With everything inside the computer producing more and more heat, you may think of installing a cooler for your hard disk drive, especially if you have a high rotation model (7,200 rpm or above) in order to increase the lifespan of your HDD and, at the same time, decreasing the PC internal temperature, preventing it from overheating.

Vortex is a hard disk drive cooler from Vantec that blows cold air from outside the computer case on the hard disk drive, decreasing your HDD temperature. It is available in two models and two color options (silver and black). The first model, VTX-CO1, has a digital thermometer and you can adjust the fan speed as hi, low or off. The second model, VTX-CO2, doesn’t have a digital thermometer but has a potentiometer that controls the fan speed. We reviewed VTX-CO1-SL model.

Vortex is a 5 ¼“ aluminum enclosure to be installed on any slot targeted to 5 ¼“ devices available on the front panel of your PC. Your HDD must be installed inside this enclosure.

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Figure 1: Vantec Vortex.

In Figure 2, you can see how Vortex looks like inside. On the left side you can see the blower in charge of pulling cold air from outside the computer case and blowing it on the hard disk drive. If you pay close attention you can see on the far left a dust filter (the product comes with two extra dust filters for you to replace it in the future). Since this product blows air from outside the computer case to inside your PC, it if didn’t have a dust filter your hard disk drive would become dirty very quickly. In the middle of the product you can see its thermal sensor.

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Figure 2: Inside Vantec Vortex.

Instead of a regular fan, this cooler uses a crossflow blower, which distributes the air more evenly through the hard disk drive.

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Figure 3: Blower.

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Figure 4: Blower (outside view) and dust filter.