Putting Magnets on my computer case.

[mrprotagonist]

Is it ok to put refrigerator magnets on the sides of my Enlight 7237? The case is made of solid steel, and the way I have it placed, it would be ideal to use it as a large refrigerator for magnetic bulletin boards and the like. I am concerned though about the long standing rule that magnets and computers don't mix.

Anyone Care to enlighten me?

P.S. The magnets would go on the side opposite the motherboard tray. (The side panel that is usually removed to work on your computer.)

Thanks

 

[hjo3]

The only real danger is to your magenetic media, mainly hard drives. Given the magnetic shielding in modern HDDs, I doubt you could damage anything with refrigerator magnets on the outside of your case.

I'd be more worried about the magnets getting near your CRT (if you use one).

 

[Vonkhan]

EMI ... ? i dunno, i wanna know too!

 

[hjo3]

Originally posted by: VonkhanEMI ... ? i dunno, i wanna know too!

EMI is Electromagnetic Interference. Electric motors would produce it, magnets wouldn't (broadly speaking; I'm sure a physicist could find fault with that statement). I took a "cow magnet" to a 6 gig HD once... really went over it with it; no damage. But anyway.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

No problems will happen probably. You need very strong magnets for damage, it would have to be connected with electricity or something to conduct that much power....

 

[mrprotagonist]

Thanks guys. If anything goes wrong, I'll know who to blame.

If anything goes right, I'll take the credit.

Politician-in-training.

 

[stevewm]

Originally posted by: hjo3
The only real danger is to your magnetic media, mainly hard drives. Given the magnetic shielding in modern HDDs, I doubt you could damage anything with refrigerator magnets on the outside of your case.

I'd be more worried about the magnets getting near your CRT (if you use one).

Actually hardrives have NO magnetic shielding, and they never have. Modern hardrives are made out of aluminum which provides absolutely no shielding whatsoever against magnetic fields. The only material that can really be used to shield against magnetic fields is Nu-Metal. This stuff is extremely expensive, and even then the only way to completely stop fields is to completely encase the device in the stuff.

All modern hardrives actually have 2 or 3 VERY powerful Neodymium magnets in them. The one used for the electromagnetically driven R/W head mechanism is the biggest of the two. It sits only a few CM from the platters and causes no damage.

To do any damage would require a very strong oscillating magnetic field placed very close to the platters. A example is a CRT degausser. However once this is done to a hardrive the drive is completely ruined as not only have you destroyed all the data on the platters but you also destroyed all the sector start/end, defect management, etc... information that is written to the drive at the factory. This is also called low-level formatting. It can ONLY be done at the factory with special equipment. The drive itself is not capable of re-producing it.

I would not be worried about fridge magnets on your case. Look in your case at your PC speaker (aka beeper). It's magnet is not shielded. Why? Because it doesn't need to be.

 

[yhelothar]

just don't get it anywhere close to your hard drive...

 

[bocamojo]

I don't think you can hurt anything by using small magnets, but I'd still do it as far away from the hard drives as possible.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
just don't get it anywhere close to your hard drive...

In my Lian Li case, the speaker is located directly underneath the hard drive(s) and has never caused a problem.

 

[merlocka]

I was bored once and took an old 6GB drive (which had a good working OS on it, I just imaged it to a new drive) and rubbed it up and down against the magnet of a high powered car audio sub. The magnet on that sucker must have weighed 10 lbs. I basically had the drive sitting on top of it for a few minutes.

Popped the drive back in, booted, ran scandisk, no problems.

I wouldn't recommend this type of handling , but I think the whole magnet vs hard drive thing might be a bit overstated.

 

[boran]

I suggest reading Dansdata's site magnet article actually regular magnets cant even hurt a harddrive even when u keep em fairly close and when they are fairly large, rare earth magnets however are killers. but almost no-one has rare earth magnets these days.

 

[GaryShandling]

Play it safe, dont risk screwing over your equipment just because its a little convenient to put bulletins on your case.

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: boran
I suggest reading Dansdata's site magnet article actually regular magnets cant even hurt a harddrive even when u keep em fairly close and when they are fairly large, rare earth magnets however are killers. but almost no-one has rare earth magnets these days.

You mean like Neodymium magnets?