Date: December 12th, 2003
Article by: Tristan E. Kay (Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: CREMAX
<--Shop for HardDrive Racks Here.
PRODUCT COMPOSITION & SETUP (cont'd)
Just as crucial as the molex connector, this IDE cable
connects the hard-drive to the dock in turn connecting it to the motherboard
via another standard ATA-133 IDE cable.
With the acquisition of a 120 GB hard-drive I figured
why not give it a shot in the ICY Dock. See if it can really keep my
hard-drive as cool as it says it can. So in the shot above, this is
my 120 GB Cicero Maxtor hard-drive mounted, connected, and ready to
be put to the test.
One crucial step before putting the dock in was selecting
whether I wanted the hard-drive to be master or slave. A hard choice
really, 13 GB master or 120 GB master, hmmmm? 120 GB it is! Using the
various options on this switchbox it is possible to set any model of
hard-drive to either master or slave.
Finally it was time to install the dock, after roughly
an hour long photo shoot and the tightening of many screws in awkward
places the dock was in. When I powered up my rig, the hard-drive purred
like a kitten in its new home along with its personal fan. The ICY dock
as you can see did a fine job of keeping the hard-drive cool at 22.0
degrees Celsius, 10 degrees cooler than my case.
RACK INTEGRATED DISPLAY
The main screen shows a few things. Seeing as the HD is
not hooked up to the hard-drive LED's on your motherboard, it's nice
to know when your hard-drive is being accessed, hence the hard-drive
access indicator in the top right of the display. Right next to that
is the master/slave indicator showing what you have set your hard-drive
up as using the switch box on the back of the dock. When the fan stop's
for an unknown reason or the hard-drive reaches critical user determined
temperature threshold, an alarm will sound and a flashing heat alarm
will appear on the display. Also displayed on the main screen is the
temperature in both degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit along with a thermometer
showing how close the temperature is to critical levels, around 40 degrees
Celsius. In utilizing the small blue menu buttons it is possible to
change the screen to a "Usage Day" screen in which it displays the number
of days that the dock has been used.
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