Zalman NP Heatpipe HDD Cooler ZM-2HC1

Scooby · Post by **Scooby** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 5:33 pm

Has anyone used or wons one these? Just interested to see how they perform noise wise as I'm quite interested in getting a noise reducer for my hdd that wont cook it like the 'box' type.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 10:09 pm

Search the forums. Several folks have one. Kostik (iirc) even gave an initial impression on this (he's working on a review).

I think opinion is : does silence the HD, but have to mount in 5 1/4" bay which receives less airflow. Has option of mounting at bottom of case if you're willing to drill.

MikeC also has a list of methods of quieting HDs ranked by noise reduction. I think it's in a recent thread about grommets and shoulder bolts. Wait, found it.

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 1:13 am

I use the Zalman HDD heatpipe cooler (the one in the picture above).
It works amazingly well too cool the harddrive. I use it on two Seagate 7200.7 drives, and the drives are now cool to the touch and vibration sound is also dampened a lot.
The option to mount it in the bottom of your box by drilling new holes is not very good since that means you attach the frame straight to the chassi. So you loose the vibration dampening.

The major difference with other silencers that you don't dampen the whining noise that much.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 1:33 am

silvervarg wrote:The option to mount it in the bottom of your box by drilling new holes is not very good since that means you attach the frame straight to the chassi. So you loose the vibration dampening.

I don't have one, but from the instructions, it looks like when you mount at the bottom, you use the same isolators, except now they connect to the base of the drive instead of the sides of the drive, so should provide identical isolation. Am I mistaken?

mormakil · Post by **mormakil** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 3:48 am

lenny wrote:
silvervarg wrote:The option to mount it in the bottom of your box by drilling new holes is not very good since that means you attach the frame straight to the chassi. So you loose the vibration dampening.
I don't have one, but from the instructions, it looks like when you mount at the bottom, you use the same isolators, except now they connect to the base of the drive instead of the sides of the drive, so should provide identical isolation. Am I mistaken?

You are not Lenny, the isolators are supossed to be screwed in the holes that hdd have in the downside (I didn't notice this holes until I bought this zalman heatpipe)

About dampening, in my case it works a bit worse than elastic suspension. I did notice some slight vibration in the case (mainly in the 5.25 cage), also you may not fasten too much the screws, because it gets vibration worse.

I can't compare with hard mounting the same drive in a 3.5 cage, because I've removed it; but I guess it's better than hard mounting. I get this cooler because I don't like too much the elastic suspension, because the ide cable can move the hdd and make it touch the metal and I was not confortable about that.

About temperature, it does lower it a bit, 2 degrees more or less in my case. Considering that the Samsung was cool enough and that elastic suspension dampen the vibration better, I guess it was not worth the price. But I feel a bit more confortable with the drive secured to the case and it doesn't make more apreciable noise than before. Also in the future if I need some heatpipes I know where I'll get them

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 4:47 am

Lenny:
I don't have one, but from the instructions, it looks like when you mount at the bottom, you use the same isolators

I guess my mind just stopped working for a while... Your right, you should still get the dampening effect in the bottom of the case.

mormakil:
About temperature, it does lower it a bit, 2 degrees more or less in my case.

What temps did you have to start with?
At real low temps the heatpipes will not transfer heat especially fast, but they will become more effective when temp goes up. So the higher your harddrive temps are the better this cooler should work.

mormakil · Post by **mormakil** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 11:21 am

silvervarg wrote: What temps did you have to start with?
At real low temps the heatpipes will not transfer heat especially fast, but they will become more effective when temp goes up. So the higher your harddrive temps are the better this cooler should work.

I had 36-38 (hdd temp only shows even temperatures). Now I have 34-32.
You are right the heatpipes doesn't seem to have a lot of work to do. They're not even warm to the touch, nor cool. I guess if I stress the harddrive for a long time I will notice them "working". It's not necesary to use this cooler with this Samsung hdd, but it seems I like to throw my money when I have it

I tried SisoftSandra to test how fast was the hdd and it doesn't show up any increment in temperature, but the test was not too long. As I said the 5 1/4 cage vibrates some, mostly when seeking. In idle it dampens it well.

fetaost · Post by **fetaost** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 12:46 pm

I had a 40GB Baracuda IV in the Zalman but as mentioned before the temps got quite high because of the low airflow in the 5'25" bays. And my PSU's powercables is to short to reach the bottom of the case. Also there was this low humming sound, perhaps I tightened the scews too much. Now it's suspended in front of the front air intake.