Component cooling is one of the most important things these days. With increased speed comes increased heat. With increased heat comes the need for improved cooling. The more heat you dissipate from your components the further you can push your system, and the more stable it will be. On the market now are a lot of different products when it comes to cooling. Products range from standard items like replacement heat sinks and go all the way to the extremes like thermoelectric cooling and even further.

Today on the test bench are the Ultra Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler and the Ultra Aluminum Memory Cooler. These two styles of products may not sound all that important to you, but try touching your memory after gaming for a while, or try touching your hard drive after a data transfer. They can get very hot, and their heat can cause problems. So let's take a closer look.

Ultra Aluminum Memory Cooler – Blue
The Ultra Aluminum Memory cooler comes in a clear faced plastic package. Show is the blue anodized aluminum memory cooler. The Ultra memory cooler will work with both DDR and SDRAM, so most applications are supported. Once out of the package you can see the overall construction of the memory cooler. The cooler is made out of fairly thin aluminum. The face of the cooler is flat. There are no grooves or fins for added cooling. Each inner side of the memory cooler has a piece of thermal tape. The sad thing is that the tape seems thicker than the actual aluminum.

To attach the cooler to the memory you need to first remove the protective coating on the thermal tape. You then need to interlock the tops of the two sides of the memory cooler. Once you have that completed you should have what looks like a V. You simply slide the memory module into the V and push the side together. The kit also includes two polished clips to aid in proper adhesion to the module. These are simply pushed down over the top. I installed the memory on single sided modules, but there will be no problem with double sided ones.

Ultra Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler
The Ultra Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler comes in the same type packaging as the memory cooler. Once out of the package you can see the overall cooler. The cooler is made out of aluminum. It mounts to the bottom of your hard drive using the bottom four mount points. Integrated into the center of the cooler is two 60mm fans. These fans are hooked up to one large Molex connector which is a run through connector.

To install the cooler you need to simply screw it to the bottom of your hard drive. The cooler should be universal, so the brand of hard drive should not matter. Next make your connectors and the install is done.

Conclusion – Ultra Memory Cooler
I will start with the memory cooler. I found the memory coolers to be good and bad. On the bad side, I did not notice any real difference in my memory's cooling. Do not expect that by installing these coolers you will instantly be able to run your PC3200 at PC4000 speeds. That just is not going to happen. I also found these coolers to be a bit more difficult to install than what it looks like. The top claps are a bit finicky, and the first time in installed the cooler on the memory I did it wrong. Make sure to look at the instructions before you do anything.

On the plus side, these modules do definitely look really good. If all you are looking for is to spice up the inside of your case, take a look at these modules. They will add a bit more attention to the inside of your case, and they come in multiple colors so matching your theme will be easy enough.

Pros: good looks, cheaply priced

Cons: no real cooling change, annoying to install

Overall: Overall the Ultra Aluminum memory coolers are a really good looking product. If that is all you are looking for, take a look at these. But if you need better cooling on your memory you may want to look at a differently designed model or one with active cooling.

Conclusion – Ultra Hard Drive Cooler
This is one product to definitely take a closer look at. The installation was extremely easy, four screws and one wire hookup and you are done. Added to that, this cooling product actually does something. There was a noticeable change between when the hard drive cooler was installed and when it was not. I performed a ghost between one Seagate 200GB SATA drive to another. Where the non-cooled drive was hot enough to cook an egg the Ultra Cooled drive felt like it was not even running.

Seagate 120GB Barracuda 5	Chassis Temperature in Celsius
Without Cooler	45
With Cooler	40

This cooler is not without it failures though. The main failure on the cooler is the fans and their connector. The two 60mm fans are quiet but not as silent as one 80mm fan would be. The wires for the fans are also not that well designed. Instead of splicing the wires together at the fans, Ultra made the connector at the Molex connector. This cable is also extremely long for what it is needed for. Most people will just connect the cable to the Molex connector, so why do you need a 8 to 10 inch cable? Finally the hard drive cooler is a bit deep. Do not expect to install a hard drive underneath the cooler. So be cautioned, as this could limit your expandability. You can find this product in a couplel colours as well for less than $13.

Pros: excellent cooling, easy to install, good looks

Cons: bad cabling, loss of hard drive slot underneath cooler

Overall: The Ultra Hard drive cooler is an excellent cooling product, temperatures on my hard drive dropped dramatically once installed. If Ultra fixed the minor cabling mess and designed it to allow for a hard drive to be installed underneath it would be even better.

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