Homebrew drive enclosure

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:41 am

Those al002 boxes without screws in the middle would be perfect..

The same shop i bought my boxes from does have 146mm wide ones, but they are all 222mm long wich might be a problem in some cases.. They are manufatured by Deltron. If i want to stay under 222mm, i have to choose between 120mm wich is too narrow, and 187,5mm wich is too wide.. bummer.

Though i think i know where i might get custom boxes for cheap.. My friend studies metalwork, and i bet he could do aluminuim boxes in any size

Or copper, if we want to get fancy

Thinking about it, a polished copper box would look really cool

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:57 am

Though i think i know where i might get custom boxes for cheap.. My friend studies metalwork, and i bet he could do aluminuim boxes in any size Or copper, if we want to get fancy Thinking about it, a polished copper box would look really cool

I bet there would be a lot of demand from SPCRians for such an enclosure that would fit a standard 3.5" hard drive. Could be a business opportunity for you there....

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:27 pm

Well I tried an HD in a smaller box and was disappointed to find that it's too small. Looks like the original 222x146x55 is the smallest "off-the-shelf" box available that will do the job. The custom box idea sounds good, although the original concept was to effectively silence a drive without too much effort or expense. While it does this well, it's not going to suit applications where space is a big concern, unfortunately. As is so often the case, you can't have everything!

Tzeb · Post by **Tzeb** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:34 am

Double enclosure is probably overkill, but i bet would make even the noisiest drive dead silent

187x118x38 as the first box placed with gel packs around in a 222 146 55.
The best size without wasting space has to be like this :
First box without middle screw mountings :170x120x35
Second box also without middle screw mountings : 190x140x55

Me, as a slk3000b user, i'm looking for two boxes that would fit head to head on the case floor after i've removed the hard drive cage support.
Two 190x140x55 can fit just fine.

I can dream, right?

Le_Gritche · Post by **Le_Gritche** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:49 am

jaganath wrote:I bet there would be a lot of demand from SPCRians for such an enclosure that would fit a standard 3.5" hard drive. Could be a business opportunity for you there....

Well, a regular 5"1/4 drive will do the trick.
Any CD/DVD drive/burner is in a 5"1/4 enclosure, so if you have a dead one you just open it, remove the LASER and electronic stuff and put your HDD inside. You have decent room inside to fit your dampening material (be it coolpack, rubber, foam or swiss cheese according to your taste) and that's it.
The back panel is already open for the power and IDE connectors of the burner so no problem here.
The front panel is wide open though. I needed airflow so I didn't care, but maybe someone can find a good solution to close it tightly (welding a 5"1/4 detachable metal plate from the case ?)
This enclosure will not dampen vibrations as much as industrial enclosures as it is thin and light, but you probably have one lying around so at least they are free.
And voilà, you are now the proud owner of a home-made HDD enclosure.

If you plan to let the enclosure lying in the bottom of your PC case, please make sure it can't move.
Otherwise the enclosure may end up one day shorting your motherboard.
The PC will reboot and before shouting "at last, my HDD is now silent", remember that the HDD may be silent now, but it's also DEAD*

*Disclaimer: any similarity with real events is purely coincidental.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:09 am

A 5.25" optical drive case simply has too many holes to provide serious sound reduction. My experience with enclosures is that a lot of noise will spill out of even small gaps. A typical optical drive case has a big circular hole on the bottom, as well as the big holes in the front and back.

Tzeb · Post by **Tzeb** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:02 pm

alleycat, can you measure the thickness of the aluminium?
I'l have someone build me a custom sized one. It can be made easily from a foil af aluminium. Edges will be bent into place and weld at the joints. The cover will be a U shape bent piece of aluminium. A skilled person can't waste more than 20 minutes to make all of this, solder included

Excuse my 20 sec paint drawing.

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:09 pm

It's not a cheap option, but I imagine an external 5.25 enclosure like this: http://www.sweexeurope.com/product.asp?pid=317 would be quite good for putting together a homebrew coolpack damped enclosure. Obviously an external 5.25" enclosure wouldn't fit in a 5.25" bay, but as they're generally only a little larger they'd probably fit on the floor of most cases. Buying an external USB enclosure just to use the aluminium box seems a bit of a waste, but it's a cheaper option than buying a high capacity 2.5" drive. If there's a real chance it could reduce the noise of a 3.5" drive to that level then it would be well worth it.

