SmartDrive 2002C

Many silent PC enthusiasts have heard of the SmartDrive enclosure for silencing hard disks, but because of it's expensive cost and limited availability not many have actual experiences with one. The SmartDrive has been produced by the Japanese company www.gup.co.jp for many years now, who claims over 60,000 units shipped outside of Japan. Recently stumbling onto their Japanese website, I discovered their retail/online store was selling their 2002C (copper model) for 5480 yen, or approximately US$50. It's still not cheap, considering you can get a 80GB HDD for the same price, but much less than the $70 or higher price seen at US/European online retailers. It was only after I made my purchase that I discovered apparently there was some kind of special promotion (as I don't read Japanese) and the normal price seems to be around 8000 yen closer to the US/Europe price. Needless to say I was happy that I just by chance lucked out to get the special price (maybe I should have gotten two...)



I do not live in Japan, but happened to have a friend visiting Tokyo who helped me with the purchase. The package came nicely wrapped and delivered by UPS Japan.





Here the SmartDrive is taken out and placed next to it's box. It has a nice anodized black aluminum finish and is actually a hefty weight. I purchased the SATA cable extender set for an extra $6.


Although it is possible attach a system's cables directly to the HDD, using the extension will make it possible to detach the HDD without having to open up the enclosure. However I discovered the extra $6 was not necessary as a set of both SATA and ATA extension cables is already included.



The bottom-side of the enclosure with the six screws used to hold the bottom plate in place.







Opening up we see there are two large copper plates inside the black alumnim enclosure. Also a heavy foam lining along the edges makes for a tight seal.



The enclosure has the form factor of a 5.25" drive, so mounting it inside a SFF will probably be quite difficult unless one is willing to sacrifice the optical drive. But we'll see if there is any chance to fit it inside the Aria case. I plan to test this enclosure and will post how effective it is in both dampening the noise as well as cooling the HDD.