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The Cooler Master CoolDrive HDD cooler

Overview: Cooler Master CoolDrive

Noise	++
Air flow	-
Dust protection	++

++ is best, -- is worst

Advantages
+ cooling 'by contact' via large heatsink
+ very silent

Disadvantages
- limited air flow over the hard drive
- no HDD activity LED

The Design

When you see the CoolDrive cooler just from the outside, you might think: Hey, that's just a face plate with two fans - these coolers have been available for years! Wrong - the CoolDrive unit, unlike many other HDD coolers, also includes a large heatsink that cools the hard drive by contact. A self-glueing thermal interface material is included, which you can glue on the HDD's chip set, and then install the HDD "inside" the heatsink. A great concept - but the weak point of this cooler are the fans. Unfortunately, there are only two of them, which provide very limited airflow. This is, in part, due to the dust filter - it does a fine job filtering dust, but it also inhibits air flow.

Picture showing the CoolDrive's heatsink. The hard drive is screwed directly on the heatsink, so that the HDD's PCB has direct contact to the cooler. The massive heatsink also has the advantage of providing vibration-free mounting for the HDD, possibly resulting in a lower noise level.

Conclusion
How does this unit perform when compared other HDD coolers that cool the disc by airflow only (without heatsink)? Well, due to the radically different design, a direct comparison is impossible; which unit provides better cooling depends on the exact test circumstances. If your case ventilation is not ideal, then I'd rather pick a HDD cooler that provides more air flow, and thus will have a positive effect on case cooling. On the other hand, if your case ventilation is already very good, then the "cooling by contact" concept makes more sense, and that's the strength of the CoolDrive.

Installation
Installation is quite easy; at first, you cut the provided thermal interface tape into pieces that fit your HDD's chipset, then install the HDD inside the cooler, and finally mount everything into a 5.25" slot. Note that if the drive is already installed, you will have to uninstall it in order to install this cooler.