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Thermaltake HardCano 2 & 5


Date
: 05/7/02 – 02:03:16 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer: Thermaltake

Price HardCano 2 : $36.99 @ eXtremePCgear.com
Price HardCano 5 : N/A

Introduction

A lot of you people must have heard of the MacPower DigiDoc5 (We reviewed it here) or the Enermax Dual Temp Monitor Rack … no? Well, these are two devices that come with multiple functions. For example, if you read our review of the DigiDoc5 once more, you'll see that this piece of hardware not only makes your case look really good but also acts as a hard drive cooler, a temperature monitoring device and a power supplier for a huge load of fans.

Today we're going to check out some new (read brand-new) products with similar features from the peeps over at Thermaltake. You might remember them from popular CPU coolers like the SuperOrb, The Volcano heatsinks and so on? However, not all Thermaltake products we've seen so far are perfect. I'm referring to coolers like the SuperOrb with the pain-in-the-ass retention clip. But I believe it's safe to say that their product quality has improved a lot in the past several years.

This time, we're not looking at another Athlon XP or Pentium4 cooler. No sir, today the hard drives get our special attention and more specifically the new HardCano HDD coolers from Thermaltake. O² received the HardCano 2 and HardCano 5 models and we're ready to check them out together with you …

And those of you who think these new Thermaltake products are nothing more than just plain and simple HDD coolers will be proven wrong soon ;)

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

Thermaltake HardCano 2 Hard Disk Drive Cooler

A quick copy/paste from the Thermaltake website shows us the following specifications :

The HardCano 2 package contains the HardCano 2 main unit, a tiny manual, 2 brackets we will use to attach the hard drive to in a little while and finally a little plastic bag with handful of screws, a 3 -> 4 pin (molex) adapter and last but not least 2 pieces of special tape that is needed to attach the thermal sensors to the hardware. That's about all you get when you buy the HardCano 2 package. By the way … Did I already mention that all this stuff is packed in a see-through plastic box? Well, now I did! :p But anyway, I think the manual could be a lot better on this one. We can hardly talk about a manual in this case. It's more like a tiny piece of paper with some quick notes on it. Although I don't think many of you would need a manual to install the HardCano 2, a good and complete manual would still be a good addition to the package.

The HardCano 2 comes with 2 LCD displays on the front plate and fits in just about every available 5.25" drive bay. The 2 LCD displays are connected to 2 super-flat temperature sensors at the backside of the panel. They allow you to monitor just about anything inside or even outside the case if the wires are long enough ;) And believe me, they are pretty long!

When we look at the front of the HardCano 2, we also see a small fan. It measures only 40x40x20 mm and doesn't make much noise at all (only 23dBa). Still, it manages to push about 5 CFM of airflow while spinning at ±5000RPM. The fan comes with a good looking fan bracket that you might remember from the Volcano 7 heatsinks. The fan needs to be powered by the 3-pin power connector directly to the motherboard OR directly to power supply by using the 3-pin to molex adapter. The 2 LCD displays and thermal sensors don't require any power from the system because they are all battery-powered. This is actually quite nice because you can continue monitoring the temps from the sensors inside the case even when the system is turned off. The only drawback to the use of battery power is the lack of backlight on both LCD displays :( You can't read the temperatures when you're in a dark room. I'd say : Always carry a flashlight!

The aluminum front plate is not flat at all. If you look at it more carefully, you'll notice that it has a kind of wave-shaped front. As a result of this 'wave' the HardCano doesn't seem to be installed properly in the 5.25" drive bay. This is the feeling most people will get when they managed to install it the very first time. Some of you will like the looks while others will hate it. I guess that's life …

Thermaltake HardCano 5 Hard Disk Drive Cooler

Again a copy/past from the Thermaltake website will reveal the specs of the HardCano 5 :

I know you will agree with me if I say that the HardCano 5 unit looks very similar to the HardCano 2 we just talked about. It has about the same package and comes with the exact same stuff inside the package : the HardCano 5 unit (instead of the HardCano 2 … duh!), the tiny manual, and the little plastic bag with the screws, the molex adapter and one piece of thermal tape.

But a closer look reveals some relatively big differences … The first big difference between the HardCano 2 and the HardCano 5 is the layout of the front bezel.

Instead of the 2 LCD displays on the HardCano 2, this model has only 1 LCD display and thermal sensor. The second LCD displays is replaced by a 3-way fan speed controller. You can set it to LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH speed. On the backside we have 2 sets of wires coming out of the controller. One set has to be attached to the power supply with the molex connector while the other one needs to be connected to the fan you want to control with the 3-way fan speed controller. The LCD display, the thermal sensor and the 40x40x20mm fan have the exact same specs as the ones on the HardCano 2 so I won't repeat myself here anymore. A second difference between our 2 Hardcanos is the backside of the unit. The HardCano 5 comes with an aluminum cover to put over the mounted hard drive. You can get this cover in 2 colors : silver and gold. I don't see why they have 2 colors available because you simply can't see the cover when the HardCano is mounted in the 5.25" drive bay …

The aluminum cover has an advantage though … It touches the top of the hard drive that is attached to the HardCano and absorbs the heat that is coming from the drive. The fan will help the cover to cool down itself and the hard drive. This drop in operating temperature will definitely increase the lifespan of your hardware which is the hard drive in this case. If you look at the pictures, you can also see the same HardCano wavy-design of the front plate.

