HDD project.. "Bird-House" Some new mods.

postul8or · Post by **postul8or** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 10:49 am

It appears that the filter is right at the front of the case. Couldn't hard drive noise get through the filter out through the air intake at the front of your case pretty easily?

Do you have some pretty quiet drives to start with?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 1:01 pm

Well here's what the case looks like from the front. The main reason this setup is so quiet (IMHO) is the distance of the fan from the front of the case. It sits back a full 9" from the front, plus the airflow makes several turns in the process. You'll have to try it to know for sure.

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery....anyone can feel free to copy this thing, maybe improve on it. There's room here for many different modifications to this design.

Oh and I tried to start the Yate Loon 120mm fan (#MJ 12025 12M) at 2.8v..... amazingly it starts just fine at that low voltage. I have no idea where you can get one...this one came with a Black Knight case. I didn't need it at the time. But this is the fourth fan of that model I've had....they're all just as quiet.

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 2:33 pm

What exactly does the wood do for this birdcage?

From what i gather, the safety mat is what is holding the HDD in place and damping the noise
All the wood is is support for everything

also, have you tried this setup yet in a up and running system? i was wondering if your HDD temps improved

thx
~RaNDoM

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 3:06 pm

The wood is the actual duct....which forces all the incoming air to travel over/under the hard drives. Only the outer 1/2" does not have airflow over it. Your std HD setup pulls or blows air over the drives, but only a portion of it. This ducted setup should keep those drives very cool, even at minimum fan speeds. Also the wood is the holder for the filter. You could make one of these setups w/o wood.....maybe construct the whole thing out of foam.

The whole setup is not running yet....I still am waiting on the motherboard. Should be running in a week or so.

akaidiot · Post by **akaidiot** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 3:14 pm

Bluefront wrote:Well here's what the case looks like from the front. The main reason this setup is so quiet (IMHO) is the distance of the fan from the front of the case. It sits back a full 9" from the front, plus the airflow makes several turns in the process. You'll have to try it to know for sure.

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery....anyone can feel free to copy this thing, maybe improve on it. There's room here for many different modifications to this design.

Oh and I tried to start the Yate Loon 120mm fan (#MJ 12025 12M) at 2.8v..... amazingly it starts just fine at that low voltage. I have no idea where you can get one...this one came with a Black Knight case. I didn't need it at the time. But this is the fourth fan of that model I've had....they're all just as quiet.

Great! Strange that the yate loon isn't sold or is VERY hard to find. It seams to be a great 120m fan! I believe I have one of those fans in my FSP350-60PN PSU, which I will replace with a ducted SS400A3!

postul8or · Post by **postul8or** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 5:34 pm

Bluefront wrote:Well here's what the case looks like from the front. The main reason this setup is so quiet (IMHO) is the distance of the fan from the front of the case. It sits back a full 9" from the front, plus the airflow makes several turns in the process. You'll have to try it to know for sure.

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery....anyone can feel free to copy this thing, maybe improve on it. There's room here for many different modifications to this design.

Oh and I tried to start the Yate Loon 120mm fan (#MJ 12025 12M) at 2.8v..... amazingly it starts just fine at that low voltage. I have no idea where you can get one...this one came with a Black Knight case. I didn't need it at the time. But this is the fourth fan of that model I've had....they're all just as quiet.

It it quite difficult to see from the front how the air gets in exactly. I recall an inside picture showed that there is an air intake circle, which looks like it's about where that temp gauge is located. Are there holes around the temperature gauge at the front of the case to let the air in? Or is it as it appears, pretty much no direct way to get air in the front.

This is a clear indication that your box is a lot quieter than mine. The noise from a 2.8 Volt fan is no match for a 120 GB Western Digital drive that whines louder than most girlfriends & wives (sorry to females in the forum). Never mind if it's 1 inch from my ear, the fan will be quieter than this hard drive from 4 feet away.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 5:53 pm

Yeah it's hard to see....the air intake is around the edges of the lower blue panel, which is spaced out from the main bezel about 1/4". I also modded the intake so some air also gets in through that (now) fake floppy hole. All the intake does go through the filter. It's quiet....

wim · Post by **wim** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 11:46 pm

omg you have a clock in the case side!??! doesn't that go tick...TICK...TICK...TICK

i've been looking for a clock motor that doesn't tick for years. even the ones without a second hand tick
(i won't be able to hear my computer again until i've dealt with my clock..)

