PC Power and Cooling Thermal Alarm
Published on 2000-02-28 12:26:53
The 110 Alert is sitting on top of
a small yellow sticky pad. It's small, uses 1/10th of a watt
of power, and is LOUD.
You've got a badass
SMP rig. You're running 7200 RPM or 10,000 RPM drives and Peltiers out
the ying yang. But what would happen if one of your coolers failed and
your system got too hot? Anything from a system lockup to a Chernobyl
style meltdown. Wouldn't it be nice
if you could have some sort of alarm to let you know when your system
is getting a bit too hot? Thanks to the gang at PC Power and Cooling,
you can. They managed to develop a really nice little thermal alarm called
The 110 Alert. On the back of the unit is a good quality sticky tape so
you can mount this somewhere in your case near the "hot stuff". I've
got a pair of 7200 RPM SCSI drives and a pair of 7200 RPM UDMA/66 Drives
in my Dual P2-333 server. Obviously, my system can generate a bit
of heat. So I wanted to have a warning if it got too hot in there,
since I don't want any fried components. I stuck the 110 Alert
near my drives and procs, and plugged in the power connector. This
thing only draws 1/10th of a watt of power, so I wasn't worried about
overloading the system. I then disconnected
my case fans and blocked the air intakes. In about five minutes,
a very loud and piercing shrill came out of the case. I thought
it was a fire alarm for a minute. This thing is loud. It would wake even
the heaviest sleeper in the same room, and would probably wake the average
sleeper in a room or two away. The shrill goes on as long as its
110 degrees in there, so it's not just a quick beep. At $12.75 from PC
Power and Cooling, it's a real bargain. I bought three so I can
use them in my hottest systems. There's no drawback to this thing,
and it could very well save you from an expensive meltdown. The only thing I could
figure out that could be a problem was the tape to attach it to the case.
But I tugged pretty damned hard on it and it showed no signs of coming
off. It's the heavy duty stuff, so I'm sure it will last a long
time. I know those alarms last just about forever, but if I were
really paranoid I'd test it with a hair dryer once a month or so. I rate this product
a solid 5/5, and found no drawbacks to it. Anyone with hot components
needs one of these in their case.
Melvin at Need For Speed Extreme had
an Extreme Meltdown when his cooler failed in the night as he slept.
2CPU.com gives this product a 5/5 CPU's