I'll have to have a look around to see which enclosures are cheapest and most suitable then give it a try. I'm always looking for a way to successfully silence a 3.5" hard disk without cooking it, I've tried various enclosures and suspension without much success. Even with the warnings regarding cool packs I think this is definitely worth a try, rendering a noisy (but fast, cheap and high capacity) 3.5" hard disk inaudible is my holy grail of silent computing.

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:17 pm

The wall thickness of the die-cast aluminium box is 3mm, so I don't think it is possible to make one by bending. Instead it would need to be welded from separate pieces. I'm not sure what kind of result would be obtained by using a thin-walled enclosure, as I can't help but feel that the mass of the box contributes to the effectiveness of the enclosure. Also, I recommend that any enclosure shouldn't be able to contact the case directly, although extreme measures are not required here.

Steve, if you've been looking for a way to silence your drive once and for all, I recommend you try the technique as I have described at the beginning of this thread. As you'd know, the HD is the "Achilles' heel" of a silent PC, requiring extra effort to obtain success. I was pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of this enclosure, and it was very easy to make (I have no metalworking skills). It has been operating almost continuously for over a year now with no problems at all, and is still as quiet as ever.

Tzeb · Post by **Tzeb** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:58 pm

Right-angled connectors are a must if a SATA drive is to fit properly in a small sized box (17~18 CM).
Data and Power connectors
Hope to get my 180x130x45mm enclosure with 2.5 mm thick walls done soon

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:17 pm

Does anyone know where I can find a suitable enclosure in Britain? I've done a quick Google search but couldn't find any that I'm sure would work, a lot of sites don't seem have pictures or much detail about items like that.

fingers · Post by **fingers** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:10 am

Does anyone know where I can find a suitable enclosure in Britain?

Any luck finding one? I am looking also. Thanks

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:49 am

fingers wrote:
Does anyone know where I can find a suitable enclosure in Britain?
Any luck finding one? I am looking also. Thanks

I haven't purchased one yet, but I've found a few places in Britain that stock enclosures that might do the job:

http://www.distel.co.uk/asps/results.asp?CAT=84001

http://www.cricklewoodelectronics.co.uk ... php?cat=26

http://www.bardwells.co.uk/subcats.asp?catid=BOX04

I'm waiting for a selection of gel packs to arrive from a few different ebay sellers, hopefully some of them will fit nicely around a drive in one of those enclosures. I hope this works as well as other people have suggested, it'd be nice to have a bit more hard disk speed and capacity in my main PC than can be provided by a 5400RPM 2.5" drive.

fingers · Post by **fingers** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:01 am

Thanks for the links

the Deltron one is actually on a special offer if you buy two http://www.distel.co.uk/Asps/details1.asp?ID=PT21

not bad price but it's the larger on the two I am looking at (the other being http://www.bardwells.co.uk/detail.asp?s ... basket.asp)

I can't decide which would be better, 188x120x54mm (4x corner screws) or 222x146x55mm (6x screws)

All the mesurements have got me a little confused ... Opinions? Thanks

EDIT: nevermind, I read above that 120mm is to narrow (missed that

) so I will go for the larger boxes

two for £11 +postage, can't be bad

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:08 am

fingers wrote:EDIT: nevermind, I read above that 120mm is to narrow (missed that ) so I will go for the larger boxes two for £11 +postage, can't be bad

Wasn't it just the 6 screw 120mm wide enclosure that was a little too narrow? From looking at the measurements it seems like the HDD + a slim gel pack should fit when there aren't any screws in the middle. Of couse the larger enclosure is a safer bet if you've got enough space for it.

fingers · Post by **fingers** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:14 am

hmmm, yes it does seem you are right. Might give the smaller one a go after all

fingers · Post by **fingers** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:20 am

FYI, the smaller container has six screws

have to check this weekend if the HDD fit's but I am dubious. For the larger 222mm cases postage is £6.50 for two so not to bad if I need to go down that route.

Anyone know where in the UK sells the Gel packs? I went round town on Sat and couldn't find any anywhere!

Thanks

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:29 am

I got my gelpacks from the pharmacy at 5€ a piece.. 3M packs of similar size were 14€ or something other ridiculous

As mentioned earlier gelpacks are not quite as common and cheap in cold europe as in australia...

TomZ · Post by **TomZ** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:09 am

What are these "gelpacks"? Are these the things you freeze and then put into your cooler to keep your drinks or food cold?

