Hard Drive Cooling by Ducting

[Bluefront]

Here's a hard drive cooling project I'm working on....this setup requires a tight case with all vents closed off, which forces all the air blown out by the rear case fan and PSU to enter through the front duct. There is no fan in this duct. The two Maxtor drives are mounted in a CompUSA hard drive bracket ($12). They are de-coupled from the case by the mounting method...velcro mounts on the bottom.

This setup also requires an opening fairly large so the incoming air travels over all sides of the drives. I enlarged the original 80mm fan hole quite a bit....and I'm also using a filter (in-cabin filter off an Xterra...got it used and cleaned it). You could do this without a filter and achieve even lower temps.

Right now ambient is 23c...cpu is 33c at an idle, board is 31c, and the hard drives are 32/37c.The rear case fan is temp controlled so as temps rise, more air flows over the drives, keeping them at a reasonable temp. I may cover the duct with some acoustic material....so far so good.

Hard Drive Duct

 

[Bookie]

something in me just wants to say that this isn't a good idea. It's like you are sucking in hot air (from the HDDs) to use to cool the rest of the computer. But, if your temps are good then good job.

What are the specifics of this computer? (chip/mb/vid)

 

[beatle]

The heat from those harddrives is going to populate that case regardless. Better to have cool air coming in than to let it stagnate.

Those are some cool temps, btw!

 

[amdskip]

Originally posted by: beatle
The heat from those harddrives is going to populate that case regardless. Better to have cool air coming in than to let it stagnate.

Those are some cool temps, btw!

Yeah, put a fan in the front, heat kills hard drives.

 

[Bluefront]

When you think about it, if the hard drives are inside the case, the heat generated by those drives is inside the case also....no matter if the incoming air is ducted over the drives or not. This setup just cools the drives better.

This is my silent project. Fans in the front of your computer are always noisy. Having all the fans in the rear helps in the quieting.

Celeron 2.0
SIS 645 Chipset
512 DDR
120 Maxtor
20 Maxtor
AIW Rage 128

 

[EeyoreX]

Fans in the front of your computer are always noisy. Having all the fans in the rear helps in the quieting.

My front mounted fans are silent. I have them hooked up to a Sunbeam rheobus and keep them set at about 7 volts (allegedly the dual light LED flips colors at 7 volts. I keep mine below that). I have a Sunbeam on my server as well, and when I crank up my 2 front intake fans and my one exhaust fan, the exhaust is louder than the intakes. (I only do this on the rare occassion I am rendering something in 3D. Not for work/job, just for kicks.)

However, that aside, nice temps!

\Dan

 

[BG4533]

How well does decoupling the HDs with the velcro actually help? Doesnt seem like much.

Brian

 

[Bluefront]

I have a thing about noise and heat and dust. This setup so far is proving an excellent solution. Why put fans, no matter how quiet, in the front, when your rear fans can provide sufficient airflow? That rear case fan, which is decoupled by a foam mount, is plenty quiet.

Actually the velcro mounts work well....I can feel no vibration when I place my hand on the case. Also I was able to easily move the drives forward/backward in the duct to find the optimal position.

 

[tallman45]

The Antec SLK3700 has no other intakes or vents other than the front one which is directly in front of the hrad drives. The 120mm rear exhaust fan pulls a lot of air using this method. Should one fill up all 7 drive bays then an additional 120mm intake fan can be mounted in front of the drives.

 

[Mday]

you're nuts :Q

anyway, that's an interesting choice.