[Mod: Actually, I think it is a liquid with a lower boiling point than water -- possibly an alcohol?] Unlikely I'd have thought. They may contain a small amount of alcohol to improve the operation of the wick (as a wetting agent), but alcohols generally have poor heat capacity. Dropping the pressur...

Andaca, I'm sure you're more than capable of fitting the heat-sink correctly. Do you think it failed because its fitting didn't contact the CPU correctly (with enough pressure) or because the heat-pipes failed for some reason? I.e. Was there any sign of damage or bending to the pipes (beyond the nor...

Actually your machine can be less than zero db, since zero db only means inaudible to human. Actually, 0dB simply means a ratio of 1:1. 0dBA (or 0dB SPL) is audio level at the threshold of hearing (i.e. a 1kHz sine wave with a sound pressure of 0.00002 Pascal or, roughly, the ear drum moving a dist...

2-3 months is clearly non-sense, but there are several degradation mechanisms I can think of that could cause the disk to fail if left unused. There's tha afore mentions stiction - where the heads 'weld' to the plater. There's a possibility that the bearing lubrication will migrate - FDB s rely on s...

Will the Topfield firmware support 400-500GB ? (Didn't Xp need a patch for these monsters?)

75 euro is not too bad for a DC clamp meter (AC ones are cheaper), although I've just bought a cheap one from CPC in a sale for £13 (ex vat).

You'd better store a PC with it, there's every chance that the interface format will become obsolete before the HDD fails. Could you lay your hands on a MFM controller today? Did you know that the UK's main sound archive is on CD and CD-R? (It might be easier just to buy a second copy of the CD :)) ...

Maybe the AC load is the same because of decreased efficiency of the PSU...

I've seen that effect . It's worth measuring the DC side (voltage * current) with a clamp meter to test the actual power used.

A quick update: I opened the HDD enclosure to replace the Seagate drive with a 120GB Western Digital drive. Although there were no leaks this time, the small home-made gel-pack had evolved a new life form (non intelligent - kept calling me ‘The creator’), so I decided to abandon the home-brew p...

The above heat-sink is far more effective in the tube body below So you mean there is actually a measurable decrease in temps when the heatsink is enclosed? Well, perhaps far more is an exaggeration :) It certainly works well in the enclosure. BillTodd: lovely job! :-D Suggestion: a couple of heat ...

The idea behind this project is the Venturi effect: I think it may be more accurate to describe it as a chimney effect: i.e. the heated air is lighter, so is pushed up by the cooler air above it. The forces involved are tiny but, if the air is constrained in a long tube, it will accelerate to a rea...

Nice

But, please be careful operating that PSU without the covers !

I susgest you look into HDD enclosures, since the HDD will be the noisiest thing in the box.

How about adding View previous topic :: View next topic buttons at the bottom of a thread, so we don't have to scroll up a long thread to move to the next topic?

Isn't part of the deal with gel that it has good heat transfer

Not 'good', but considerably better than still air.

sure, immersion in the oil would surely kill a HDD, but a little hole/splash on the circuit board wouldn't.. making it IMO a lot safer. The stuff in gel packs (ethylene/propylene glycol?) shouldn't harm the hard drive either, afaik. I believe they're mainly water (hence the heat capacity) thickened...

I found a useful sized one at my local supplier recently: http://www.rapidonline.com/productinfo.aspx?kw=gel%20%20pack&tier1=Tools%2c+Fasteners+%26+Production+Equipment&tier2=Health+%26+Safety&tier3=First+Aid&tier4=Reusable+hot+and+cold+pack&moduleno=68041 Also at CPC http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/ende...

How hot are the boxes? If they are cool, then you're not getting good conduction between the HDD and the box (There is an advantage to having the box in a vertical position, as the gell will fill the space between the case and the drive. If the boxes are hot, then you need to add air flow to cool th...

I dont think it would have made any difference if I had an aluminium radiator (or copper in that sense), maybe 1C or so.

If you know the thickness of the steel and its surface area,you can easily work it out.

At a guess, I would think it would make far less than 1'C difference perhaps 0.1'C.

Seeing as the thermal conductivity of iron is 72 W/mC while Al's is 220 W/mC and 386 W/mC for Cu, perhaps you'd be better off with a passive transmission cooler (Al). But I suppose it's massive size makes up for a lot. :shock: It's the huge surface area of the household radiator that's key, it swam...

Looks good to me

leave it over night to see if there are any leaks. A worth-while check (I left mine a year and a half :) ) If, as I suspect, the gel is methyl cellulose like my homebrews then they tend to self seal to a degree. As the water evaporates, the gel crystalises and seals the hole; It's just a pity the s...

i have thought of poking a tiny hole in the corner of one, draining some gel, and then sealing the pin hole with crazy glue or melting it, then tape it up. think this is a bad idea? :) I had exactly the same thought! I seem to remember the thought process went something like; If I puncture the bag,...

Medical gel packs are very well sealed (I have one in front of me, as I type). As i see it, the only reasons for them to leak is A) puncture or B) bursting due to over pressure (i.e. over heating). Punctures can be avoided if you make sure the drive and box has no sharp points or edges (component pi...

Ambient noise at the time of testing was 18 dBA@1m.

Sorry to be a pedant Mike, but how can you be 1m from ambient?

The formula is also V^2/R While you are quite correct, you ought to point out that the V in the above equation is the voltage across the resister (internal resistance in case I was discussing) and not the voltages of the input or output. Actually R is the determining factor here since V is known an...

Pardon my lack of knowledge, but doesn't the mosfets on the primary side generate a good amount of heat as well? From what I see the heatpipe is only for the secondary side. The heat generated in the semiconductors and all the other components comes from their internal resistance (R) and the curren...

12v@32A ! + 5v@3A standby/accesories ~400w

I wonder if they were originally thinking external power brick?

Erssa wrote:

BillTodd wrote:Nice box Very expensive, or extremely expensive?

~170$. You be the judge.

At $1.90 to the pound it would be a not unreasonable ~£90.

However, we tend to see prices in pounds equal to the doller price (I suspect the same is true of most places in Europe) and at that price it is expensive

peterson wrote:I'd love to read a SPCR review of the NZXT Adamas case.
Thick aluminium and somewhat low noise structure. Restrictive inlets but that's easily fixed.

Nice box Very expensive, or extremely expensive?

A rare case when a PC looks great, cools great and sounds great at the same time. Thumbs up! Thanks :D pretty cool I guess but kinda lame that the optical drive is white kinda sticks he should make a wood bezel. If only my woodworking skills were up to it :) (fortunately the pictures don't show how...