Adding a fan to the NoVibes III

Dru · Post by **Dru** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 8:54 am

update: May 13, 2003: Sorry about the broken pictures. My "former" ISP went belly up without notice! On top of that, they were unable to give me my files! Well, enough of that story, I have updated pictures a few replies below.

I wanted to see how much difference in temperature there'd be by adding a fan to NoiseMagic's NoVibes III. Someone may have done this already but I don't recall a post on it so I'll give my experience on it. You can click on any of the pictures below for close-ups.

For this 1st picture, it's being shot from the top of the NoVibes. I used elastic that goes around the soft cork pads as to avoid interfering with the airflow from the fan to the drive. The fan is a Panaflo 80mm L1A. From the molex connector, you can see that the fan is set to 7V. You can tell that a small portion of the fan's path is blocked by the NoVibes.

This 2nd picture shows the mounting on the bottom of the NoVibes III. I bought elastic that was just thick enough to squeeze through the fan's screw mounting holes. The elastic set me back only $1. The elastic works great because the fan has a little "play" to move around if needed -- it's not too loose though. If doing this again, I should have used tape around the ends before cutting the elastic (not a big deal).

This 3rd picture show all this in action. Fortunately, I do not get any vibrational noise from the fan. The downside with using this solution is that you lose the bottom 2 bays right below the hard drive. One drive bay is lost for the fan itself, and you need another for some airflow space. To me, this is not a big deal because of the reduced heat! Let's talk about the heat!

This is somewhat a continuation of the review of the Barracuda 7200.7 hard drive. In that review, it mentions how the heat reported by DTemp while the hard drive is suspended goes up to 43C. The case temp was 32C.

After running Prime95 for an hour and running Sandra 2003's File System Benchmark a few times, the hard drive's new temps "match" the internal case temps (or within a degree). So, when the case temp was 32C, the hard drive's temps reported 32C and sometimes 33C. When the case temp reached 35C, the hard drive reported 35C/36C. It fluctuates temperature within a degree of the case temperature. I must say this is a great improvement over having 43C.

For me, a Panaflo at 7V is quiet enough. At some point, if I find the noise bothering me, I'll try to knock down the voltage to 5V and measure temps again.

For this mod, I must say, DO try this at home kids!

frequencies · Post by **frequencies** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 6:53 pm

a nice mod, but if you want you can actually get the novibes III with a fan

http://www.whynoi.se/shop/productsByCat ... atalogID=4

Dru · Post by **Dru** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 11:19 am

That's great for people who live in Sweden or maybe perhaps Europe. I wonder what those figures convert into for US dollars or Canadian currency? It would probably cost a lot to ship internationally, too.

With this simple mod (if you already have the NoVibesIII), should be about $3-$4 for the Panaflo + $1 for the elastic. I suppose you could add shipping. Maybe $10 total? Fortunately for me, I bought a few Panaflo L1As in a batch to save on shipping since I knew I'd put them to good use.

What's interesting is... NoiseMagic might come out with a NoVibes IV that has either pre-drilled screw mounts or perhaps even come with a Papst or Panaflo stock fan.

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 12:55 pm

Another point is how quiet is that stock fan that comes with noisemagic, I bet it won't be as quiet as a panaflo L1A.

A simple but effective mod.

frequencies · Post by **frequencies** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 2:19 pm

That link was just an example, i wouldn't even buy it myself (1$=8,50SEK). The model with the papst fan costs 425 SEK so about 40$, and maybe another 10$ for shipping inside sweden OUCH!!! Thats just too pricey.

jinu117 · Post by **jinu117** » Fri Mar 14, 2003 1:43 am

ez2remember wrote:Another point is how quiet is that stock fan that comes with noisemagic, I bet it won't be as quiet as a panaflo L1A.

A simple but effective mod.

If I am not wrong I think I saw papst. BTW, I mounted mine in another bay using 5.25" rail for 3.5" with foam inbetween. Yes, it does wonders and is dead quiet with NO vibration passing through.

Dru · Post by **Dru** » Tue May 13, 2003 9:03 pm

I don't have my nice Kodak digital camera with me this week. It's in another state.

So, I used my cheap webcam to take a couple of photos. It's better than nothing.

I was too lazy this time to remove the hard drive to show how the fan looks from the other side of the NoVibesIII. You just need to imagine it.

It shouldn't be too hard -- just visit a site which sells the NoVibesIII. I've now switched the molex connector to pass 5V across instead of 7V. It seems just as effective for cooling!

click on pictures for full screenshots

This 2nd picture shows how I routed the elastic through the fan.

The 3rd picture shows the contraption installed in my system.

As a final note, I did not tighten the elastic. It has just enough play to position the fan exactly how you want it. Also, I may have cut the elastic too close to the ties. I'm not worried, though, since the elastic is not too snug as stated above.

