Nate MC :: Review: Genica Hot Swap Rack Vs. AGPB LCD Mobile Rack ::

NEWS - TECH - RECIPES - MUSIC - GALLERY - STORE - LINKS

Review: Genica Hot Swap Rack Vs. AGPB LCD Mobile Rack

Product: Genica Mobile Hard Drive Rack (Black)

Price: $7-15 street

Spec:
Holds One 3.5in Hard Drive
Has one 40mm fan for cooling
Plastic
Supports ATA 33/66/100/133
2 Keys
LED Activity/Power indicators

Ease of Installation for a geek: Easy
Ease of Installation for a Newbie: Easy

Price: Cheap. You get what you pay for. I've seen newer revisions that have better airflow but I doubt they have improved so much as to drop drive temperature

Pros: Price & Convenience, if your broke it will do in a pinch if you run out of internal drive bays for hard drives.

Cons: It's plastic so it doesn't disperse heat and the small fan in the back doesn't seem to do anything to help cool the drive

Installing: As easy as installing a CD-Rom drive, the hardest part is getting the hard drive to sit inside the tray and get the internal cables to not hinder the placement of screws

Product: AGPB LCD Mobile Rack (Black) ATN-999

Price: $25-30 street

Spec:
Holds One 3.5in Hard Drive
Has one fan for cooling (bottom)
Plastic & Aluminum
Supports ATA 33/66/100/133
Side lit Blue LED display
Temperature readout & Fan RPM
Programmable Alarms
2 Keys
LED Activity/Power indicators

Ease of Installation for a geek: Easy
Ease of Installation for a Newbie: Easy

Price: A little more expensive but you get allot more features than the Genica. Worth the extra money if you care about drives getting hot.

Pros: Aluminum casing allows for better heat dispersion. Fan on the bottom keeps pulling hot air out of the tray. LCD display is a nice addition.

Cons: Temperature and fan alarms are a pain to set and of course it doesn't come with instructions you have to figure it out yourself. Only Displays Celsius or Fahrenheit, have to hit reset when you switch between the two.

Installing: Easier than the Genica, there is more room in the tray and the cables are more flexible so getting the drive correctly placed for screw holes is a breeze.

To compare temperatures between the two I am using Motherboard Monitor 5 and a Seagate 7200.7 200gb ATA/100 hard drive with S.M.A.R.T. enabled. Test system is an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe, AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton), 2 256mb DDR400 in a Chen ming 601AE case.

Temperatures:
Genica: Average temp 40°c / 102°f (MBM5)
AGPB: Average 31°c / 88°f (MBM5) LCD Readout 27.8°c / 82°f
Chen ming Bay Average 25°c / 77°f (MBM5) (5-8 degrees over case temp)

The reliability of the onboard LCD readout of the AGPB is semi concerning because of it's inaccuracy, you must make sure that the temperature probe is touching the drive other wise it's even less reliable. But the AGPB beats the Genica in cooling hands down, but is still beat by putting the hard drive in the built in 3.5 drive bay. But if you don't have any extra room the AGPB would be the best option.

All options cool the hard drive to within manufacturers suggested limits (max 55°c according to Seagate) but as with everything heat kills so the less heat the better.

To Product Pictures >