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:35 am

fingers wrote:Anyone know where in the UK sells the Gel packs? I went round town on Sat and couldn't find any anywhere!

Thanks

I live in Oz now, but used to get them at Boots The Chemist (if they still exist). I'm sure the independant chemists will do them too.
I used them for dealing with sports injuries.
I would caution you that I have had one burst and leak in the past but that had been in the microwave a few times (as per instructions)

TomZ wrote:What are these "gelpacks"? Are these the things you freeze and then put into your cooler to keep your drinks or food cold?

Nope, they are Esky bricks! These gelpacks are a flexible pack with blue gunge inside which can be cooled or heated as required and placed on your sore bits

TomZ · Post by **TomZ** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:56 am

Firetech wrote:Nope, they are Esky bricks! These gelpacks are a flexible pack with blue gunge inside

I think these are designed for heat/cool storage, and not heat transfer. In an HDD enclosure, the job is to most efficiently transfer heat out from the HDD to the HDD enclosure. I wouldn't think they would work especially well for the job at hand.

A better choice, though harder to get, would be a thermal gap pad, such at those made by Bergquist (http://www.bergquistcompany.com/thermal_materials.cfm).

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 5:45 pm

TomZ wrote:I wouldn't think they would work especially well for the job at hand.

If you dig a bit for the original gel-pack thread (started by Bluefront I believe), then you'll see we've had the discussion if it should work before. There were all kinds of theories why it shouldn't work. But ... practice has proven it does work. So who cares about the theory.

But if you want to give more theory a try:
There is less than 10W continuous to dissipate.
Any peaks in wattage are dampened by the high heatcapacity of the coolpacks.
A drive sandwiched between two coolpacks has a fairly large surface area.

fingers · Post by **fingers** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:05 am

Well I have ordered a few off of Ebay as Boots didn't seem to have them, all the ones they had came in wierd coverings so I couldn't be sure if they where what was needed.

Will be trying it with a noisey old ATA100 drive so will post my experience back later.

Cheers

Hifriday · Post by **Hifriday** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:03 pm

Alleycat, thanks for bringing back this great idea. I managed to apply this to further quiet a Samsung notebook HDD inside my Pundit and have successfully made it my first inaudible PC (from within 2 feet). Aluminum enclosures and gelpacks were also hard to find where I'm at, but a metallic pencil case and "head cooler" pharmacy pack worked for me.

fingers · Post by **fingers** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:04 am

Well I ended up with the larger containers as the smaller one would not fit the HDD without it touching the sides

I have now fitted the larger box into a 5.25" bay resting (read Jammed) above my CDROM drive and what a difference it makes! Comparable to my old water-cooled SilentStar!

The only noise from my really loud (when running it outside of the casing it has a loud whirring sound which is much louder than anything else and clearly audiable 3 meters away

) WD 80 SE hard drive, is the faint (but still annoying) seeks. I think I need a Samsung drive

This is one of the best silent mods I have ever tried and makes aircooling a much more enjoyable experience

fingers · Post by **fingers** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:00 am

UPDATE: Just ran defrag on my drive for a little over an hour and with an external probe placed on the underside of the drive at the spindle the max temperture reached was 35.3C idle it sits at a around 20C with a starting temp of around 18C.. not to shabby

aidanjm2004 · Post by **aidanjm2004** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:43 pm

alleycat wrote:The most difficult part is getting the right size coolpacks to fit the enclosure. Here in sunny Australia we're quite obsessed about the outdoors and keeping our drinks cool, so there are a number of locally made coolpack brands.

Alleycat, do you remember the brands of coolpack you used?

slimeballzz · Post by **slimeballzz** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 11:25 am

Anyone know where to get these cool/gel packs in Canada at a DECENT price with minimal air in them?

I was about to order from http://www.roshgo.com/ but the shipping costs more than the order itself. (6 pack (6x8") gel ice packs)

nici · Post by **nici** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 1:14 pm

Try the pharmacy/drug store.

Elliot · Post by **Elliot** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 6:45 pm

slimeballzz, since you are asking about the coolpacks, I assume you already tracked down a container.

Any Canadian sources you can point to?

Homebrew drive enclosure

Pharmacy/Chemist - whatever....

Re: Pharmacy/Chemist - whatever....

Re: Pharmacy/Chemist - whatever....