Recording studio: Need Quieter Fan in hard drive caddy (or can I just unplug it?)

[AjDman]

I recently installed removable hard drive caddies in all my PCs.

The caddies are Kingwin KF-101-IPF, which are really great -- attractive (black fronts), heavy duty (aluminum sides), with an innovative bottom fan design that sucks heat away from the drive and out the back of the PC case.

Check out this review for more (& pics of the fan):

http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/kingwin/index2.php

The problem?

The bottom fan is too loud. I use these in a recording studio, and need a QUIET box (my PC is tricked out with all the Zalman stuff, which works great). The fan is a 50x50x10mm (see above link for a decent pic).

Can anyone recommend a quiet replacement I could swap in? Or could I just unplug the darn thing, and still be safe?

Best,
Aj
Detroit

 

[Elcs]

My dad is a fan of the removable HDD caddies....

He passed me a Maxtor HDD that had sat in a fanless caddy for a few hours and it was nearly at the point where Id pull my fingers away. No idea how long it had been working for but Id guess at under 4 hours.

Id have to assume that fanless caddies will trap air in hence the hdd warms up steadily.

Id probably recommend a fanbus to dial down the fans. When not doing sound-sensitive operations, they can go full blast. Once you start sound-sensitive operations, dial them down to the required level (off even).

 

[AjDman]

Interesting approach, I never even thought of that... any lead on a good fanbus switch? (This reminds me of how I deal with the furnace in the studio; I have to turn it off when we track very quiet stuff; annoying but it works

Still looking for a quieter fan option as well though.

Anyone try the Sunon MS series? I just found this through Google. No idea if they are actually quiet:

http://www.sunonusa.com/ms.htm

aj

(Also, I figured that turning the fan off entirely would be bad (read: hot). However, I'm assuming the thick aluminum casing functions at least partially as a heat sink?)

 

[AjDman]

Bump, to see if anyone has any tales to tell about Pretty Quiet Fans. (Sunon MS?)