by FastSite
09/20/2002 | 12:00 AM
The Thermaltake Company has already become well-known as the manufacturer of extraordinary and efficient coolers for processors, chipsets and graphics cards. But this time we won't talk about CPU or memory heatsinks, which have already become typical products of Thermaltake. The company chose a new field for expansion: both unexpectedly and reasonably…
Modern HDD models generate quite a bit of heat and, being rather "tender" creations, may crash through that. We usually don't notice the temperature HDD is working at and an occasional touch only reminds us of how hot it is. Or sometimes we just find our HDD already "dead" because of horrible overheating caused by oppressive heat or poor airflow inside the case…
Relying on its rich cooler-making experience, Thermaltake presents a line of devices intended to solve HDD cooling problems. These are Thermaltake HardCano HDD coolers.
We selected the ViewStation P701 case from ChiefTek as our testbed. We have already used it in almost all our cooler reviews and are even considering the possibility to review its separately :)
During our tests we didn't use any additional fans for the case directing the airflow either inside or outside the case. We installed Thermaltake devices into the lower 5-inch bay of the case:
Note, how greatly the front panel of HardCano is protruded comparing to the CD-drive!
The PC cases usually offer one of the two ways to fasten the devices in the 5-inch bays. Some have long grooves so you can push the device inside the bay as "deeply" as you wish. The cases of other type allow installing the device in only one possible way. Our case belonged to the second type and we couldn't avoid the "protrusion". It's implied by the design of HardCano 2/3/5 and I seriously doubt all users will like it.
But let's get to the point…The rest of the testbed was configured as follows:
The testing process looked like that:
We used a special Dtemp utility to take the temperatures. This utility reads the data from the HDD Smart-area, which in its turn collects the data from the thermal diode located in the hermetic area of the HDD. Besides that, we of course also took the data from the thermal diodes of Thermaltake HardCano 2/3/5 coolers.
The starting temperatures were taken a minute before the "warming-up" started, and then the temperatures were taken every minute within 30-minute interval. The room temperature remained constant throughout the test and equaled 24oC.
So, let's get started!
Thermaltake HardCano 2 is shipped in a neat transparent plastic box:
The package includes an aluminum-alloy front panel with a 40mm Thermaltake fan and two LCD-displays powered by round tablet-like batteries. Besides, there are also two metal clips to fix the HDD, a PCPlug-to-Molex converter, sticky thermal pad and a set of fastening screws:
The system is to be installed in the 5-inch bays of the PC case. There shouldn't be any problems with installation, just don't forget to take out the plastic pads from the LCD cases, which serve to prevent the batteries from getting discharged. Thermaltake HardCano 2 in its full array looks like this:
As you can see in the snapshot, we put one of the thermal diodes onto the metal cover of the hermetic area close to the bearing. It's one of the warmest spots of the HDD. We placed thermal diodes in that particular spot during the following tests, too.
As HardCano 2 features two thermal diodes, we fastened the second onto the side surface of the HDD, near the motor moving the heads.
You may have noticed from the snapshots that the results shown by the two thermal diodes of ThermalTake HardCano 2 differ a lot. I was set aback too and decided to put both sensors into the same place and watch what they would register. I checked them additionally with an infrared "thermometer pistol":
The results differ a significant lot, don't they? Well, we have to put up with it, as there's no way to adjust or calibrate those thermal diodes. They look quite unimpressive when disassembled: the case, LCD-display and a small PCB with the chip covered with black compound.
Well, that's the first disappointment for today. One can't really rely on the results shown by the thermal diodes coming with the Thermaltake HardCano series.
Fortunately, the immediate goal of Thermaltake HardCano 2, namely to provide proper HDD cooling, has been reached without any problems.
The diagram below shows the information from the HardCano 2 thermal diode and the Dtemp utility, which reads the data from the built-in HDD thermal diode. The time interval from 0 to 10 minutes is marked in red, that is, the interval when the HDD was warmed up a bit:
These hard working conditions IOMeter provides are difficult to repeat in reality when working with office applications, games and so on. Therefore, the temperature we get in the end of the 10-minute run of IOMeter can be assumed the maximum possible. With a few things to bear in mind, of course: the temperature could be higher if IOMeter or some other program working with the HDD as actively ran somewhat longer. But anyway the test workload was much bigger than in real everyday applications.
Thermaltake HardCano 2 proved excellent even under heavy workload like that: Dtemp showed that HDD temperature was only 5 degrees above the 32 degrees of the "quiet" mode. Nice work.
HardCano 2 thermal diodes, as one might expect, didn't match the Dtemp data. Well, at least they follow the curves of the Dtemp graph, thank goodness.
