Novac intros external HDD enclosure with sizable cooling fan

Paranoid about excessive heat? Looks like the folks at Novac share your worries, as the NV-HDS392U external hard drive enclosure packs one of the largest, most prominent cooling fans you're likely to find in such a device. Boasting an all-aluminum frame and measuring in at 2.16- x 7.2- x 4.69-inches, this unit plays nice with any 3.5-inch IDE / SATA hard drive that you've got hanging around, and connects up with your Mac or PC via USB 2.0. If things get a bit heated, users can simply flip the "on" switch to crank up the side-mounted cooling fan, and those interested can snap this one up early next month for ¥4,980 ($43).

[Via AkihabaraNews]

[Brad @ Aug 22nd 2007 11:15PM]

That's pretty ghetto! I'll stick to my fanless LaCie drives :)

[Canyon289 @ Aug 22nd 2007 11:19PM]

This isn't new. I have 2 of these enclosures from a computer swap meet I got to every 2 months AND I only paid 27 dollars for this thing.

[QUOW @ Aug 22nd 2007 11:19PM]

Does anybody remember the study GOOGLE did on hard drives and heat? In effect, "there is no correlation between drive life and sustained operating temperature levels?" Unless you start hitting the 55-60 degree Celsius range, fans are bullshit and just take up electricity and create dust bunnies.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Aug 23rd 2007 4:27AM]

Yes,
http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

[David @ Aug 22nd 2007 11:43PM]

I'm just really curious to see how much noise that thing makes. Mine with a tiny fan is insanely loud(mind you it was $5).

[Pip @ Aug 22nd 2007 11:49PM]

This is a great idea. I lost 3 externals and I'm pretty sure they were all to heat. Whoever said heat didn't have an effect on hard drives is full of shit. Those enclosures are tiny as hell. My Western Digitals (all 3 of them) would get so hot you couldn't touch them. That has got to have an effect.

[Keaton @ Aug 23rd 2007 12:02AM]

Man I think you lost them 'cause they were WD's...
Never have had a WD last very long myself...
I think they have a built in heating element... Built to fail...
Stick with Seagate / Toshiba / Fujitsu / Maxtor

[manfesto @ Aug 23rd 2007 12:05AM]

You can find similar cases with big-ass fans from this company called Galaxy (for less money), like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716019

My friends tend to buy these - they seem sturdy and keep the drives cool.

[Me @ Aug 23rd 2007 12:21AM]

A hard drive that doubles as a jet engine! I need to get me one of those.

[Urza @ Aug 23rd 2007 12:37AM]

My question is what kind of drives are in that thing? Because I've had two WD Caviar 80GB drives, one in a computer and one in an external drive, bought two or three years apart, and neither of them lasted over a year. Only WD drives I've ever had. My Quantum Fireball is still going strong 8 years later, I have a drive in my basement that's...11 years old and still good. I have had twelve hard drives, and the only ones to ever fail were those two WDs.

[waiownsyou @ Aug 23rd 2007 4:46AM]

It's not like hard drives get THAT hot

[Bob Mc @ Aug 23rd 2007 11:27AM]

A bigger fan rotating at a slower speed would cool the drive quieter than a small fan spinning quickly.

Phew!

[mrtoasty @ Aug 23rd 2007 11:57AM]

Just another rebadge.
Exact same case, but IDE-only here for $24.99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159064

[gadgetfreak @ Aug 23rd 2007 4:56PM]

As long as they are sticking a giant speaker on the side of that thing, why not add an iPod dock?