DSE HDD Cooler?
~misfit~
fans and a blue anodised aluminium plate that mounted flat against the drive
that they're willing to part with? The fans didn't last long, even looked
after and lubed. However, I have airflow, I would just like the alloy
heatsink/s and drive rail parts. I saw one on Trademe a while back, before I
needed any. :-( Searches of DSE and Trademe give no results.
misfitnz with a gmail.com addy will get me if anyone can help.
Cheers,
--
Shaun.
EMB
~misfit~
Yeah, thanks, I found that one. This thing has a particular construction I'm
after, quite different to most coolers. More like this:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/slideshow/10HDDCoolers,0101-157414-0-2-3-1-jpg-.html
From: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/hard-drive-cooler,review-31318-3.html
only with less fins etc. same deal though, fits a 5 1/2" bay with two fans
in front. I've seen them on Trademe from time to time, the fans only lasted
about a year.
Cheers,
--
Shaun.
thingy
As would seem to be the case (oops) with just about all dse's computer
fans....they are really crap! (TM)
regards
Thing
EMB
>
>
>
How so Roger?
~misfit~
> fans....they are really crap! (TM)
Indeed. This cooler I'm now using was in a drawer for a long time as the two
fans, noisy (fast) to start with, rapidly got worse. Lubing them worked for
a while, then for a bit longer with more oil, then it was retired. I guess I
bought it in around '01. I saw them on 'clearance' at DSE a year or two back
and have seen a couple on Trademe over the years, usually in a 'box of
bits'. Interestingly, the face plate supplied with these things had three
circles of mesh in front of two fans.
I guess I started the thread, I should explain...
O. M. G!!!!! I just took a bunch of pics and, while resizing and renaming
and uploading them decided to Google the writing on the heatsink; "Ultimate
Hard Drive Cooler". Turns out it's an old Vantec product although it wasn't
sold as such in DSE. It was in a plain box and sold for about $45.
So, we can ignore the pics that I've just spent the best part of an hour
staging, resizing and uploading. I can point you to a couple reviews from
'99 and '01 that I found for it on-line:
http://www.thetechzone.com/reviews/cooler/ultimate_hd_cooler/index.shtml
http://www.slcentral.com/reviews/hardware/cooling/vantec/uhdc/
Oddly, both reviews state that the fans are "fairly quiet". Perhaps they
wren't too bad when new compared to some top-end modding/cooling gear but
they very quickly got noisy. Or perhaps the units sold in DSE were supplied
with different fans, hence not being sold as Vantec gear? There is no name
on the fans anywhere (why I still have them is a mystery).
Anyway, as I said, after using my new HDD dock for a while the HDD felt a
bit too warm for my liking. Granted I'd just copied ~200GB of data to it but
you need to allow for worse-case scenario right? Ambient can easilly go 10
degrees higher than it was then. I remembered the old cooler and thought
I'd see if I could get it to fit on the HDD while it was docked. By using
the 'wrong' set of holes on the HDD it worked a treat, overhanging the back
of the drive quite a bit but allowing the drive to fit into the dock.
For a while I used it with no fans. As the 11 chambers in the heatsink are
vertical I figured they'd develop a chimney effect and air would flow up
them. (They have ridges inside to increase the surface area. This is one
wicked extrusion.)
It probably would have been fine like that, certainly better than a bare
drive. However, I'm a tinkerer and I recalled some fans that were supplied
with the Asus P5K-Premium to be used on the VRM MOSFET heatsinks in the case
of water-cooling the CPU (which would mean no air spill from the CPU cooler
moving over the VRM 'sinks).
I've built two machines around this mobo and niether of them were water
cooled. One was local so I asked the guy if I could have one of the fans. He
said I could borrow one but he'd need it back, he'd just ordered a
water-cooling kit as he wanted to push his Q6600 even further. I tried the
fan and, as I thought, it is a perfect fit, blowing air through the centre 7
of the 11 ducts in the heatsink.
This is what it looks like now:
<http://test.internet-webmaster.de/upload/1227130703.jpg>
Wicked huh? The (12V) fan is being powered by a DSE variable voltage
plugpack, is running at 4.5V and is dead silent yet moves plenty of air to
do the job. Luckilly guy I did the second build for using the P5K-Premium
has no intention of ever watercooling his rig and is dropping his two
(surplus to requirements) VRM fans off for me this weekend (thanks Bugalugs)
so I'll be able to give the other guy a VRM fan back when his H2O kit
arrives and have a spare.
I'm considering putting some sort of cap/channel on the bottom of the
heatsink that will direct the air coming down the centre 7 channels back up
the outer 4, (or even just out the sides at the bottom) mainly so it's not
forcing dust into the dock but also because I can. I'm just waiting until I
think of the ideal bit of plastic (or whatever) to do the job.
The reason I'm looking for another cooler is that this is working so well, I
have more SATA HDDs in my main machine and I'm using a lappy most of the
time, I might set up another one. Now that I know it's a Vantec product I
might be able to find another a little more easilly. However, I'm pretty
sure it's discontinued, Vantec make several different coolers these days.
<phew> That took longer than I'd planned. Things to do.....
Bugger! Just found this Auction on tardme that finished three days before I
started looking...
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Components/Hard-drives/IDE/auction-181650559.htm
That would have been nice to get.
--
Shaun.
~misfit~
When I did an edit of my post after finding out that the cooler was a Vantec
product, in my excitement (I know, sad huh?) I cut out the link to the HDD
dock I bought:
http://www.zcom.co.nz/product_info.php?products_id=2122&osCsid=adc3258468dd184dfcbd822002624b4b
and the paragraph talking about it and saying thanks to Bazz for pointing it
out to me. It was under $50 inc GST, works fine as a USB - SATA interface
and a powered USB hub. It's also got an eSATA connection and a cable is
included. I haven't tried out the eSATA functionality as my lappy doesn't
have it and, if I turn on my "Heavy Iron" [thanks for the term Collector]
which does have eSATA to test it I'll use my next week's supply of
electricity. <g>
I didn't buy it for eSATA functionalty so don't really care if it works or
not. However, I guess I should test it sometime. If it works well with eSATA
as well I might have to grab a couple more docks (when the Visa card can
breathe again) as that would be really handy for backups, moving data from
machine to machine etc. eSATA is as fast as SATA so it'd be quick... Easy to
change drives in the dock, multiple backups would be a piece off piss....
Could even warrant the purchase of an eSATA cardbus card for the lappy...
Nah, not needed and way beyond my pay grade. Still, I can dream.
--
Shaun.
Cobbler
~misfit~
Yes, sure, as long as you're not wanting the earth for it. Sorry I didn't
check back sooner. I can be reached on misfitnz at gmail dot com.
Cheers,
--
Shaun.