Tuniq Sanctum HDD cooler/silencer

tuniqshot

It doesn't work.

Okay, that's a little bit unfair; it's probably more accurate to say that it doesn't work as expected. The Tuniq Sanctum hard drive enclosure is a 5.25" bay device that holds a 3.5" (or smaller, I suppose) hard drive, and purportedly not only reduces the noise output of the drive but also helps to keep it cool. This device, unfortunately, excels at one aspect of its claimed purpose and fails at the other. While it does indeed keep noise levels down very acceptably, the Tuniq Sanctum enclosure, due to the lack of airflow inside the device, fails to cool the hard drive adequately. In fact, leaving the hard drive inside the enclosure will probably decrease the hard drive's lifetime due to the 60+ degrees Celsius temperatures sometimes experienced inside the device.

tuniqback

There are other problems with the Sanctum. Cables passing into the device to connect to the hard drive, as seen here, are obstructed by a piece of foam at the back of the device. The foam puts pressure on the cables, which could be devastating for weaker connectors like SATA cables. The indents you can see above are caused by the wires pushing down on the foam.

tuniqopen

When installing the hard drive into the Sanctum, one is supposed to attach two "thermal pads" to the hard drive. (These pads can be seen in the first photo.) The pads supposedly conduct heat away from the drive to the aluminum fins on the outside. I didn't attach them during my installation, because they would have forced me to continue using the Sanctum with that drive for all eternity - the pads would make the drive thicker than an ordinary 3.5" bay. I don't think the pads can do much to affect the thermals anyway, as foam (no matter how "thermal") can never be a really good heat conductor.

To conclude, the Tuniq Sanctum is probably not worth the money. While it keeps the noise of the hard drive down, its inability to cool the drive adequately makes it basically useless to anyone wanting high performance or longevity from their drive. For new builders, the money spent on this enclosure would be better put toward a quieter or cooler-running hard drive.

Comments

comments powered by Disqus