Installation and TestingIn the photo below you can see how the Cool Wheel fits onto your 3.5” HDD:
I used the following test hardware:
Intel Test Setup |
CPU | Intel Core 2 E6420 @ 3.0Ghz – 1.360v |
Cooling | Scythe Mine |
Mainboard | Asus P5N-E SLI (with Thermalright HR-05 SLI) |
Memory | Kingmax 512Mb DDR2-667 @ 750Mhz (HR-07 cooled) |
Other | Recom Backdraft Black LC Power Super Silent 550W Asus 7950GT 512Mb (with Zalman VF-700) Seagate Barracuda SATA 80GB Hard Drive |
Installed inside the case it looks like this:
The hard drive was stressed with heavy HDD copy operations; in a ~20°C room the maximum temperature was recorded. The case features
no case fans!
Standard: 42°C
With Evercool Cool Wheel: 31°CAn 11°C drop is nothing of amazing, but taken into account that I’m not using any case fans (no in-take or exhaust) any extra bit of airflow will have a noticeable impact.
We did a quick noise measurement with the Evercool outside the case. Powered the unit on and placed a dBA meter at ~10cm from the side. The fans were running at full speed (12V), ambient noise in the room is 37.8dBA, only the Cool Wheel is running, not the HDD underneath.
In open air: ~47dBA
Installed on Hard Drive: ~48.5dBA
At this close distance the Cool Wheel was definitely noisy, inside the case the fans were less obtrusive but still too noticeable.
Conclusive Thoughts
The Cool Wheel carries an affordable $10 price tag. It will effectively cool down your hard drive but does take up some room, if Evercool can fit the Cool Wheel with slower fans (or adjustable fan speed controller) this product stands a chance.
Overall the Cool Wheel does as advertised but at a noise level most likely uncomfortable for most people.
I thank Charlene from Evercool for allowing us to test their product, until next time!