Features and Specifications

To take full advantage of Akasa�s products we used a test system which outputs a lot of heat. Here is what we used:

Blue Hard Disk Cooler (AK-HD-BL)
Akasa�s hard disk cooler is a twin fan cooling device which mounts underneath 3 � inch hard disk drives. The twin fans are designed to draw in cool air towards the hard drive�s circuitry and motor system. Operating at a speed of 5000 RPM the fans provide an air flow of 9.0 CFM (higher the better) and run at a sound level of 29.0 decibels (lower the better). The cooler incorporates a light weight metal design with a blue scratch texture finish.

Crystal Blue Frame 80mm LED Fan (AK-170CB-4BLBSC)
Akasa�s Crystal Blue Frame 80mm fan comes from their stylish range of high-performance fans for front, rear and side intake 80mm case fan slots. The fan operates at a speed of 2000 � 3800 RPM, which can be adjusted to fit noise level and performance requirements using the fans manual speed control. Akasa�s Crystal Blue Frame fan is one of the fastest 80mm LED fans available from Akasa and features an air flow of 25.6 � 46.1 CFM, running at a sound level of 22.06 � 38.86 decibels. The included 3 to 4-pin adapter enables you to connect the fan directly to a standard 4-pin PSU power connector.

Silver Floppy Drive Cable (FD-45-S)
Akasa�s Floppy Disk Drive cable is a 45cm rounded cable with a transparent silver design. Its short and rounded design enables increased air flow and less cable clutter within the case. Additionally the bendable design makes it easier to install the cable. Using the attached labels on each of the connector ends can also be useful for uninstalling the cable from the motherboard and floppy drive sockets.

Cable Management Kit (AK-TK-01)
Whilst not the most exciting product from Akasa the Akasa cable management kit may also be the most pertinent product for increasing airflow within your system. If you are a user of old-style floppy and IDE cables the cable management kit will help limit air flow restrictions and tidy up wires. Owners of side window panel cases will also benefit from this basic but essential product. The multi purpose tidy cable kit includes a transparent 1.5m cable wrap, as well as a shorter 1.0m cable wrap. Additionally the kit includes 10 200mm cable ties, 20 100mm cable ties and 10 self adhesive cable claps.

Installation and Testing

For this review we wanted to increase cooling efficiency to both of the SCSI drives. The two SATA drives were already housed within two Coolmaster Cooldrive 4 units, which are mounted in the CD-Rom bays. It is always a good idea to add some sort of cooling to any drive which exceeds 7,200RPM, has a large disk size or is in constant use. Smaller and slower drives may not require cooling due to lesser heat being created from the drive motor. Akasa�s drive cooler aims at cooling down the circuitry and drive motor on the under side of the hard drive by blowing cool air to the areas of the drive which create the most heat. Installation of the cooler was a bit tricky as it involved removing both SCSI drives without uninstalling the PCI cards. We also wanted to move one of the SCSI drives up one bay, not doing so would mean hot air from the drive bellow would be dispensed into the above drive. Fixing the cooler to the actual drive is relatively easy and requires four screws to be affixed to the underside of the drive. Once installed the 2-way power connector enables you to feed power to the twin fans, as well as the hard drive, without having to utilize another connector. Because of the low power demand of the fans a single connector should provide sufficient power to both components. In our tests the cooling performance of the Akasa hard drive cooler showed only a few degrees difference. This was expected as the casing of a hard disk drive is normally too thick for any sort of fan cooling to make a significant difference. When it comes to hard drive cooling a heat sink and fan enclosure method, such as Coolmasters Cooldrive will provide better cooling efficiency. Whilst Akasa�s drive cooling method is a good idea for those users who do not have sufficient CD-Rom bays they will have to incorporate much higher-spec fans with greater airflow to make any difference.

For the installation of Akasa�s Crystal Blue Frame 80mm fan we wanted to increase air flow from the side of the case and have cool air pointing towards the CPU and graphics card, which are normally the hottest components of a PC. This particular fan from Akasa sports a 4-blue LED display, which is a useful feature for those with side-windowed cases. Not only does this fan look good but it also provides excellent air flow into the system with a rated speed of 3800 RPM and a air flow of 46.1 CFM. With this fan running we managed to accommodate Gigabytes 3DRocket Pro by providing cool air to the CPU cooler, which in turn provided cool air to the CPU.

Akasa�s rounded floppy cable and cable management kit enabled us to provide increased airflow into our system. However, with rounded cables coming commonly equipped with latest hardware and the addition of the smaller, thinner SATA cables the cable management kit wasn�t a great deal of use to us. Those still using the older style IDE cables will probably find this kit more essential.

Conclusion

Out of the four products we tested from Akasa the most beneficial for us was their Crystal Blue Frame 80mm LED Fan. It provided excellent air intake and had great looks! We found Akasa�s hard drive cooler to be an interesting idea but we feel more work needs to be done to the design before it can be considered as a beneficial hard disk cooler. For the time being we recommend those looking to cut degree�s off their hard disk drives to look at thermal drive enclosures as they are more likely to dispense more heat. We found Akasa�s floppy drive cable to be a stylistic alternative to standard floppy drive cables and a great product to have if you own a side-windowed panel case. From the four products we looked at we decided to award Akasa�s Crystal Blue Frame 80mm LED Fan with a 5 Star Rating.