Pros: A quick and easy way to swap drives. Easy set up, requires little knowledge. An economocal way to copy HDD contents when switching systems, or for rapid and massive backups. Thermaltake is a reputable and well-known company in the computer accessory business.

Cons: Not ideal for long-term external HDD usage with the drive exposed and (potentially) precariously standing. The USB ports are most likely not needed, as other, smaller hubs can be purchased and then run in-line between this device and the computer. I'd recommend the version without USB ports. Better options exist, overall, but for the price, this is a nice unit.

Overall Review: It should be noted that 3.5" SATA drives will tend to run at 30 to 35 degrees CELSIUS. This is about 90 to 100 degrees F. That is at IDLE folks! So it will be considerably warm to the touch, when doing nothing. When running consistently (ie during large copy/write/search) the temperature will increase dramatically on many drives. Consider that among the components in a typical PC, the HDD is one of the only ones with moving parts, is often enclosed in a tight space and yet does NOT have any active cooling! HDDs get very hot and this often decreases their MTBF (mean time between failures) by 50% or more.

Pros: It is a cooler, it does use heat pipes,and it does, indeed, have a large fan with LEDs. The Pros end right about there. While this cooler does an adequate job of cooling, it hardly lends itself to extreme usage, and is hard-pressed to keep up with any OC (overclocking) that might be thrown its way.

Cons: As advertised, it is quite large, though not as cumbersome or bulky as some. Installation, while not difficult, is not simplicity itself with 939 configurations, and in some cases can require more force than seems prudent. The fan, while large, spins at a low RPM thereby negating some of the benefit of such size in favor of low noise output.

Overall Review: If you plan to OC, or use this cooler on anything about 2.4GHz, I would recommend looking at other options with more heatpipes and fan control. Average temperatures with this cooler are in line with OEM cooling options (that is to say, stock coolers included with AMD and Intel CPUs). Therefore, other than looks, or the need to replace a cooler, it offers little in the way of advanced cooling. An experienced user can always replace the included 120mm fan with a faster fan, but that somewhat lessens the out-of-the-box value and benefit.