This model is shipped in the same plastic box, the only difference is the color:
The package contents was the same that in the previous case: the front panel, clips, screws, sticky thermal pad, and the PCPlug-to-Molex adapter:
When mounted, HardCano looks like that:
Unlike HardCano 2, HardCano 3 has one LCD and a cooler rotations switch instead of the second display. Thermaltake implies that this cooler should control the CPU fan rotation speed, but it can be easily adjusted to control the graphics card fan rotations, as well as those of the cooling fans blowing the air in and outside the case, or at last the fan of the HardCano 3 itself. That's exactly what we did: the fan of HardCano 3 is situated on the front panel of the case so the noise it produces can be louder than the noises of any other fan. Why can't we try to reduce the noise at the expense of a few extra degrees of HDD temperature?
The rotation speed control switch is a rather ugly-looking 3-position switch: the "H" position is for high rotation speed, "L" is for low speed and "M" is for medium speed. Its insides do not impress, either:
Two chains of 4 serially connected diodes enabled directly. Each of the chains is used to reduce the voltage. Every diode is responsible for voltage reduction of about 0.7V. In the "M" position the fan supply circuit includes one chain like that and the voltage makes about 9.2V. In the "L" position both chains work and the voltage drops down to about 6.4V. In the "H" position the fan gets the "virgin" 12V.
Thermaltake HardCano 3 showed the following results in the three working modes of the fan (the interval when the drive was under heavy workload is marked with pink color):
The reduction of the fan rotation speed didn't really lead to a significant worsening of the thermal situation for our HDD. The results Thermaltake HardCano 3 showed were close to the results of the previous model discussed above. We only want to emphasize the fact that in case the fan rotation speed decreased, the HDD temperature got slightly higher both in "quiet" and "intensive" modes. The temperature also grew quicker under heavy workload and returned to normal slower when the workload is over.
Thermaltake HardCano 5 is a real HDD cooling "monster" and it looks accordingly:
The Thermaltake HardCano 5 package includes a metal box with a fan rotation speed switch and LCD-display on the front panel. There are also a PCPlug-to-Molex adapter, a sticky thermal pad, a set of fastening screws and a metal sticker for the PC case:
We installed the HDD into HardCano 5 as follows. First, the HDD was fastened to the base of the box, then we put a thermal diode onto the hermetic area. After that we fastened the upper part of the box, which appeared pressed tightly to the HDD. The inner side of the box cover has a wide deepening, which hinders the heat dissipation from the drive, but allows fitting the thermal diode without any problems.
Here's the box from the inside:
Here's the assembled and ready-for-use variant:
Like HardCano 3, we tested HardCano 5 in three work modes. As usual, the pink marks the work of the drive under heavy load.
It looks as if the use of solid metal box for Thermaltake HardCano 5 didn't improve its cooling abilities greatly. Yes, HardCano 5 cools the HDD all right, but there's no significant advantage over HardCano 2 or 3.
That's exactly what we're going to do in the next section: try to compare HardCano 2, 3 and 5 with one another.
Let's add the results of the HDD working without any extra cooling to the results of HardCano 2/3/5. In this case we installed the HDD into the same 5-inch bay by using the clips from the Thermaltake HardCano 2 package.
Without extra cooling the HDD is too warm even in the "quiet" mode. Under intensive workload the temperature rose very fast and reached 48oC, which it's not too critical, but already dangerous, we should say. The saddest thing is that even after the intensive work had been over for 20 minutes, the temperature got only 2 degrees lower. It's clear that in case we address the still warm hard drive, it will warm up faster and cool down slower, which means that its temperature will keep growing little by little until it reaches some stable value. Overall, the "death from overheating" is not a guaranteed end of the story, but it is quite possible.
The results of Thermaltake HardCano 2, 3 and 5 range short, but the leader is clearly seen. It's Thermaltake HardCano 5. The HDD temperature grew most slowly and steadily under intensive workload and returned to the normal rate faster. Thermaltake HardCano 5 became the leader thanks to the box, which directs the airflow not at random, but alongside the HDD case. The additional heat dissipating element was the box cover, which definitely contributed to the victory of this piece.
So, not very impressive looks and questionable design pushed aside, Thermaltake HardCano 2, 3 and 5 performed their immediate duty, that is cooler down the HDD, very well. All the models tested can contribute to improve greatly the thermal conditions of the HDD, thus preventing its crash and data loss.
The thermal diodes of HardCano coolers can be used to monitor the CPU, graphics card or chipset temperatures, in other words, everything you can only think of :). The fan rotation speed control switches can also be used pretty diversely. By the way, it's not that important to reduce the rotation speed of the HardCano coolers themselves, as they are not too noisy.
So, the highs of Thermaltake HardCano 2, 3 and 5 are:
Lows: