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Introduction
EndPCNoise.com is a company that
has brought us a couple of products to review that have really impressed
us with their performance. The company is a niche e-retailer of computers
and components that target the "Quiet PC" market (obviously)
and this time around they have something that quite a few PC enthusiasts
should enjoy.
The Smart Drive 2002 is an enclosure that you put your hard
drive into for a reduction of sound. Inside the casing, the Smart Drive
2002 fits into your 5.25" drive bay and offers a significant (at
least 4dB) reduction in the level of sound your hard drive makes. Concerns
for overheating are rather irrelevant, as the enclosure will only raise
the ambient temperature of your hard drive by about 1 degree C. So lets
check this puppy out to see if it really reduces the sound of some of
those pesky hard drives.
Specs & Info
The Smart Drive 2002 is made from a slick looking, black anodized aluminum.
There are heat sink channels in place to allow for heat dissipation (as
mentioned earlier this won't raise the temperature of your hard drive
in any significant degree). The drive enclosure allows both regular IDE
hard drives, and the new SerialATA drives to be mounted inside.
Smart Drive 2002 |
| Noise Dampening: |
The Smart Drive Enclosure quiets hard drive noise by at least 4
decibels (difference is greater with a noisier hard drive) |
| Compatibility: |
The Smart Drive can be mounted in the forward or back position of
your 5 1/4" hard drive bay and works with 3 1/2" hard drives |
| Weight: |
1.8 lbs |
| Dimensions: |
6.95" x 5.7" x 1.3" (DxWxH) |
| Manufacturer: |
Made in Japan by Grow Up Japan |
The retail cost of the Smart Drive 2002 is $59.99 at EndPCNoise.com .
installation
This section is going to be short because installation was
a snap. You open up the enclosure ... you mount in your hard drive ...
you mount the enclosure in your 5.25" bay in your PC ... plug in
the cables ... and you're done. Very easy to do!
Performance
It's funny how you notice
things once they're gone! After installing the Smart Drive 2002 I did
notice that the "rattle" from my hard drive was gone when doing
sophisticated CPU/Hard Drive intensive operations. For those of you looking
to quiet down your PC any way you can, and really hate the noise that
a pesky Hard Drive can make, this is a great way to efficiently quiet
it down!
Overall Impressions
EndPCNoise.com has a very unique solution for quieting down
hard drives in PCs in the Smart Drive 2002 enclosure. The look of the
product is fairly sharp, so for those of you with PCs with windows, you'll
draw some envy from buddies for sure. The performance of the product was
just as expected - I could barely (honestly not at all) hear the hard
drive operating.
The value of the product would be proportional to how much
you want to quiet your PC down ... I can imagine that people with older
hard drives would REALLY want this product. The price point of $59.99
seems a little high to me, but as this is a black anodized aluminum enclosure,
it couldn't come cheap, and in all honesty - there's not many solutions
for quieting a hard drive on the market ... so as a rare product the price
point is definitely acceptable.
Overall, the Smart Drive 2002 is a great product if you're
looking to quiet down your PC in any way possible. It's funny how quickly
you'll notice how much noise your hard drive did make after you install
this enclosure - it's a noticeable difference when doing operations.
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9 / 10 |
OVERALL SCORE
90%
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9 / 10 |
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8 / 10 |
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9 / 10 |
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10 / 10 |
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9.0 /
10 |
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