8 drive raid suspension

rthorntn · Post by **rthorntn** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 7:11 am

Hi

I am new to posting here so please be gentle

I am about to build a raid server I have the card (8 port raidcore) and the drives are on order (8 x Hitachi 7k250) I have a standard chieftek case and I am going to drill the rivets out of the front drive cages and remove the lot.

I am going to build a metal cage approx 50cm high x 17 wide x 16 deep thats the biggest that will fit, ultimately I am going to fix the cage to the horizontal strut (about 37cm from the bottom of the case)

I plan to drill a bunch of holes at regular intervals through my drives, kidding

I mean drill holes in my cage ( 1 per inch) to attach 2mm shockcord, and screw clips in to my drives and secure each disk horizontally with its own individual piece of cord there will be 2 inches of space at the bottom and an inch of space between each of the 8 drives.

For heat dissappation I am going to affix two 'u' shaped metal pieces to the each of the sides as seen elsewhere, currently the case has been air sealed apart from side and top 120mm blowholes with vantec stealth 120mm fans.

so what I am looking for is any tips...

Thanks
Richard

rthorntn · Post by **rthorntn** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 8:54 am

any comments?

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 9:33 am

I'm not as familiar with mounting via shock cord, so I can't really comment on it. My only concern for you would be in making sure that you can keep the space between the drives. I know that others have put material between the drives in addition to the shock cord. What that material is, I don't know (maybe Sorbothane).

Also, since you're looking to silence, you may want to consider replacing your Vantec Silencer fans with something that actually IS silent.

acompeau · Post by **acompeau** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 9:43 am

Hi rthorntn, welcome to the SPCR forums!

I think suspending the cage is definitely the way to go, but your description has left me a bit confused. You are planning to suspend each drive individually? So for heat dissipation you are going to attach U-channel to each drive individually? Sounds like an awful lot of work.

My suggestions, for what they're worth:
- Attach the drives conventionally to the cage as it will provide heat sink (an Aluminum or copper cage is better)
- Suspend the cage itself with shock cord and/or sorbothane. I would use sorbothane on the bottom and shock cord on both the top and bottom. The bottom shock cord would be to keep the cage in place if you move the machine.
- Mount two 120mm fans (the new Nexus, or Acoustifan, or Papst if you like them) to the cage itself with grommets (or decouple with shock cord, or whatever).
- You can either mount them to the front of the cage (blowing onto the drives), or do something similar to Bluefront's "cookie jar" duct, and mount the fans to the back of the cage instead. Given the size of your cage, it may be difficult to fabricate a duct (and line it with sound-reducing materials).

Good luck!

rthorntn · Post by **rthorntn** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 9:07 pm

Thanks for your suggestions

- Attach the drives conventionally to the cage

I would have to build a cage because the case doesnt really have enough space as it is to mount 8 drives with a decent amount of space between them at the front? It has 4 x 5.25 bays and two of those removable 3.5 bay things, I was looking to get all the drives in a straight line and get as much airflow round them as I can.

- Suspend the cage itself with shock cord and/or sorbothane. I would use sorbothane on the bottom and shock cord on both the top and bottom. The bottom shock cord would be to keep the cage in place if you move the machine.

I don't really like the idea of suspending 8 drives in a cage that would be very heavy, where would I affix it to, drill holes in the top of the case?

- Mount two 120mm fans (the new Nexus, or Acoustifan, or Papst if you like them) to the cage itself with grommets (or decouple with shock cord, or whatever).

If I have temps on the drives of over 40deg I will do this, and will consider replacing the stealths with some more stealthy ones...

- You can either mount them to the front of the cage (blowing onto the drives), or do something similar to Bluefront's "cookie jar" duct, and mount the fans to the back of the cage instead. Given the size of your cage, it may be difficult to fabricate a duct (and line it with sound-reducing materials).

A duct maybe difficult, maybe multiple (3-4) very quiet fans?

All the parts for the design are available at my local store so it wont be that difficult to build, with my trusty dremel, also if I suspend the drives individually I will be able to remove a single drive when it fails a lot easier, hopefully while the pc is still powered, the raidcore and sata power cables should let me do that.

perplx · Post by **perplx** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 10:06 pm

If its a server why dont you put in the basement or someting? Assuming your not in a single room apartment.

rthorntn · Post by **rthorntn** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 2:00 am

only two rooms, no cupboards, no loft or basement.

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:34 am

IMO, don't hard mount the drives to the case or the cage--you will have all sorts of resonance/noise issues if you do. Your first idea sounds like a great idea. No matter what you do, 8 Hitachi drives are going to make some noise, but suspending will cut that. My recommendation is to make sure you have some kind of airflow over the drives--two 120mm fans seems a bit extreme to me, even at 5V, in terms of both noise and airfllow. Start with the smallest, quietest fan that you can, and see if you can keep your drives temps down to a range your are comfortable with. (or start with something big that you know will keep the drives cool and work down by undervolting or moving to smaller fans).

Putz · Post by **Putz** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 2:07 pm

8 Hitachis? That's a lot of meowing.

rthorntn · Post by **rthorntn** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 10:06 am

I have built the cage, and affixed a single drive (the 8 drives haven't arrived), it looks pretty cool, suspension feels pretty sturdy, I will post photos when I have 8 running drives in there!

acompeau · Post by **acompeau** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 8:32 pm

rthorntn wrote:- Attach the drives conventionally to the cage

I would have to build a cage because the case doesnt really have enough space as it is to mount 8 drives with a decent amount of space between them at the front? It has 4 x 5.25 bays and two of those removable 3.5 bay things, I was looking to get all the drives in a straight line and get as much airflow round them as I can.

Fair enough. I have suspended smaller cages without any trouble, but it sounds like you really don't have room. I'm really just using the cage as a pre-fabricated heatsink for the drives. Maybe you can attach some side channel aluminum to each drive to act as a heatsink? You probably only need to worry about this if things get hot, but I think things will get very warm with all those drives shedding heat into the case.

rthorntn wrote:I don't really like the idea of suspending 8 drives in a cage that would be very heavy, where would I affix it to, drill holes in the top of the case?

Well, yes.

You just use thicker shock cord. If you can bungee two cars together or jump off a bridge, you can surely support 8 hard disk drives. Again, though, it sounds like you have other complications that means this doesn't make sense for you.

rthorntn wrote:A duct maybe difficult, maybe multiple (3-4) very quiet fans?

Yeah, I agree a duct would be tough here. Maybe 4 of those new 9 dB Papst fans?