Cool and quiet external enclosure?

limee · Post by **limee** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:25 am

Hi, for a Maxtor DM10 300gb drive, I need an external enclosure for transportable uses (transfer files from home->work). However, the last two I've tried, both which I got for about $30, have brought the temps to 50º C and higher. I'm wondering if any of you have had any drive enclosures which reduce drive noise and hopefully don't raise temperatures? Should be much more marketable than internal enclosure such as the Smartdrive, but haven't been able to find any that works as well

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 3:55 pm

It's quite an expensive option, but buying an internal silencing enclosure and an IDE to USB2 adapter cable is the only solution I've seen. I've found aluminium external enclosures that cool drives well enough, but if anything they amplify the noise rather than reducing it. This seems like an untapped market, I'm surprised that there isn't an external version of enclosures like the Nexus Drive-A-Way and Smartdrive.

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:57 pm

Simple answer is to use a 2.5" drive instead, in almost any 2.5" enclosure.

I have a 5.25" discontinued ADS enclosure with a very quiet fan, quieter than my 7200.7 3.5" drive. But I suspect getting a quiet fan is hit or miss, and if there's a fan, there will be openings, letting more noise out.

There are all aluminum enclosures, some of which do a good job without a fan. Especially if you modify a little, with some alumuinum foil.
There was a deal recently on Adaptec ACS-100 3.5" enclosure for about $25 after rebate. It is fully enclosed without a "screen" like some fanless aluminum enclosures. It seems to slightly reduce the noise. (Not sure about comparing to Steve_Y's experience... maybe this one doesn't amplify because there's flexible plastic on the underside of the drive where it screws in, giving some dampening?)
I added two thick strips of folded over aluminum foil inside, on top of the drive, to the outsides of it, so the metal of the drive has contact to the top of the enclosure. Shortly after plugging it in, the whole enclosure gets warm, which I believe means it is working to cool it. I place the drive sideways on the stand, to maximize surface area for cooling, and perhaps improving air movement around the enclosure.

You can also look into the Mapower enclosure with the fins on the side, but I never bought because it's too expensive for me.

limee · Post by **limee** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:41 pm

Steve: That seems like a good option. Have you used any of those IDE->usb2 converters before? If so, how is the performance on them? Also, is there any IDE->Firewire converters? I haven't been able to find any of the latter, and Firewire seems to transfer faster (cam vs mp3 player in my case).

michael: I would go for the 2.5" drives but I require the size of the 3.5" drives.

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 1:05 pm

limee wrote:Steve: That seems like a good option. Have you used any of those IDE->usb2 converters before? If so, how is the performance on them? Also, is there any IDE->Firewire converters? I haven't been able to find any of the latter, and Firewire seems to transfer faster (cam vs mp3 player in my case).

I used an IDE to USB2 converter for quite a while with a bare drive sitting on a foam pad. I never ran any benchmarks comparing it with the same drive connected to IDE, but the performance hit didn't seem too bad.

I haven't seen any IDE to Firewire adapters, it's a shame as benchmarks do seem to indicate that Firewire HDD enclosures are faster than USB2. It's also a shame that external SATA connectors aren't more common. SATA is hot swapable, there wouldn't be any performance hit, and enclosures like the Nexus Drive-A-Way support it out of the box. But unless you can add an SATA card to all the computers you use that's probably not an option.