Quiet mobile rack!

[QuietMind]

I spent many hours searching for a quiet mobile rack. Searching the forums here taught me that a) mobile racks need active cooling and b) most use 40mm fans, all of which are too loud.

Ralf Hutter came up with a creative custom solution as seen in this thread, but I wanted a solution that requires little time and effort, i.e., no customization.

I found one! The Addonics Mobile Rack for Serial ATA Hard Drive puts the fan in the bottom, so it can be larger than 40mm.



To my ear it's quiet. I'm sure I'm not as picky as many readers of these forums, and can't tell you just how quiet it is, but when I build computers I select all the parts for quietness from SPCR's recommended lists and this component fits right in.

I like the design. Though made entirely of plastic, it feels solid enough. The latch makes it easy to remove and insert the enclosure without any mechanical stress. In addition to the SATA power connector it provides a legacy 4-pin connector which is handy for use with power supplies that don't offer SATA power connectors yet.

Addonics offers another version in aluminum which is billed as more sturdy. I always choose "more sturdy" when given the choice but the aluminum version doesn't advertise the same bottom fan design.

During my search I found one other mobile rack with a bottom fan design, the Enermax UC-S106TMFA, that even has a fan speed switch! Unfortunately, I couldn't find any place to buy it.

[Ralf Hutter]

Nice find!

Couple of questions:

1) When you say "it's quiet", can you relate it's noise level to other hardware in your system, so that we have some reference to compare it to?

2) I assume that the fan only runs when a drive caddy is in place in the tray. Is that correct?

[JazzJackRabbit]

Hm... I like ralf's solution better, I use something similar for my benq1620 burner. It's a good burner, no question about it, but the damn thing makes poor quality burns because of overheating. With a fan underneath it's quality is fantastic.

Regarding this mobile rack I'm torn. On one hand the fan looks like 60-80mm to me, but looking at the pic it seems that the fan does nothing but circulates the air inside the enclosure It takes the air from inside the enclosure and blows it right back in...

[QuietMind]

1) When you say "it's quiet", can you relate it's noise level to other hardware in your system, so that we have some reference to compare it to?

It's the loudest component in my system, but not by much. The sound it makes is gentle white noise. I've got it in a SLK3700AMB case with a S12-330 PSU. It's holding a WD3200JD drive.

The SLK3700AMB's drive bay door makes it even quieter, of course, but I'm feeling a bit guilty about the door blocking the mobile rack's ventilation.

When I tried to measure the temperature of the WD3200JD drive it's holding, hddtemp (Linux) reported "known drive, but it doesn't have a temperature sensor."

2) I assume that the fan only runs when a drive caddy is in place in the tray. Is that correct?

The fan runs when the front power button is pushed in.

On one hand the fan looks like 60-80mm to me, but looking at the pic it seems that the fan does nothing but circulates the air inside the enclosure It takes the air from inside the enclosure and blows it right back in...

The fan is a 80mm YLTC DFS801012L with the following specs:

Code: Select all

       Frame size: 80x80x10
Special functions: Temp. Ctrl., Auto Start, Alarm, LED, PWM
     Bearing Type: S
       Voltage(v): 12
       Current(A): 0.12
         Power(W): 1.4
       Speed(Rpm): 2500
     AirFlow(CFM): 21.73
  Pressure(mmH2O): 1.29
      Noise db(A): 26.51
        Weight(g): 43

You may be right about the circulation. It has front and rear air vents but I can't feel air moving at either of them.