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 1:09 am

nifti wrote:Great! Strange that the yate loon isn't sold or is VERY hard to find. It seams to be a great 120m fan! I believe I have one of those fans in my FSP350-60PN PSU, which I will replace with a ducted SS400A3!

The Yate Loon is sold. Just not under it's own name. The Nexus 120mm Real Silent case fan looks exactly the same (except for the color) as the Yate Loon from my Fortron PSU. Besides when you look on page 2 of Mike's review of the Nexus NX-3500 PSU you see it again. This time with Yate Loons's type number.

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 7:00 pm

i have completed the birdbox using all foam=P

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/random ... .dir=/71da

I was to lazy to cut wood. o well

hope that link works

~RaNDoM

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 8:21 pm

Heh....looks like mine w/o the wood frame. Pretty neat...so how is it working for you noise-wise, temp wise? Be sure to seal the foam against the case so you're only pulling in outside air. Good job with "fake" safetymat foam.

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 11:43 pm

Aye, I'm curious as to what your temps/noise levels are

. Looks good!

wim · Post by **wim** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 1:37 am

hey bluefront, it was a serious question..

(does the clock tick?)

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 4:11 am

i havent put it in my comp yet.

i was tried and went to bed pretty earlier yesterday. i have to work from 9-4 today.

when i get home i will try it out and let you guyz know

I am looking for some temp improvements, i alrdy have my samsung suspended using magic stretch and i dont hear any noise at all, but my temps are horrible, they are like 37C idle and 41~43C when using it hard.

~RaNDoM

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 4:30 am

wim...I can't hear it at all, even outside the computer. When installed the clock motor is behind two layers of clear plastic, so you'd have to be pretty hard core to complain about it.

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 6:05 pm

i have finished installing the bird cage bluefront idea

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/random ... m=906c.jpg

man was that a pain to do

I had to drill out all these circle rivet things to get the HDD cage out.

Then i found out i made my birdcage to big, i had to remove the FDD cage and i had to take one of the sides of the box out.

then i put the box in before i put all my cables in, big mistake, had to take the box out and then wrap the cables really tight against the mobo.

anyway, noise level is still the same.

but temps are better.

my HDD is now at 31C, havent stressed it yet tho.

case temps are now 29C and even cpu temp went down to 39C. I guess cpu temp went down because the case is cooler.

i will prime it now to see how hot the case and cpu gets now

~RaNDoM

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 7:24 pm

looks good, can't wait to work on mine, supposed to get my safetymat form www.wondermat.com on saturday

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 3:56 am

Heh...like I said earlier in this thread, measuring everything to assure a good fit was the hardest part of this project. You can hold your drive sideways in the case(with wires attached), and measure the clearance you have left. Then you know exactly how wide the bird-house can be.

The other measurement that was hard for me was the clearance of the fan to the motherboard. I didn't have the MB while I constructed the bird-house, but I knew the board dimensions. As it turned out mine fit ok the first try, even with all the wires connected to the board.

I have the computer running now. As you see it in the photos, the Seagate 160mb, 7200rpm, SATA is inaudible to me until I get my ear to within 6" of the front of the case. Then I can hear very slight seek noises...that's it.

Temps of the drive after the initial defrag of about 30min....Ambient 26C, Yate Loon 120mm fan at 4.5V, Smart drive temp 34C. That's the only drive running (inverted).....the other drive is just sitting there so far. I'm completely satisfied with my finished setup. So I probably won't make any changes. The bird-house mod was a success.

I'll put up some final photos shortly.....

akaidiot · Post by **akaidiot** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:04 am

Bluefront wrote:Heh...like I said earlier in this thread, measuring everything to assure a good fit was the hardest part of this project. You can hold your drive sideways in the case(with wires attached), and measure the clearance you have left. Then you know exactly how wide the bird-house can be.

The other measurement that was hard for me was the clearance of the fan to the motherboard. I didn't have the MB while I constructed the bird-house, but I knew the board dimensions. As it turned out mine fit ok the first try, even with all the wires connected to the board.

I have the computer running now. As you see it in the photos, the Seagate 160mb, 7200rpm, SATA is inaudible to me until I get my ear to within 6" of the front of the case. Then I can hear very slight seek noises...that's it.

