Sytrin KuFormula SHF1

It’s a rarity in the Maximum PC Lab that a product comes in and performs without annoyance, irritation, or even the slightest bit of “we had to resort to interesting solution x to make things happy.” Enter Sytrin’s KuFormula SHF1 hard-drive cooling unit, a marvel of simplicity that looks good and cools great.

There’s really not much involved in cooling a hard drive these days, but the simplistic SHF1 performs admirably. Installing a hard drive into the firm aluminum enclosure couldn’t be easier—you pop the top and mount the drive with four noise-reducing, rubber-stopper-based screws. Connect the power and data connectors and then mount the entire assembly in a spare drive bay and you’re ready to rock.

The connector powers the device’s two 40cm fans—they’re of the blue LED variety—which add a nice glow through the SHF1’s front grill. The fans spin at just 4,500rpm, but that’s fast enough to move plenty of air.

After firing up HD Tach, a hard-drive evaluation tool that nicely mimics one’s typical drive usage, we got our coolerless hard drive to peak at around 46 degrees Celsius. When we tucked the drive into the SHF1, the temperature peaked at 26 degrees Celsius—not only is that a great temperature drop, but the SHF1 accomplished this 20-degree reduction without being overly loud. In fact, even mentioning the word “loud” in the same sentence as the SHF1 overstates the device’s noise levels.

Sure, there are other hard-drive coolers with fancier fans and maybe an LED display or two. But if you want something simple and effective, the SHF1 is your frosty ticket.