Most efficient/silent way to cool hard drives (air cooling)

Oli · Post by **Oli** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 7:54 am

[deleted]

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 9:56 am

I just read the Tom's Hardware review of the Deltatronic unit.

It overheated with CPU at 80 degrees Celsius.

I'm now soliciting more user input on the unit.

If it operates as in the Tom's hardware review, I'll skip it.

regards,
halcyon

JEN · Post by **JEN** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:08 am

I had a problem with my HDD temp as it was in a SilentDrive! The temp would be at 50-55C and even up to 57C.

As I only have 1 intake hole on the case front/floor I just decouped the HDD about 1 inch above the inlet. This reduced the HDD temp to 40-45C without any fans no extra noise added, still in the SilentDrive!

I then removed the HDD from the SilentDrive and decoupled it into a spare 5-1/4 bay, the temp went up to 48-50C!!!

In the end I decided to decouple/suspend the HDD just above the inlet, the HDD is now stable at 35C.

An inlet is an amazing thing, if all other holes in the case are completely covered, so the case can not get air from anyother place

morganw · Post by **morganw** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:26 am

Low-volted fans are going to have a very hard time with restricted intake or output. MikeC or Rusty can probably say something more scientific, but I think the main thing to keep in mind is that CFM figures are typically in free air & they drop as pressure rises.

I didn't want to vent from the front because one of my hard drives is still a noisy Maxtor. I vented from the lower-back & used a baffle to force the air to go past the hard drives' side-sinks: http://www.lockup.org/bluechili/ on it's way to the upper-back PSU & case exhaust fans.

I've taped up all vent holes in the case except the ones on the back so air will follow my intended path.

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One thing we didn't hear is how halcyon's hard drive temps are with the case open. Are they signficantly lower?

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:44 am

An interesting thing happened.

I removed one exhaust fan from the back (80 mm Antec at 5 V), only one 80 mm Antec fan remains there now.

Then I put a 120mm -> 80mm adapter on my SLK-800, which took some creative effort. Then I put a 120mm Papst at 7V on that SLK-800 heatsink to replace my 8412 NGL.

Case temp went down by 8 degrees centigrade and CPU temp went down 6 degrees (these are figures after 4 hours of continuous use). Also, the HD temps went down from 35-36 to 30 degrees.

So, I cut down the number of fans and the number of exhaust fans while increasing CPU (and nearby capacitors) cooling with the bigger fan.

This proved to be the best tweak so far as it didn't significantly increase noise levels.

So, it appears that not only the intake/exhaust fans matter, but the air circulation (very hard to model as it is a chaotic system) and the CPU heatsink air pressure (regardless of the case temp).

As my HDs are now at a very respectable temps at 30 degrees, I'll consider blocking the front intake fan again or at least giving the front intake fan lower voltage.

regards,
Halcyon

L4177312 · Post by **L4177312** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 6:29 pm

halcyon wrote: Asus A7N8X (non-deluxe) nForce2 mobo (rev 1.04) with stock northbridge passive (big) heatsink)
http://www2.uiah.fi/~samu/hot_machine.jpg

you know if you switch around your memory config, you can use twinbank architechure for improved performance. twinbank works when your sticks are in dimms 1 and 3.

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:02 pm

Asus A78NX FAQ from Asus.com:

"You will require to install two or three DDR memory modules on A7N8X to utilize Dual-Channel DDR. You may install the memory in the following sequence:
Socket1 and Socket3, or Socket2 and Socket3, or Socket1 and Socket2 and Socket3."

FYI, I have my DIMM's in socket2 and socket3, due to signaling integrity issues.

regards,
Halcyon