Scythe Quiet Drive HDD Cooler and Silencer Review

Cooling/VGA & Other Cooling by jmke @ 2006-12-13

The original Scythe Silent Box has been discontinued, in its place this superior, lower cost Quiet Drive will take over the task of keeping your hard drives quiet and cool. Can this compact box reduce high pitched noises or will it melt your HD platters? Find out in this review.

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Introduction

Introduction

About one year ago I tested Scythe first hard drive cooler/silencer called the Silent BOX SBX-1000, it used a Heatlane to transport heat from the hard drive to the outer aluminum box, while this proved to be successful performance wise, it drove up cost and made the product quite expensive, especially when you plan to use multiple of these.

Madshrimps (c)


Scythe went back to the drawing board to see how they could reduce costs without reducing cooling ability or noise absorption. The Quiet Drive is the fruit of their labor and it seems they have pulled it off. Where the Silent Box retailed for ~€50, the Quiet Drive can be had for €30, which is more acceptable.

Did the price reduction cause a decrease in product quality? Luckily not, the major cost of the Silent Box was the Heatlane, which has been removed from the Quiet Drive design, instead we’re greeted by a separate aluminum box-in-a-box which helps transfer heat from the hard drive to the outer chassis.

Madshrimps (c)


The manual describes step by step on how to get your hard disk inside, after a few minutes of screwing around (literally) the Quiet Drive is ready to be inserted into a spare 5.25” bay.
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Comment from sgtspiff @ 2006/12/14
Good review.

As you've been into to the inner pieces of the quiet drive recently I have a question.

The inner aluminium "box" is there any space for "soft mounting" the hdd in it?
With some rubber rings around the screws or something?
Or will this just prevent the 'system' to work its way?

If it would work it would be a soft mounted hdd in a soft mouted scythe. Double vibration dampening.
Comment from jmke @ 2006/12/14
there is already double vibration the rubber inside #1, the mounting to the case #2

there is no room left around the drive for any extra soft mounting, wouldn't make a difference either for the sound, and would make the drive run hotter due to less contact with the metal shell

 

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