Vantec
Encyclopedia
Vantec Thermal Technologies is a privately held multinational corporation
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
with headquarters and an R&D team in the US, sales/purchasing office in Taiwan and factories in Taiwan, Korea and China. Vantec designs and manufactures thermal products and computer peripherals. Consumers can buy Vantec products from brick-and-mortar electronics stores or online retailers. The company does not sell to end-users directly.
History
Vantec was founded in 1994 in Fremont, CA. The company started as a manufacturer of CPU cooling fans for system integratorSystem integrator
A systems integrator is a person or company that specializes in bringing together component subsystems into a whole and ensuring that those subsystems function together, a practice known as System Integration...
s and end-users. In the late 1990s, Vantec gained recognition notably in overclocking AMD processors.
The company launched TMD Tip-Magnetic Driving
Tip-Magnetic Driving
Tip-magnetic driving is a fan technology invented by Yen Sun Technology Corporation .TMD moves the motor out of the hub of the fan and puts it around the edge...
CPU cooling fans in 2002. The popularity of quiet home entertainment computers made this product line advantageous Vantec. In the same year, Vantec also introduced the NXP-101 multi-function front panel. This product is the first on the market with front USB and Firewire ports. It became a standard on many current computer cases.
In 2002, the company introduced its first computer power supply unit (PSU), which was first on the consumer market with three cooling fans and a black brushed aluminum casing. This design became popular for high-end power supplies as the heat and power consumption from high-performance video cards increased. Vantec has carried external hard disk enclosures since 2004. The NexStar 3 series enclosures were the first external hard drive enclosures on the market to adopt mirror-finished double-coated aluminum casings with a variety of colors (black, blue, red and silver).
The company moved to a new facility in 2004 within the Pacific Commons
Pacific Commons
Pacific Commons is a master-planned, mixed-use development consisting of 840 acres in Fremont, California currently in development by Catellus Development Corporation. It sits on the site of a former airport and Baylands Raceway Park...
Shopping Center where it is adjacent to a Costco
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States. it is the third largest retailer in the United States, where it originated, and the ninth largest in the world...
and the future Cisco Field ballpark of the Oakland Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
.
Markets
Vantec products are distributed worldwide. The US headquarters manages the North American markets. The Taiwan branch manages European, South American and Asian countries including Australia and New Zealand.Storage products
- External hard disk enclosures: NEXSTAR, NEXSTAR 2, NEXSTAR 3, NEXSTAR GX, NEXSTAR DX, NEXSTAR LX, NEXSTAR SX, NEXSTAR MX, NEXSTAR CX, NEXSTAR Hard Drive Dock, IDE to USB Adapter, SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter and IDE to SATA converter.
- Removable hard drive racks: EZ Swap, EZ Swap2 and EZ Swap EX.
- Portable media playerPortable media playerA portable media player or digital audio player, is a consumer electronics device that is capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, video, documents, etc. the data is typically stored on a hard drive, microdrive, or flash memory. In contrast, analog portable audio...
: AVOX AVX-100TX. - SATA controllers: SATA PCI host cards, eSATA cardbus and serial ATA PCI-E host cards.
Peripherals
- USB devices: USB hubUSB hubA USB hub is a device that expands a single USB port into several so that there are more ports available to connect devices to a host system.USB hubs are often built into equipment such as computers, keyboards, monitors, or printers...
s, USB card readerCard readerA card reader is a data input device that reads data from a card-shaped storage medium. Historically, paper or cardboard punched cards were used throughout the first several decades of the computer industry to store information and programs for computer system, and were read by punched card readers...
s and USB PCI cards. - Power supplies: Stealth and ION series.
- Cables: IDE, Floppy and SCSI rounded cables.
Cooling products
- Case fans: Stealth, Tornado, Thermoflow and Spectrum series.
- System cooling: Vortex hard drive cooling systems, chipset coolers, fan cards, video card and memory coolers.
- CPU coolers.
Notebook accessories
- Notebook coolers and water coolers.
- Notebook docking stations, keypads, and security locks.
PC Mods
- Quiet solutions: case fan and power supply vibration damper kits.
- UV fans, cold cathodeCold cathodeA cold cathode is a cathode used within nixie tubes, gas discharge lamps, discharge tubes, and some types of vacuum tube which is not electrically heated by the circuit to which it is connected...
lights, UV LED fans, UV slot protectors. - UV reactive cable sleeving kits.