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Thermaltake Hardcano 5
 

Written By:
Date Posted: June 26, 2002

Hard drive heat can be a serious issue, especially if they're of the 7200rpm variety. Staggering your drives are a good idea, but I've seen a lot of setups where the hard drive is sandwiched between optical drives, or other hard drives. We know heat is bad, and excessive hard drive heat can result in a loss of data, or even worse, drive failure.

We looked at the Hardcano 5 last month, and today, we'll be checking out the . Much like the other Hardcanos, this unit provides hard drive cooling, as well as temperature monitoring.

Thermaltake packages everything you need in a neat little bundle. There are instructions, drive rails, plenty of screws, and the Hardcano itself.

Unlike the Hardcano 5, there are no fan switches to control your fans this time around. The Hardcano 2 (as the name implies) has two LCDs this time, and two thermal probes. The LCDs are protected by a plastic film, so there is little to worry about if you're concerned about them being scratched while shipping. I actually prefer the look of the Hardcano 2 over the Hardcano 5, as with 2 LCDs, the appearance is more uniform.

The LCDs are battery powered, so the temperature will be displayed at all times. This can actually be a handy feature, as you'll have a zero point if you want to see your temperatures from "computer off", to idle, to full load. I don't believe they draw a lot of power, so the batteries should last a while.

Specifications

P/N A1282
Fan Dimension 40x40x20 mm
Rated Voltage 12V
Started Voltage 7.0V
Rated Current 0.11A
FAN Speed 5000±10% RPM
Air Pressure 1.50mm- H2O
Max. Air Flow 5.1CFM
Noise 23dBa
Bearing Type Sleeve bearing
Life Time 30,000 hours
Connector 3 PIN

Like the Hardcano 5, the Hardcano 2 is fabricated from aluminum. I've commented in our last review that because the hard drive only rests on rails, don't expect the Hardcano chassis to do much for the hard drive cooling. It will match up nicely for those of you who own aluminum cases.

There is a little more assembly required with the Hardcano 2, as you'll need to attach the drive rails to the unit, and then the hard drive. There isn't any top cover this time around, which to me isn't a big deal since it just adds to the cost of the overall unit, and doesn't do all that much for cooling.

The thermal probes (there are two of them) are extrememly thin, and can fit in a lot of tight spaces. Although we only used them for hard drive temperature tests in this review, you can use them almost anywhere.

Thermaltake demonstrates using the probe on CPUs for example, and as you'll see in future reviews, we'll be testing heatsinks with the Hardcano 2. The probes are attached to long wires, and although I didn't measure them, I don't think you'll have any problems reaching areas in even the full tower cases. You do have to take some care in handling them though, as the probes are attached to thin wires that don't take kindly to being tugged on.

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