We all know that hard drives can get hot too, especially when we're thrashing platters with benchmarks, playing resource-hogging games or pushing large tombs of multimedia across multiple folders. Like the CPU and the GPU, the drive can take some user abuse, but also like its desktop/notebook comrades, sometimes it needs a little TLC to keep data running smoothly.
Recognizing the needs of the HDD and SSD, cooling expert Scythe has created a fanless cooler called the Himuro Mini. The drawback to this heat reliever is that it only supports 2.5-inch SATA or IDE drives – those looking to keep their 3.5-inch drives are directed to the larger Himuro HDD cooler. Both can fit within a 3.5-inch drive bay, but the Himuro Mini is designed to use its thermal conductive sheets as spacers to fit snug within the larger bay.
According to Scythe, the new cooler supports drives up to 15-mm thick. It's constructed of two high-quality aluminum shells which completely engulfs the drive in a makeshift 2-mm chassis. These two shells are lined with a thermal compound pad for maximum heat transference -- two additional thermal compound pads are even thrown into the mix to reduce vibrations (see left).
To round out the package, four screw blocks made of rubber also help reduce vibrations and can be adjusted to fit various bays. That said, consumers receive a reduction in heat and noise all in one ingenious design. The Himuro Mini is launching in Europe this week for 14,25 EUR (excl. VAT/TAX), and is expected to hit Scythe USA's branch shortly.
