Test Setup
Our thermal tests utilize sensor readings via the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) capability of the drives. We use the Active SMART 2.6 utility for the reported values. We test our drives in an enclosed case environment without the fans operational; this setup approximates the type of environment found in near silent SFF or HTPC case designs. We typically find the reported numbers drop anywhere from 18% to 25% when the case fans are operational. Our base temperature level in the room at the time of testing is 25C.
As the Ultra cooler will have no impact on the performance of the hard drive, the benchmark focus for this article is on heat dissipation. We could find no impact in terms of noise or vibration during our tests - we'll discuss that in more detail in our conclusion.
For this test, we measure the temperature of the hard drive after the system is idle for an hour (ensuring that the drive has ample time to reach its standard idle operating temperature). We then place a heavy load on the drive by running our PCMark05 HDD test. We monitor heat levels during the test to get a graphical representation of what effects, if any, the Ultra cooler produces.
| Standard Test Bed Test Application Results |
|
| Processor | Intel E6600 - 2.4GHz Dual Core |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 |
| RAM | 2 x 1GB OCZ Reaper PC2-6400 Settings: DDR800 4-4-3-9 |
| OS Hard Drive | 1 x Western Digital WD1500 Raptor - 150GB |
| System Platform Drivers | Intel 8.3.0.1013 Intel Matrix RAID 7.6.0.1011 |
| Video Card | 1 x MSI 8800GTX |
| Video Drivers | NVIDIA ForceWare 162.18 |
| Optical Drive | Plextor PX-760A, Plextor PX-B900A |
| Cooling | Tuniq 120 |
| Power Supply | OCZ GXS700 |
| Case | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| . | |
Our thermal tests utilize sensor readings via the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) capability of the drives. We use the Active SMART 2.6 utility for the reported values. We test our drives in an enclosed case environment without the fans operational; this setup approximates the type of environment found in near silent SFF or HTPC case designs. We typically find the reported numbers drop anywhere from 18% to 25% when the case fans are operational. Our base temperature level in the room at the time of testing is 25C.
As the Ultra cooler will have no impact on the performance of the hard drive, the benchmark focus for this article is on heat dissipation. We could find no impact in terms of noise or vibration during our tests - we'll discuss that in more detail in our conclusion.
For this test, we measure the temperature of the hard drive after the system is idle for an hour (ensuring that the drive has ample time to reach its standard idle operating temperature). We then place a heavy load on the drive by running our PCMark05 HDD test. We monitor heat levels during the test to get a graphical representation of what effects, if any, the Ultra cooler produces.
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casteve - Friday, November 2, 2007 - link
A couple of degrees better performance in the HDD is a don't care improvement.If you've got the space, a low rpm, essentially silent fan only costs $5 and solves the problem.
As a science experiment, it would be interesting to see how much the cooler performance improves over stock with active cooling.