HDD Heatsink in a 3.5 HDD bay

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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Francis
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HDD Heatsink in a 3.5 HDD bay

Post by Francis » Mon Mar 17, 2003 4:54 pm

Hi! I'll be getting a new case (a modded D8000 from coolcases.com) - it has a 3.5 drive bay situated behind the front 120mm fan and has grommeted drive mountings. I heard that the grommets can raise the temperature of the HD's, since you loose the heatsink effect of the drive bay.

I have a SCSI 10K drive I'd like to make sure lives a long and cool life. I'm hoping the fan cooling will keep it cool enough, but was also wondering if someone knows of a heatsink that will attach to a HD in a 3.5 bay - I guess it would have to attach to the HD itself and not the drive cage if you didn't want to loose the vibration dampening of the grommets.

Anybody managed to do something like this?

pcweltz
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Post by pcweltz » Mon Mar 17, 2003 5:53 pm

http://www.svc.com/80hardiscool.html

80mm x15mm fan, solid copper, bolts to the bottom of the hdd. $4.99

pingu666
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Post by pingu666 » Tue Mar 18, 2003 3:35 am

u could get a sheet of copper/alu cut holes for the gromets then slap em on the side with double sided tape
or use a L shape peice

Francis
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Post by Francis » Tue Mar 18, 2003 5:04 am

pcweltz wrote:http://www.svc.com/80hardiscool.html
80mm x15mm fan, solid copper, bolts to the bottom of the hdd. $4.99
Thanks for the link. I was thinking of using something like this, minus the fan. (Obviously, i wouldn't want to use another fan since the HD would be sitting right in front of one.) Hopefully the fan is easily removable. I was hoping someone knew of a product more like a traditional heatsink, with fins for more surface area. However, at 5 bucks this looks worth a try.

I was concerned whether adding something like this would cause turbulance and thus more noise. Also I haven't gotten the case yet and don't yet know where the best spot in the 3.5 bay would be - I read that there is a larger "dead zone" from 120mm fans (near the center). I'm not really sure how far back the 3.5 HD cage is from the fan.

pingu666 wrote:u could get a sheet of copper/alu cut holes for the gromets then slap em on the side with double sided tape
or use a L shape peice
Not sure what you mean. You mean cut holes in the metal for the HDD side mount points, then and make the metal U-shaped, going above and under the drive? I assume there's little if no clearance in a 3.5" HDD bay, but I haven't looked at one.

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Tue Mar 18, 2003 7:46 am

Chances are if it is right behind the front fan, that drive will be fine.Why not try it before you try to solve a problem that might not even exist?

Francis
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Post by Francis » Tue Mar 18, 2003 9:41 am

MikeC wrote:Chances are if it is right behind the front fan, that drive will be fine.Why not try it before you try to solve a problem that might not even exist?
Cause I'm a dummy, that's why! :wink: I'm new to the silentPC thing and/or modding/overclocking arena, and I'm not really sure the easiest way to go about monitoring the temps - but obviously I'm going to need to know this.

If you don't mind providing some remedial info...I have a Fujitsu MAN3736MP 10K U160 SCSI drive & an Atlas V U160 7.5K drive. If a hard drive is "SMART enabled" I assume this means it has built in thermal sensors, and the appropriate software can read it? (Currently I have the "Asus Probe" software that came with my Asus 3PBF motherboard, but haven't looked at it in ages) I've read that sometimes built-in sensors are not believable or accurate (at least for CPU's), and it's better to use an LCD temperature sensor and fasten the thermosister on yourself. Is that what you would recommend or would the SMART readings be accurate enough?

I do have the Fujitsu drive specs manual to refer to. (It has a table of MTBF vs. temperature). Currently it's house in an "ultimate hard drive cooler" (clamped on aluminum heatsink, 2 tiny very noisy fans in a 5.25 drive bay - it's probably overkill right now, but it does seem to keep the drive very cool). I'm moving to a modded D8000 case from coolcases.com soon.

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Tue Mar 18, 2003 10:00 am

Welcome to the silencing game. Be warned: It IS addictive. :twisted:

Temp measurements for just about everything in a PC are a "best compromise" game, because there are temp differences across even the tiniest distances (like in a CPU for, for example).

I suggest you use Dtemp -- it requires no installation, takes up no resources, works well (assuming windows). Look for it in the SPCR useful links area (on main menu) -- under software.

Personally, I'd leave the drive in that HS device, remove its noise fans, maybe even add some themal interface goop, then suspend it with thin bugie cord with its narrow long sides on bottom and top, if you know what it mean (it would be the only way the drive could "float" without touching anything else in the bottom 3.5" drive bay). Check the drive sandwiching/suspension article under Storage in the main site.

pingu666
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Post by pingu666 » Wed Mar 19, 2003 3:59 am

from reading reviews it seems most hd coolers are crap :\
i use a cheapo akasa one, that goes under the hd, like the one linked before.
if there is a gap between hd side the the side of the case, u could put a thin strip of something there to act as a heatsink

pingu666
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Post by pingu666 » Wed Mar 19, 2003 4:00 am

silencing is adictive
so is overclocking
i do both. with very little funds :evil: :shock: :D

Francis
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Post by Francis » Sun Mar 30, 2003 6:27 am

[quote="MikeC"I suggest you use Dtemp -- it requires no installation, takes up no resources, works well (assuming windows). Look for it in the SPCR useful links area (on main menu) -- under software.[/quote]
I did try DTemp, which apparently doesn't support SCSI drives. I went looking at others, like "HMonitor", which doesn't support SCSI drives either. I did find a program called "Active Smart"(http://www.ariolic.com) which does have a version that supports SCSI.

It seems like a fine program, but I'm hedging on whether it's worth $25 bucks just to get the HDD temperature. Anyone know of a free SMART monitoring program that supports SCSI drives?

fmah
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Post by fmah » Sun Mar 30, 2003 11:05 am

You'd probably want to just lay one of these on the top of the drive, need some adhesive or pressure to keep it there

http://mpja.com/productview.asp?product=14473+HS

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