Quietest Mini-ITX 2x3.5 HDD

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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babybob
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Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2005 12:45 am

Quietest Mini-ITX 2x3.5 HDD

Post by babybob » Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:28 am

Hi

I looking for a mini-itx case (so smaller the better) with room for 2 internal 3.5 HDD. It doesnt need an optical drive and I want to run a new fanless "pine trail" dual core atom.

What Im struggling with is finding a case (unmodded) that has decent size fans in it so far I have:
  • Chenbro ES30068 - has 70mm fans on rear and 60mm on front
    CFI A9849 - has 8cm Fan and 5cm FAN x 2
I've looked at various others (I liked the Sugo SG05 and ISK300-65 but neither fit 2x3.5 drives). Any suggestions?

ntavlas
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Post by ntavlas » Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:04 am

The lian li q07 could easily fit two hdd`s, one at the bottom and one where the optical drive would be.

Since you won`t need an atx psu, with a little creativity you could use the side vent along with a 12cm fan blowing on the board.

andymcca
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Location: Boston, MA, USA

Post by andymcca » Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:58 am

Some people like the Apex MI-008 (SPCR review linky). The PSU is in the way of any but a very low profile cooler, but if you are using a picoPSU or the like you could remove it.
It has a space for a (edit: 120mm x 25mm i think) fan on the side where all the holes are, but it seems to me like they might block airflow. I have never seen the case in person, though.

I was looking for similar advice recently and I got this reply:
javitxi wrote:You can take a look to:

Silverstone SG03
Antec NSK1380
Lian LI-V351

JamieG
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by JamieG » Sun Jan 31, 2010 2:56 pm

ntavlas wrote:The lian li q07 could easily fit two hdd`s, one at the bottom and one where the optical drive would be.

Since you won`t need an atx psu, with a little creativity you could use the side vent along with a 12cm fan blowing on the board.
This is definitely doable in a Q07. The side vent fits with an ATX PSU's intake vent for 120mm fans, so a DIY fan mount here would be doable with some slim cable ties. Add some clothing elastic to suspend a 3.5 inch HDD in the optical drive bay and you'd be ready to go.

mynameisyoung
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Joined: Sun Mar 21, 2004 7:08 pm

Post by mynameisyoung » Thu Feb 18, 2010 10:37 am

I'm in the same boat. Been looking for a mini-itx case for a dvr build, which also means I need a good amount of storage, but prefer a desktop style case.

The only one I found is the Silverstone LC12. But that has no cooling what so ever. Good if you're going Atom/ION but I'm shooting for an i3 build.

Here's the silverstone: http://silverstonetek.com/products/p_co ... 2&area=usa

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