Temps of the drive after the initial defrag of about 30min....Ambient 26C, Yate Loon 120mm fan at 4.5V, Smart drive temp 34C. That's the only drive running (inverted).....the other drive is just sitting there so far. I'm completely satisfied with my finished setup. So I probably won't make any changes. The bird-house mod was a success.

I'll put up some final photos shortly.....

Nice! I will probably start building my "bird-house" this weekend. Could you give us some more on the whole computer with all of the other mods you have done, well atleast a PSU mod and probably the patented Bluefront (Copyright) Extreme dampening and ducting..

How about all the other fans, are they audible, from how far away? And the yate loon fan(s)?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 5:40 am

Well the HD mod is finished......as is this pressure reduction chamber, and the PSU mod. I have a temporary CPU cooler duct using an Alpha 8942 (still waiting on a 92mm fan and a CPU fan controller).

I'll post same photos and write up an article in the gallery section when everything is in one piece. Since the HD is completely insulated from the rest of the computer, anything else you have in your setup, will have almost no effect on the hard drive[s] in the bird-house.

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 11:20 am

Well I've completed my bird house, it was a big pain to get it to fit in my case (my fault for not measuring some things precisely) so i had to tear out my floppy ledge, and my hard drive ledge, but I got it to fit. Performance wise, I'd say I hear about 50% to 75% less of the seek noise I heard before when my HD was bolted to the hard drive cage with rubber grommets in place. For the most part the seeks are unnoticible unless It's really early in the AM and I run spy bot S and D, or defrag or something like that. Here are the pictures:

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 12:42 pm

Good work MonsterMac

Did your temps improve overall?

~RaNDoM

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:37 pm

yeah according to mbm5 (even though my samsung reads temps wrong) before it was usually at 36C all the time and it was hot to the touch, now it's at 28C, and is cool to the touch unless i'm running defrag or something, then it's just warm, but hardly.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:36 pm

Good job

.....looks like that fan is in a perfect position to cool the video card, the angled North-bridge heatsink and the ram. What voltage or rpm is that fan running? My SATA drive runs about 36c when my home temp is about 26.5c. Thats running my bird-house fan at 4.5v.

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 9:49 pm

thanks! my fan is running off the antec fan only connector, i ran out of normal molex connectors. my drives are both running at around 35C with it.

frosty · Post by **frosty** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 1:38 pm

Neat design on the enclosure, but where do you insert the birdseed?

Splinter peteamer You guys are too funny, you made me laugh I needed a good laugh today

Bluefront - I have oft pondered this multi hd scenario - duh

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 3:10 pm

I made a few changes to the setup.....modified the chamber to better cool the one Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm SATA I'm using. I made a "V" shaped insert that forces more airflow over the single drive. If I ever need another drive, I can revert easily.

I added a set of heatsinks that attach to both long edges of the drive.

And I removed the 120mm Yate Loon, and replaced it with a Vantec Stealth 92mm I had.....this one reads rpms.

The HD temp improved about 3C......I'm now running about 33C with a room temp of 26C. This is with the new birdhouse fan at 1500rpm. The noise level is about the same as with the 120mm Yate Loon at 4.5V.

There are many mods possible with this setup...

Three new photos

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 3:32 pm

I think my next mod with my bird house will be making some heatsinks to screw to the sides of my hard drives, this may be a stupid question but if do you think that this could increase noise levels any noticible ammount?

daroach1414 · Post by **daroach1414** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 11:29 pm

well i just finished this mod just this moment, and i have 1 little wrinkle to the original.

I watercool my cpu, so i decided to put my radiator inside the birdhouse as well. I have 1 drive and the rad in the "house" as of right now. Its so much quieter than before. I love it, and its the same size as bluefront's as well.

I will post pics tomorrow, too late to do it now (though they will be pics of finished product in the case).

akaidiot · Post by **akaidiot** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 4:25 pm

Ok.. So I've come a small step closer to getting my HD cage put together.. I've been searching for material to dampen with and here's what I've found here in little Sweden..

Alternative 1

Alternative 2

1000x500x65 (You can't link on that page..)

I'm in for the last one on the picture since it's so thick it should be able to hold the HDs up, no?

Also, anybody else got a "bird cage" to show off?