looking for a way to quietly cool hd

[Svartberg]

A month ago i was reading the safe temperature stuff here, which basically made me disconnected my annoying Vantec HDC-502A from my hd - it's a dual fan thing which connected from underneath the hd and has a 4 pin connection (the psu thing with the black/red/yellow wires).
(i got it cause i have my hd on the 5.25" bay to dump the vibrations a bit.

a few days ago i constantly monitored my hd temperature and noticed it always hovers above the 40c, and yesterday i noticed after a lot of strain it got to 48c at which case everything suddently ran slow which alerted me to shutdown the pc, take a break and reconnect my vantec.

now the headaches came back, and i miss the silence
Something which would be great is having an option to control the fan speed somehow, the only problem is i have no idea how to control those 4 pins (i read the article which explains how to play with the wires, but it got me confused and i know i'll ruin something if i try), unlike 3 pins where you can just buy a fanmate or one of the numerous controllers and undervolt it on the fly.

If anyone can help me, maybe even recommend me some other cooling that can be put in the 5.25" i'd really appreciate it, as i'm sure i'm not the only one who feels a bit down when there's noise from the comp

[freak_in_cage]

just have a 80mm fan intake blowing air into the case over the drive, but have it running at 5v. if your not sure how to do this, hunt around to work out the trick with swapping the wires. if this scares you too much, im sure you could find an adapter to convert 4 pin to 3 pin, and that way you could use a fan mate controller.

hard drives get hot because they are stuck in the corner or the case where there is no air ventilation, but they done actually produce much heat, so it wont take much to cool it.

if you want the HD to be quieter, suspend it.

[Svartberg]

ye i think that's what i best do, find a 4-to-3 adapter, and get one of those multifan controllers, probably will take the zalman mfc which was reviewed here (though i hate leet designs )

thx, guess i'll check those out and see how it works.

[Denorios]

You could try going passive, with a HDD silencer/cooler. Off the top of my head, for 5.25 bays there is:-

1) Molex SilentDrive Acoustic Enclosure
2) Zalman Hard Drive Heatpipe Cooler ZM-2HC2
3) Silentmaxx Aluminium Hard Drive Enclosure
4) Scythe Silent Box Heatlane HDD Enclosure

Have a look at this, and see what you think.

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/harddrive.php

Is the Vantec thing 4-pin, or is it simply two wires connected to a four-pin pass-through? Fans don't usually use both the 12V and 5V lines.

[sthayashi]

1) Molex SilentDrive Acoustic Enclosure
2) Zalman Hard Drive Heatpipe Cooler ZM-2HC2

Please be careful about those recommendations (at the bottom).

[Project]

mmm what i do is have a zalman hd cooler, mount it, and remove the 5.25 front bezel so it acts an intact. Temps have not rose above 40 c i think the reason y it works so well is probably the 120 rear fan sucking all the air in. love them 120s

[Svartberg]

If you've noticed, i already said i have the zalman heatpipe thingy.
The prob is there is no air contact so there's nothing to cool it down, the heatpipe basically helps slowing down the heatbuild, but if there's nothing to cool it, it will get to high temps eventually.

i make a serious use of hd reading (sound, graphics and gaming of course ^^), so the hd can really build up serious heat.

I hope i'll get the fan controlling solution working well, or i'll be bumped =(

[Denorios]

1) Molex SilentDrive Acoustic Enclosure
2) Zalman Hard Drive Heatpipe Cooler ZM-2HC2

Please be careful about those recommendations (at the bottom).

I wasn't actually recommending any of them, just listing the coolers that I'm aware of. Still, I take your point. My bad. The Zalman unit especially. Why on earth didn't they take a leaf from their GPU coolers and have the heatpipes going into some sort of finned plate?

[Qwertyiopisme]

1) Molex SilentDrive Acoustic Enclosure
2) Zalman Hard Drive Heatpipe Cooler ZM-2HC2

Please be careful about those recommendations (at the bottom).

I wasn't actually recommending any of them, just listing the coolers that I'm aware of. Still, I take your point. My bad. The Zalman unit especially. Why on earth didn't they take a leaf from their GPU coolers and have the heatpipes going into some sort of finned plate?

Probably becuase marketing thinks that anything that says "heatpipe" on it is good, (as it is all the rage nowadays to have "heatpipe technology") and they skimped on costs. I mean come on, the fluid in the heatpipes doesnt boil untill it's 70*! (or so I've heard). Anyway, it's not liek they would do any good even if they had a liquid that boiled at 40*-ish, becuase the copper conducts the heat easily enough (in passive or low airflow conditions).

[Svartberg]

well the only reason i use those heatpipes is to lower the vibes a bit and to counter fast heat builtups.

ok i just got for the zalman controller, and like i promised i edit the post (for future vantec users).
originally i planned to cut the 4 vantec wires (2 reds 2 blacks) connect them with tape to one of the cables which came with the controller and then control the dual vantec fans like any other fan.
but then i noticed the switch on the side of the controller, so i just inserted the exposed ends of the vantec (i inserted two blacks in the black hole and two reds in the red hole - i'm no computer wiz but it wouldn't make sense putting only one of them in one controller, and will probably overload them anyway).

the result i got is off switch, 12v (normal like without controller) and 5v option (silent yet working).
i'll probably keep it on 5v unless i do some heavy hd work and don't mind extra noise, i'm happy to report the fans operate well and silent at 5v, unlike what i expected.