Vantec Hard Drive Cooler HDC-502A Heatsink w/2 Fans

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Vantec HD Cooler HDC-502A Heat Sink features an aluminum alloy, 100% heat dissipation, twin fans, high airflow, high performance, and easy installation to extend the live of your hard drive.

Vantec’s HDC-502A hard drive cooler has a blue anodized finish and twin fans that use sleeve bearings which run at 5000 RPM and produce a noise level of 24 dBA. This heat sink can be used in both the 3.5” and 5.25” hard drive bays. Installation is simple and straight forward (note: mounts to bottom of hard drive and requires 2 slots). Hard drive temperature reduction using the HDC-502A is 5-7 degrees Celsius.

There are a few drawbacks to Vantec’s HDC-502A Heat Sink. First, is the color which may not match your color theme in your computer. This is a minor issue and completely a personal preference. Second, is that the twin fans are small with a very high RPM which can lead to fan failure producing a very loud whine. This issue requires disconnecting the defective fan and/or replacing the fan. Third, mounting it to the hard drive in a tool-less 5.25’ bay will require some minor modifications to make it fit properly. If you are planning to mount this in a 5.25” bay that is not easily visible this may not be the unit for you.

There are solutions for issues listed above. You can paint heat sink with a high heat paint that better suits your case style/color scheme. Replace the fans with better ball-bearing fans. Modify your tool-less mounting system to allow the heat sink to fit properly.

The Vantec HDC-502A w/ twin fans does a very good job of reducing hard drive temperature with very little fan noise. Having to replace the fans occasionally is not an acceptable trade-off for this unit. No matter what the price the manufacturer should include quality fans that don’t need replacement within the life of the unit.

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