LushMD · Post by **LushMD** » Wed May 14, 2003 5:51 pm

Hey Dru, that's a pretty sweet mod: effective HDD noise isolation and cooling in one fell swoop. I was thinking about doing something similar in a future case. Specifically, I am planning on using two of the no-vibes untis arranged one on top of the other with an undervolted (or rheobus controlled) 80mm L1A behind them. I realize that this may not prove to be as good at cooling the HDDs as the mod detailed in this thread, but it should do a reasonable job of cooling and isolating 2 HDDs without occupying any additional bays. What do you guys think? Take care.

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Wed May 14, 2003 6:02 pm

LushMD wrote:Hey Dru, that's a pretty sweet mod: effective HDD noise isolation and cooling in one fell swoop. I was thinking about doing something similar in a future case. Specifically, I am planning on using two of the no-vibes untis arranged one on top of the other with an undervolted (or rheobus controlled) 80mm L1A behind them. I realize that this may not prove to be as good at cooling the HDDs as the mod detailed in this thread, but it should do a reasonable job of cooling and isolating 2 HDDs without occupying any additional bays. What do you guys think? Take care.

I like your idea...I'm no thermal genius

, but the troubleshooter in me wonders about:

1. If you L1A would mess up your case airflow by blowing from the back of the drives toward the front of the case. Would this either rob air from the HSF or prevent hot air from properly exhausting out of the case?
2. Same question as #1 with airflow, only pulling air across the L1A's blowing toward the back of the case AND you'd have to have a good source of fresh/cool air.
3. Could put the L1A in front of the novibes blowing toward the back of the case, but you may get turbulence from being close to the front of the case and, again, where do you get fresh air from?

These may not be issues...they don't seem to be in Dru's setup. I'm just wondering if the 90 degree turn of the fan from horizontal (Dru's) to vertical (LushMD) will drastically alter airflow. Or perhaps when undervolted it won't matter.

LushMD · Post by **LushMD** » Wed May 14, 2003 7:03 pm

Those are valid points aphonos. For some inexplicable reason, I neglected to consider air-flow (rather silly of me, considering that maintaining proper case air-flow is of paramount importance in having a cool and quiet system, dual aims that are near and dear to all of us). In any case, please consider the following modifications to my scheme:

(1) Reverse the direction of the fan, such that it is pulling air into the case.
(2) Fabricate some sort of cover for the 5.25" bays that would permit fresh air to blow over the HDDs without alowing too much noise to escape (it shouldn't be too hard to do this using aluminum bay covers, a dremel, and some filter material to prevent dust from accumulating inside the case). In fact, in such a configuration, placing the fan in front of the HDDs would provide better cooling, but may also be noisier (also, as someone mentioned in another thread, an 80mm fan cannot fit in the front of two 5.25" bays, at most a 70mm fan...and I have not been able to find a quiet 70mm fan).

Well, let me know what you think. Take care.

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Wed May 14, 2003 7:38 pm

LushMD wrote:Those are valid points aphonos. For some inexplicable reason, I neglected to consider air-flow (rather silly of me, considering that maintaining proper case air-flow is of paramount importance in having a cool and quiet system, dual aims that are near and dear to all of us). In any case, please consider the following modifications to my scheme:

(1) Reverse the direction of the fan, such that it is blowing into the case.
(2) Fabricate some sort of cover for the 5.25" bays that would permit fresh air to blow over the HDDs without alowing too much noise to escape (it shouldn't be too hard to do this using aluminum bay covers, a dremel, and some filter material to prevent dust from accumulating inside the case). In fact, in such a configuration, placing the fan in front of the HDDs would provide better cooling, but may also be noisier (also, as someone mentioned in another thread, an 80mm fan cannot fit in the front of two 5.25" bays, at most a 70mm fan...and I have not been able to find a quiet 70mm fan).

Well, let me know what you think. Take care.

1. I'll bet if you use the top 2 drive bays you'd have a bit of margin at the top of the case for an 80mm. You could always plan your case purchase accordingly.

2. Perhaps this set up would work with a divided case and some ducting to the PSU ala the Quiet MP Dual-CPU Workstation. This article shows the duct to the PSU. You'd have to add some material to isolate the PSU from the rest of the case (plexi? cardboard?). This would prevent the use of many of the 120mm fan-based PSUs, since you'd would not be able to have a bottom PSU fan.

3. Case would, therefore, need adequate exhaust in the lower portion.

4. Not sure, without testing, if the heat from 2 HDDs would ramp up a thermally controlled PSU fan enough to make this whole idea moot.

LushMD · Post by **LushMD** » Wed May 21, 2003 9:30 am

I have decided to cool a single No-Vibes III mounted HDD using this HDD cooler cut to meet my needs/enhance airflow (using a nibbler; damn my hands are sore

) and an 92mm Panaflo L1A mounted using the EAR fan isolators. I placed this in a vacant 3.5" bay directly under the 5.25" bay in which the mounted HDD is situated (i.e. such that the L1A is blowing cool air onto the bottom of the HDD). I will post re the effectiveness of this rather simple cooling method once my new temperature probe arrives (hopefully soon). Take care.