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ThermalTake is arguably one of the best success stories in the world of mod suppliers. We've had a long relationship with the company and have seen their reputation grow as quickly as their product line. We've used the Volcano 7+ for a long time in various systems, but recently we've started to use Volcano 9's in most of our benchmark test beds. Today we're looking at the "CoolMod" version of the Volcano 9, which differs from the original Volcano 9 only in an aesthetic fashion.
What the heck is "CoolMod"?
Simply put, Thermaltake is using the CoolMod moniker in any of their fan products that feature LED lighting. Other companies like Epox have used terms like "Magic Light", but they all mean the same thing. In the case of the Volcano 9 CoolMod, Thermaltake took the concept one step further and markets this CoolMod as being able to change colour with your Hard Drive activity.
Detailed Look at the V9 CoolMod
The Volcano 9 CoolMod uses the exact same heatsink as the regular Volcano 9. This is a fairly massive aluminum fin heatsink with a copper core and a clip design that hooks onto all 3 plastic levers on your CPU socket. Looking at the below picture you can see just how similar the V9 and V9 CoolMod coolers look when placed side by side. The real difference lies in the plexi fan grille cover on the fan, and the wires leading out from the LEDs attached to the plexiglass.
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There are 4 LEDs in total, one on each side of the cooler. Each LED has a separate wire leading out, but each wire from opposing LEDs actually joins together so that there are really only 2 power connectors. You might have noticed in the preceding pictures that the CoolMod fan is a little higher than the regular fan. This gap accomodates the added height of the LEDs embedded in the plexi grille, but I think it also serves the purpose of elevating the plexiglass and LEDs away from the fan surface.
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Has anyone confirmed if they are in fact using various LED's rather than a standard provider? It would be interesting to know before I consider an upgrade for myself to one of those. I'll take the advice on the light mod as well to keep it constantly running. It does look pretty bad with only the blue set constantly working.
[btw] Were there any temp. comparisons to the 7+? I only saw 2 pages avalible in the article.
The way I understand it, the V9CoolMod performs at the same level as the V7 regular, so the V7+ will still outperform it. The new Volcano 11 Xaser edition will outperform both, I'm guessing. We're trying to bring that in right now to do a test.
Btw, we're not sure whether or not its advised to force both LED colours to be lit at once using our trick. Some motherboards may not be able to handle it, though I can't see it eating too much power. I think it's worth it if someone can do a simple mod to see whether they can get the case lights AND the CoolMod to work at the same time.
Eg:
Connect the CoolMod to PowerLED and MessageLED. Splice the case PowerLED wire manually into the PowerLED wire on the CoolMod. Connect the case HDD LED to the mobo. Voila. If anyone wants to risk trying it, let us know if it works without burning out something
running 3Dbenck2003
How fast are you running the fan to get that sort of temperature?