SPCR

i've been toying with the idea of having a local extrusion shop mill up some hard drive heatsinks for resale (it'd be a minimalist kit - 2 sinks for either side plus a metre or so of 1mm stretch magic). depending on whether they can perform the cutting/notching/drilling or not, here's how i'd like it to look:



i couldn't find 'official' screw-hole positions anywhere, so the measurements seem a bit strange for me - the far two holes are centered exactly 4" apart, but the middle one is (best as i can figure) 2 and 11/32" away from the further hole. actually now that i measure again, it's more like 2 and 23/64". anyone have accurate numbers?

now then - the screw holes attach the sinks to the hard drive, and the extruded fin height (the sinks will stick out 0.75" on either side) will let the sinked hard drive fit in a 5.25" bay if someone wants that. the dark grey areas are going to be either notches in the fins or drilled holes, either way it'll be for the stretch magic to have something to attach to/through. i'm thinking that drilled holes would be better, as this would use less stretch magic (just tie a knot through the hole, instead of looping all around the drive).

more possibilities:

- more/denser/thinner fins, perhaps a thicker base. not sure how this will affect cost (but then, this is already a custom die we're looking at ).
- combine two or three of these into one - picture the 'top view' above joined side to side so someone can suspend 2 or 3 drives with a single kit and piece of stretch magic. a two-piece drive cage on steroids.
- anodizing as after-treatment.
- include a 2500rpm "18 dba" bright-yellow fan to out-thermaltake thermaltake.

any thoughts? would anyone actually buy this kit if it was say $8 for a single-drive kit and $12 for a two-drive one?

I took a double sided ruler to one of my spare HD's. It looks like there was a discussion between someone used to imperial measurements and someone used to metric measurements. They reached a compromise.

From the centre of the left hole to the centre of the middle hole is exactly 6cm. From the centre of the left hole to the centre of the right hole is exactly 4".

Not to discourage you. As the price is about right for what it is. But I personally rather fabricate something myself, than buy a "kit". Modding is too much fun.

oh for sure, this isn't something i'd market to modders as they'd rather do it themselves. i just think that if it performs well enough, many people would be interested enough to try suspension and lazy enough to get a cheap kit from a single vendor.

interesting point about the cm/inch values! i'm originally from a metric country, but over here all i have is a feet-&-inches tape measure. hopefully the local shop won't mind the odd measurements i give them.

reposted on a separate thread.

1. Google

OEM HARD DISK DRIVE SPECIFICATIONS
for
DPTA-3xxxxx ( 37.5 GB - 13.6 GB )
3.5-Inch Hard Disk Drive with ATA Interface
Revision (2.1)

(I think this is the right one) And you should get a large pdf document that includes the physical specs including screw holes.

2. You'll also need to think about how different HDs, even if they match the common specs, make contact with the heatskink. Most are not terribly flat on the side.

3. Have you talked to the shop? I think you'll find custom extrusions pretty expensive. Not that it wouldn't be nice to have something like this on the market.

ah excellent i was searching for specs, but hit a google-jam.

colin wrote:2. You'll also need to think about how different HDs, even if they match the common specs, make contact with the heatskink. Most are not terribly flat on the side.

not much i can do about those circumstances, except a disclaimer ("make sure your drive has flat bare metal sections"). i guess i could include a strip of tim that would be compressed between the sink and the hard drive, but i'd rather not.

colin wrote:3. Have you talked to the shop? I think you'll find custom extrusions pretty expensive. Not that it wouldn't be nice to have something like this on the market.

how much would a custom die (minimum planned is 1" by 1", maximum planned 5" by 1") cost? i would've thought only a couple hundred dollars, and this is a pretty small, simple one. for the actual extrusion/finishing i hoped it'd be between $3 to $5 per pound, i haven't heard back from the shop though so i really don't know

well here are some updated pics, they're a bit easier on the eye. it was changed to vertical fin orientation to aid airflow, and the little ridges you see are lines that holes will be drilled along - either for hd mounting (along the base) or threading with suspension material (on the outer fins). anyone have a favorite out of these? the heat dissipation will be overkill for all of them, so i'm leaning towards the rounded one:

even fin height:


even fin height with outer surface:


rounded fins:


it'll be 4 inches deep allowing three 3.5" hard drives to be suspended, 0.75" tall to fit inside 5.25" bays, the base is 1/8" thick and the fins are 1/16" thick. the local store i was in contact with seems cheaper than i thought, given the custom die this requires. now i just need some more spending money.

With the middle one, threading the wire/elastic for the suspension through the holes will be no fun. So IMHO that one is definately out.

I found these extrusions -
http://www.surplussales.com/Heatsinks/HeatSink1.html

Those sinks look quite similar to the nexus silencer:



Regards.