Silentmaxx HD-Silencer

Reviews: Cooling

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Nicholas Hart
Kurtis
Quiet PC
Oct. 17, 2005

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Conclusion

The Silentmaxx HD-silencer will lower the sound output from your drive but it certainly isn't silent. The real selling point in my opinion is its excellent cooling performance. I checked out a few drive cooler reviews and the heavy-duty heatsink design of the Silentmaxx HD-silencer is as good at cooling as many of the actively cooled units, and surprisingly, sometimes even better! This enclosure looks nice and the parts-fit is excellent.

My biggest concern is case compatibility; make sure your case has mounting holes at center-height of the 5.25" bays before you consider this enclosure. Also, for maximum sound insulation, this enclosure is best suited for a case with solid front bay plates, as opposed to perforated like mine.

The Silentmaxx HD-silencer can purchased from QuietPC USA for $55 at the time of writing. That's quite a bit more than other drive silencing products or hard drive coolers. While it does an excellent job of cooling the drive without fans, I would expect it to do a better job at silencing as well! After all, it is called the HD-silencer. If silence is your biggest concern, then this isn't the right product. But if you want a good drive cooler that won't bring additional noise to your setup, the HD-silencer is for you.

Pros

Excellent cooling
Attractive finished product
Great parts-fit

Cons

A bit pricey
Where's my silence?
Not compatible with all cases

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Page 4 of 4

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Page 1: Introduction / First Looks
Page 2: Installation
Page 3: Test Setup / Testing
Page 4: Conclusion

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3 User Comments

1 - Posted by blackjet on November 2, 2005 - 4:52 am

When i saw this i had high hopes.....my long term plan is to have a silent (or at least inaudible) computer, hopefully without having to resort to water cooling. The only thing i haven’t been able to find a good silencer for is my HDD yet. Is it possible to buy a silent HDD rather than trying to silence a noisy one?

2 - Posted by Rich on November 2, 2005 - 7:51 am

some HD have dynamic noise control. Basically they slow down so they don't make as much noise, but they also don't perform as well either.

3 - Posted by Frosty on November 3, 2005 - 3:32 pm

i know kurtis use to have his in his(computer) room, but just out of curiosty why did you have to move it out, or did i miss that part?

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