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VIZO brings to the club
today a sampling of their hard drive accessories, which includes a hard drive cooler and an
internal removable SATA rack. We will take a look at both of
these items and see how they stack up.
VIZO Voyager II HDD Cooler
The Voyager II promises to cool your hard drive,
potentially extending its life and saving your data.
Included in the package is the Voyager II hard
drive cooler, and four screws to install it. The Voyager
II
is built from solid aluminum alloy, and the fan is a 60mm sleeve
bearing style fan that spins at 2900 RPM. The fan is rated for
22.5dBA, and is powered via the pass-through Molex plug.
Here we get a nice close-up of the fan, as you can
see it is screwed on through the top, unlike some coolers that use
double-stick tape. In between the fan and the casing is
an anti-vibration material that should help cut down on the noise.
Specifications:
Dimensions : 90.0 x 101.6 x 15 mm
DC Fan Dimensions : 60 x 60 x 10.8 mm ( 1 pce )
Bearing Type : Sleeve Bearing
Speed : 2900 RPM
Noise Level : 22.5 dBA
Max Air Flow : 13 CFM
Rated Voltage : DC 12 V
Rated Current : 0.13 A
Compatibility : 3.5" Bay
Weight : 75 g
Features:
For 3.5" HDD
Full aluminum alloy frame
Single powerful quiet fan provides the maximum airflow and
air pressure
Low dBA level
Easy to install
Reduce hard disk drive temperature
Extend hard disk drive lifetime
Cool stuff to decorate your PC
Installation:
Installation of the Voyager II is a breeze;
just four screws into the hard drive's mounting holes, plug in the
fan, and you are done. If you are stacking hard drives very
close to each other, the 15mm height of the Voyager may cause issues
if you are using every slot,
however this should not be the case for most users.
Performance and Testing:
To test the Voyager, I measured temperature with
an infrared temperature sensor, both with the Voyager II installed
and without. The hard drive was sitting outside of the case,
with the bottom facing up to make temperature measurement easier.
To warm things up, I started transferring files for about 10
minutes. The hard drive in question is a Seagate Barracuda
7200.10 500GB unit.
The measurement was taken on the main controller
chip, which protrudes slightly from under the Voyager II when it is
installed.
| No fan |
42.8C |
| Voyager II |
28.4C |
As you can see, the Voyager does actually make quite a significant
improvement over no airflow at all, with a temperature delta of
14.4C. I was actually pretty surprised by the results.
Other Thoughts:
The Voyager II is a fine unit if you need
something to "get you by" in terms of keeping your hard drives cool.
The fan is such that is more than capable of moving enough air to a
directed spot without creating to too much noise, however, I would
still prefer and recommend to most people that if your hard drive is
having heat problems, that overall case airflow needs to be looked
at. Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to plop in a
120mm fan wherever needed to fix their airflow problems. If
you are unable to upgrade your case cooling, for example SFF or HTPC
users, then a hard drive cooler like the Voyager will do a mighty
fine job.
If you are looking into the Voyager for aesthetic
purposes, don't bother. Since it installs under the drive,
chances are you will never see it once it is installed.
Note: Club Overclocker is
now using a new rating system based on a score of 1 to 5.
Please go to our rating system page for more information.
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Performance: |
4 out of 5 |
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Innovation: |
3 out of 5 |
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Quality: |
3 out of 5 |
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Stability: |
N/A |
| Aesthetics: |
3 out of 5 |
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Software/Drivers Pack: |
N/A |
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Overclocking: |
N/A |
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Value: |
3 out of 5 |
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Project Skill Level
(5 being most difficult) |
1
out of 5 |
Continue onto the next page to see how the Ares
Internal SATA rack fares...
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