Installation of a drive is quite simple. You remove the 4 screws securing the top to the Vortex and place a drive on the 4 rubber mounts, screwing it into place from the bottom of the Vortex.
First problem, the drive mounts were too closely placed to accommodate the length of the 2 drives I tested (an IBM ‘Deathstar' and a WD Caviar). If the rear mounts were turned 45 degrees so as to grip the sides of the drive rather than the ends (as is actually shown in the install leaflet) this wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately you can't turn them around due to the way they are mounted, which is to slide onto a tab of metal. This problem is minor as the mounts are soft enough to press a hard drive down onto the mounts and flatten them out. The second problem I had I didn't discover until I had fired up the Vortex for the first time.
Plugging it into a molex power source, the LCD temperature display lit up and I thought to myself “Wow, good job Vantec, this thing is silent”. Problem was it was silent because the fan wasn't moving. Changing fan speeds had no effect. My first thought was I had put the hard drive too close to the fan, so I removed it from the bay and double checked. Nope, no problem there, plenty of clearance. Next thought was I must have been unlucky and got a dead fan. Again I was wrong. What had happened is that one of the capacitors on the back of the LCD was pressing up against the drum of the fan and preventing it from turning. Soon as I bent it out of the way the fan started up properly without issue. I'm personally of the opinion I was just unlucky here, it's not like Vantec to miss something like this so we'll let that one slide for now.
Listening to the unit, it is pretty quiet but the high setting does produce a very irritating whine which doesn't sound like any fan you will be used too. It's kind of hard to describe, it's like a low powered grinding noise, the sort of noise you would get from an old cheap tape deck. The Lo setting cures this problem producing a pretty much silent unit. One thing I should point out, the Vortex doesn't remember its last settings so every time you power down it will reset the fan to off and you will need to turn the fan back on manually.
Testing
For testing we shall be using a WD Caviar 80gig 8mb cache drive in a Skyhawk Midi tower. As comparison, I shall be using the same drive in a Coolermaster Cooldrive 3 and also simply put into the tower's 3.5” bay with 2 80mm fans blowing across them. System temperature at time of recording results was 28C and room temperature was 24C. 6 results over a 2 day period where recorded and averaged out. A Lian Li temperature probe was stuck to the bottom of the drive to record the temperatures (as well as the Vortex's own probe which I'll point out now produced the same results as the Lian Li probe).
Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we have a winner. The results speak for themselves here with the Vortex showing that HD Coolers can actually do something if designed correctly. This is personally the first unit I have come across that actually does something worthwhile. However, the temperatures for the drive are not all that hot to begin with and even if I shut my front fans off it never goes over 40C at load, which makes me question the wisdom of buying any HD cooler of any brand for my own personal situation. But as HD Coolers go this is the only one I have personally seen that makes a difference worth noting.
Final Words
I'm going to say it again but I really don't hold to HD coolers of any kind, and the majority I have seen don't do anything or barely cool the drive better than having no cooling at all. The Vortex with its crossflow fan design does actually cool the drive, with a drop of 10C or more with no cooling and 4C from a low moving fan blowing across your drive from the front of the case.
End of the day the temperatures even without cooling are no cause for concern but if you do have a heat problem for your hard drive then this Vortex is the only dedicated cooler I would recommend. It's the only one I have seen that actually does cool the drive. The fan is filtered and Vantec include 3 filters with the unit. Temperatures are measured with a proper thermal probe, and are displayed on a basic LCD. Fan speeds can be controlled with the touch of a button and at the Lo setting the unit is very quiet in comparison to the rest of my water-cooled system.
Hard Drives are mounted on rubber mounts and whilst the rear mounts don't reach they do squash down enough so as not to hinder mounting of a drive. Speaking of which, with its open ended design you can mount any kind of 3.5" HDD, be it SATA, IDE or SCSI.
As HD Coolers go this is the only one I've personally seen that does actually cool your drive properly so if you need one this is the one to get. Question is do you need one?
Pros: Does exactly what it says on the tin, Quiet in use, Filtered crossflow fan design, easy install, Easy filter maintenance, One touch fan speed control, Not too bad to look at.
Cons: Will need to restart the fan every time you power up, Rear HDD mounts in wrong position, Can producing a low whining/grating noise from fan on the Hi setting.
Bottom Line: IF (and I stress the 'if') you need a Hard Drive Cooler, this is the one to get since it does actually cool the drive. If you have any questions or comments, hit me up in our Forums. You can buy this Vantec Vortex from our friends at .
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