Scythe Himuro

We have tested a few different Scythe HDD coolers in the past, their first unit called the Silent Box had an elaborate installation process and was mostly made up of thick foam pads which aimed at blocking HDD noise, a costly Heatlane (a flat heatpipe) kept the drive cool inside. While the Silent Box performed well it was too costly to make and sold not for less than $50. In 2006 Scythe replaced the Silent Box with the Quiet Drive, a more cost effective HDD cooling and noise reduction device also made to fit inside a 5.25” bay. It had an even more elaborate installation process as the Silent Box but launched at retail price of $30 it was noticeably more affordable.

Today we take a closer look at the 3rd generation HDD cooler from Scythe, the Himuro aims to reduce cost even further without sacrificing performance.



Made from black ionized aluminium the Himuro doesn’t weigh too much and is about the size of your average optical drive.

Inside the box you’ll find a small set of screws for installation.



The surfaces on the inside are covered with a thermal pad to help heat transfer:



Installation

One area where the Himuro improves a lot is the installation process, it’s very straight forward and not very time consuming.

You begin by placing your hard drive in the lower half of the Himuro:



As you can see, you can still freely access the power and data connections:



Next you slide the top part over the bottom part and screw it together tight. The top, bottom and sides of the HDD are touching the surrounding heatsink; when you disassemble the Himuro your HDD will actually stick to the top part.



The case mounting brackets are made from semi-hard rubber and help reduce vibration noise; then can be slid from the front to back so you can align the Himuro inside your case as you please.



Time for the performance and noise tests ->