The flat heatsink is pressed against the hard drive with the aid of four springs. This also provides very vibration-free mounting for the hard drive. Unfortunately, Vantec does not provide any interface material that would improve thermal transfer from the drive to the cooler. If you've got some spare thermal compound, then I'd recommend to apply a very thin layer on the cooler before installing it on the hard drive - this will improve cooling performance. However, it will leave the HDD quite messy once it's uninstalled, which may cause problems if the drive ever needs RMA.

A face plate is also provided, but without dust filter.

Just like the Cooler Master CoolDrive, the Vantec unit cools the hard drive "by contact" - and that's definitely good. The Vantec cooler creates much more airflow across the drive than the CoolDrive, but is also a bit louder. The cooling performance is good - especially if you use thermal compound. Maybe the name "Ultimate Hard Drive cooler" is a bit exaggerated, but nevertheless this is a cooler that I'd recommend.

Installation

Nothing special to say about the installation - simple and straightforward. Install your HDD inside the cooler (using thermal compound, if you've got some), and then install the cooler inside your PC - that's it.


A larger picture of the cooler


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