Removable Harddrive bays - experience, opionions?

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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toddgarza
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Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2002 6:42 am

Removable Harddrive bays - experience, opionions?

Post by toddgarza » Thu Sep 26, 2002 7:30 am

I'm using the simple IDE plastic bays like this one:

http://store.yahoo.com/directron/mr27.html

I've got two of the bays in my case right now. I'm using IBM 75GXP 7200 rpm drives inside one of them. The other is empty most of the time but sometimes takes another 75GXP. They work fine but now that I'm trying to quiet the system down, I'm thinking of changing them out. First, each bay has a small, somewhat noisy 40 mm fan in the back to keep the drive from overheating. Second, the fans run even if the bay is empty. Looking at how the bay is built I'm not certain the fan is offering a large amout of cooling to the drive anyway. I've looked around a bit and have not found any removeable bays without a fan. I need both bays to be removeable for the work I do, so I'm looking for suggestions on replacing/modifiying.

1. Any removeable drive bays out there without a fan?
2. If not, would it be safe to remove, replace or undervolt it ? (I imagine this would work better with an aluminum bay rather then a plastic one).
3. Any recommendations on a model you've found to be quiet?

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Thu Sep 26, 2002 7:48 am

They're all about the same, and all have those whiny wee fans -- which usually die after 6 months or less. The fan does provide necessary cooling, though. The plastic case traps the HDD heat, and it gets pretty hot (above 50C) in no time at all without a fan. I have not played around with aluminum ones; these might provide better cooling through conduction into the case chassis so that you can remove the fan safely. But they are usually at least twice the price.

You could also mod your existing removable drive rack by cutting away much of the bottom panel(s), mounting a quiet 80mm fan (@5V) in a free slot just below it, blowing straight up. This fan can be easily suspended with elastic, and will be MUCH quieter than the built-in tiny fan. If the drive bay cover in which the fan is mounted has some slots so you get fresh air in, the drive should run much cooler.

Queue
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Post by Queue » Fri Sep 27, 2002 4:40 pm

Todd,
I too am wrestling with the Mobile Rack demon. I've got racks in all my PCs, and I move drives here and there for backup and transfer purposes, plus I boot to multiple OSs. Great convenience!

Downsides, noise from the fan, plus the HDD is up in front, so if it is noisy, you're more likely to hear it. Other downside is heat. I've been watching DTemp on my drives that have sensors, and they're close to the top edge of the environmental limits!

I just can't give up that damn convenience, though...

I've been considering modding my case to put a blowhole in the top of the case, running the fan at 5-7 volts, and disconnecting the little fans. If that doesn't help, I might construct some sort of ducting around the HDD bays so that the blowhole will draw air in through the front.

Queue

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