What's wrong with my HDD enclosure?

Marvin · Post by **Marvin** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 12:12 pm

I just finished my hard work making a aluminum sidesink/sandwich for my HDD. Main goals were to make it more silent and to make run little bit cooler.

The first goal was 'easily' achieved, as it is lying on piece of foam on the bottom of my case. The second goal to make it run cooler went totally bust. Normally my HDD temps were somewhere around, 37-38C, now they are at 43C and rising. In one hour it got to 47C !!!

Sidesinks are made of 4cm high U-channel with approx. 2cm long sides, lenght is 20cm. Sidesinks are approx. 2mm thick. Plates are about 8mm thick and are 19cm long and as wide as the sidesink+HDD. There is ~7mm between HDD and plates, where I in my first attempt put some foam to silence thigs up, But that did not work. Now there is no foam, little bit more noise, but temsp aren't better

There is a 12Db/19,4cfm Papst@~8V blowing right in front of it to cool it, but temps still keep on climbing.

Need some help because I can't figure out why temps go up even with the fan directly blowing on it. I spend too many hours building it just to disgard it as a failed mod.

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Fri Feb 07, 2003 12:33 pm

I'm assuming you've drilled mounting holes in the sidesinks and screwed them tightly to the sides of the hdd, but how did you mount the plates to it? Did you do it the same way MikeC did in his article (with a bolt at each of the 4 corners to clamp them together)?

Some heatsink grease between the hdd and the metal can also help.

Do you have a nice unrestricted vent in front of that papst? A restrictive vent that is more metal than hole might be choking the fan.

Yeah, there must be something wrong. You getting about the same temps (maybe slightly higher) as my rubber boxed Maxtors. That's not right....

Marvin · Post by **Marvin** » Sat Feb 08, 2003 1:37 am

powergyoza wrote:I'm assuming you've drilled mounting holes in the sidesinks and screwed them tightly to the sides of the hdd, but how did you mount the plates to it? Did you do it the same way MikeC did in his article (with a bolt at each of the 4 corners to clamp them together)?

You are right, sidesinks are screwed to HDD and plates are bolted from the corners to sidesinks.

powergyoza wrote: Do you have a nice unrestricted vent in front of that papst? A restrictive vent that is more metal than hole might be choking the fan.

I think we both have same kind of cases, with stamped grills. I haven't got to the point of cutting them out, because someone would not like if whole computer was in pieces for couple of days

I do think it would help and I'm going to do it, when I can take the time to take it to parts for one day or so...

And I have airfilter in front of the fans to keep dust out. I think that I have to find some other kind filter than what I have right now.

powergyoza wrote: Yeah, there must be something wrong. You getting about the same temps (maybe slightly higher) as my rubber boxed Maxtors. That's not right....

I've read all the things You've done and it's quite clear that I'm not that badly gone to silence yet

but I'm afraid that I'm just coming behind You and trying to avoid mistakes some other people have made. This time it still seems that I've created an mistake of my own

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Sat Feb 08, 2003 2:21 am

Marvin wrote:I think we both have same kind of cases, with stamped grills. I haven't got to the point of cutting them out, because someone would not like if whole computer was in pieces for couple of days

I haven't cut open my front grills, but I'm able to get reasonable temps. It was the back grills that made the difference for me.

And I have airfilter in front of the fans to keep dust out. I think that I have to find some other kind filter than what I have right now.

If you have something like this as a filter (or do you have the stock one that comes with the later models of the case?) then it's definitely choking your airflow. DON'T use this product below! It was the biggest mistage I made! I swear by unfiltered airflow (for now).

Marvin · Post by **Marvin** » Sat Feb 08, 2003 5:04 am

No I do not have that kind of filter, I made it myself from some kind of general filter for cooker hood. I think it has to go and I have to cut my wifes nylos for filters, if nobody can come up with better solution.

I took plates off and it seems that temps are in control. The biggest question now is that why the plates made the temps go up?

Grills would indeed be easy to cut out, need just big enough cutters to do that, metaldust would be problem though when I want to do decent finish to holes.

And maybe I need to add yet another for exhaust

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Sat Feb 08, 2003 5:50 am

DON'T use this product below! It was the biggest mistage I made! I swear by unfiltered airflow (for now).

Believe it or not, that is the exact product I use. I found the opposite. This product allows considerably more air flow than foam filters, with equivalent or better dust stopping power.

Are you comparing it to no filter at all?

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Sat Feb 08, 2003 1:16 pm

Riffer wrote:Are you comparing it to no filter at all?

Yes. I used that stuff for my PSU duct and my case intakes for a couple of months. It reduced airflow by a lot and increased my temps.

Marvin wrote:No I do not have that kind of filter, I made it myself from some kind of general filter for cooker hood. I think it has to go and I have to cut my wifes nylos for filters, if nobody can come up with better solution.

Yeah, let me know how that works. Have you visited this thread? http://forums.silentpcreview.com//viewtopic.php?t=3176

I took plates off and it seems that temps are in control. The biggest question now is that why the plates made the temps go up?

You said your sidesinks are 4cm high. Hdds are normally only 2.54cm high. If your top + bottom plates are the width of the hdd + sidesink, then the plates are not making any contact with the top and bottom of the hdd! Try the plates w/o the sidesinks and have the plates tightly fitted to the top and bottom!

Grills would indeed be easy to cut out, need just big enough cutters to do that, metaldust would be problem though when I want to do decent finish to holes.

You can use window moulding to avoid filing.

Marvin · Post by **Marvin** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 1:38 am

powergyoza wrote:You said your sidesinks are 4cm high. Hdds are normally only 2.54cm high. If your top + bottom plates are the width of the hdd + sidesink, then the plates are not making any contact with the top and bottom of the hdd! Try the plates w/o the sidesinks and have the plates tightly fitted to the top and bottom!

The idea was that sidesinks transfer the heat to the plates as most of heat condusts from the sides anyway. then I could put some foam between HDD and plates to further damp noise. It seems that Maxtor dissipates lots of heat through top and bottom, otherwise I can't understand the behavior.

I think I have to look into possibilities with my existing parts and see whats the best solution.

powergyoza wrote:You can use window moulding to avoid filing.

Thats an good idea, have to go and find something like that:)