Page 3 : Installation & Testing

Installation & Testing

Test System :

- AMD 1.4GHz Athlon CPU
- IWill KK266plus-R Mainboard
- Swiftech MCXC370 Heatsink
- 128MB OCZ Performance Max SDRAM + 256MB Mushkin Rev3 SDRAM
- Hercules GeForce3 Ti200 videocard
- IBM 20GB UDMA100 7200rpm hard drive
- Western Digital 45GB UDMA66 7200rpm hard drive
- Accton 10Mbit NIC
- Accton 100Mbit NIC
- Digidoc5
- AOpen CDRW drive
- Dual 92mm intake fans
- WinXP Pro
- Deto 23.11

Installing these babies is far from difficult. If you know how to hold a screwdriver, you should be fine! The installation process of both HardCano units is very similar. Here's how they go …

HardCano 2 Installation

You first need you need to remove the 2 white pieces of paper under the batteries of both LCD displays. This will turn on the LCD displays and thermal sensors. It's really important that you do this first, because once the hard drive is installed, you will not be able to reach the battery cover anymore. Believe me, I know ;) The next thing we have to do is to attach both brackets to the main unit by holding the brackets to the chassis and fasten each one of them with one tiny screw. Again, it's not pretty clear how to do this previous step by just looking at the manual, but as soon as you start doing it yourself things will become clear in no time. All you need to do now is mount the hard drive in the HardCano 2 chassis, plug the whole thing in a free 5.25" drive bay and power the fan in front of the unit. Finally, this is the point where you can start attaching the thermal sensors to whatever piece of hardware you wish to monitor. That's how easy this is.

Performance

- Case temp – Hardcano 2 fan ON/OFF : 31°C
- Hard drive temp – Hardcano 2 fan OFF : 36.6°C
- Hard drive temp – Hardcano 2 fan ON : 32.2°C

HardCano 5 Installation

Installing the HardCano 5 is pretty much the same as I described in the previous paragraph, but as it does differ slightly and the manual is not complete at all, I'll go through the process briefly. As a matter of fact installing the HardCano 5 is even easier than installing an HardCano 2 because the HardCano 5 comes completely pre-assembled. AGAIN, don't forget to remove the piece of paper under the battery of the LCD display before you install the hard drive! It'll save you a lot of trouble! To attach the hard drive to the HardCano 5, you need to remove the silver or gold cover (depends on which model you chose). Now you can put the hard drive between the brackets and attach the screws from underneath the HardCano unit. That's right … from underneath … take a look at the pictures. Once the hard drive and the screws are in the right spot, you have to put the top cover back on and plug it in a spare 5.25" drive bay. Now it's time to connect the wires … First we need to power the front fan with the 3pin connector again, then we make sure the 3-way fan speed controller has power by connecting the molex directly to the PSU and last of all we connect one of our 92mm case fans to the other wire of the fan speed controller. The fan speed of this case fan can now be adjusted by just changing the setting on the front panel of the HardCano 5. To finalize the installation process, you need to attach the thermal sensor (only 1 sensor on the HardCano 5) to the hardware of your choice.

Performance

- Case temp – Hardcano 2 fan ON/OFF : 31°C
- Hard drive temp – Hardcano 2 fan OFF : 35.3°C
- Hard drive temp – Hardcano 2 fan ON : 32°C

Page 4 : Conclusion

Conclusion

HardCano 2

Good

- Looks nice
- Dual LCD display
- Dual thermal sensor
- Good hard drive cooler
- ultra-thin sensors

Bad

- Pricey for some people
- No backlight

HardCano 5

Good

- Looks even better
- Superb hard drive cooling
- 3-way fan speed controller
- Pre-assembled
- Ultra-thin sensor

Bad

- Only 1 LCD display & thermal sensor
- Possibly even more pricey

What more can we say about the HardCano 2 and 5 from Thermaltake? Nothing much actually … It does exactly what it is supposed to do! Nothing more and nothing less! The HardCano units have really managed to impress me with their hard drive cooling performance and good-looking front bezels. These Thermaltake products will certainly seem very tempting for many case modders and overclocking enthusiast out there because they combine good looks with a certain functionality. Overall, Thermaltake has done a mighty fine job when the company designed these cool gadgets. If you have some spare $$$ and you want to buy a temperature monitoring tool, the Hardcanos certainly won't let you down. On the other hand … if you're looking for nothing more than a hard drive cooler, you can buy a better HDD cooling for the price of a HardCano. Yep, we have to be honest! Despite the very good hard drive cooling on the Hardcanos, the most important ffunction of these units is still temperature monitoring.

Thanks to Thermaltake for supplying us with these two review samples!