Where should I put new HD?

[VivienM]

Hi there...

I'm planning to add a second HD (Maxtor D740X 80 gig) to my box... and I'm not sure where in the case to put in.

I'm using a [disgustingly boring and horrible at cooling] enlight 7237 case; for not familiar with this bland thing, it has 4 5.25" bays (I'm using the top two with a CD-RW and a DVD-ROM) and 3 3.5" bays in a cage thingy. Right now, I have the cage thingy set up as:
- floppy
- nothing
- existing HD (Maxtor D740X, 60 gig)

The easiest solution (assuming I manage to take the cage out) would be to just add the new drive in the empty bay in the middle, but I'm concerned that having two 7200RPM drives piled up in a not-exactly-cool case would be too much heat.

Should I do that?
Or would it be better to put the floppy in the middle bay (which would kinda look weird with the case closed) and the HDs in the top two?
Or should I leave the drive cage as is, dig out the extra drive brackets I have, and put the new HD in a 5.25" bay (and deal with the awkwardness of routing IDE cables with a slave above the master... I do have a rounded cable sitting around too)?
Or should I invest in one of those HD coolers things for the new drive? (If so, which one?)

 

[SpeedFreak03]

I'd put it in a 5.25 bay with the brackets. I have a ThermalTake hardcano 2 which has a HDD cooler in it, and mounts in a 5.25 bay, so you might want one of them. You can get one for around $25-30 at newegg.com. I wouldn't stack 3 drives together like that with no spaces. Good Luck!

 

[VivienM]

Originally posted by: SpeedFreak03
I'd put it in a 5.25 bay with the brackets. I have a ThermalTake hardcano 2 which has a HDD cooler in it, and mounts in a 5.25 bay, so you might want one of them. You can get one for around $25-30 at newegg.com. I wouldn't stack 3 drives together like that with no spaces. Good Luck!

How quiet is it? I've been trying to lower the noise of my system (eg: my new power supply, an Antec 430W, is a lot silent than my old one), and I'd prefer not adding a new source of noise (I leave my box on at night, and I do like to sleep...).

Newegg ships to Canada? I think I should be able to get one of those locally, anyways... I know some brick and mortar places sell other HD coolers, at least.

 

[beverage]

Originally posted by: VivienM
Or should I leave the drive cage as is, dig out the extra drive brackets I have, and put the new HD in a 5.25" bay (and deal with the awkwardness of routing IDE cables with a slave above the master... I do have a rounded cable sitting around too)?

why not put your current one in drive brackets and then put your new one where your current one is. Solves your heat concerns, and your slave over master problem.

 

[VivienM]

why not put your current one in drive brackets and then put your new one where your current one is. Solves your heat concerns, and your slave over master problem.

That's a possibility too, I suppose... but it would mean managing to get that cage thingy out to take out the current drive. If I have more luck trying to take the cage thingy out, though, than last time I tried, I may very well consider that.

Something else I'm considering (maybe, as you suggest, for the new drive) is the Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler. I found it while looking into what an earlier poster suggested, and it seems to meet my needs better - anyone have any experience with that?

 

[emjem]

I use this case and I have both of my hdds in the two bottom 5 1/4 bays. And I removed the bay covers so that the front of the hdds are open to view/air. The rear case fan blows air directly across the hard drives -- out the front.

If you put a serious fan on the back of the case you can get some real air moving across the drives -- and your cpu as well.

 

[VivienM]

If you put a serious fan on the back of the case you can get some real air moving across the drives -- and your cpu as well.

What would you call a serious fan? I have a [somewhat generic, AFAIK] fan out at the back, but right now it's hooked up to the fan thing on my new power supply, and honestly, that power supply is running the fan too slow. Next time I'm opening the thing up, I'm putting the fan back onto a regular power connector, even though that'll increase the noise a bit.

 

[emjem]

I really don't know the specs of the fan I'm using but it's just a cheap generic 80mm fan, relatively low rpm, but I can feel the warm air coming out the front from about six inches away -- so it's doing the job.

By serious fan I meant a 4500-5000 rpm. Some peeps that do a lot of heavy hdd work might want more air.

This model of Enlight is awesome. I've got four of them and it's the only case I will buy when I build systems. They have changed the basic design for 7 or 8 years that I know of.

Enlight power supplies are also very good. Toms Hardware rated the manufacturer of them as one of the 3 best.

 

[VivienM]

Originally posted by: emjem
I really don't know the specs of the fan I'm using but it's just a cheap generic 80mm fan, relatively low rpm, but I can feel the warm air coming out the front from about six inches away -- so it's doing the job.

By serious fan I meant a 4500-5000 rpm. Some peeps that do a lot of heavy hdd work might want more air.

This model of Enlight is awesome. I've got four of them and it's the only case I will buy when I build systems. They have changed the basic design for 7 or 8 years that I know of.

Enlight power supplies are also very good. Toms Hardware rated the manufacturer of them as one of the 3 best.

Well, personally I've been a bit disappointed with this case... next box I build, I sooooooo am getting a Thermaltake Xaser III or something like that. I considered just putting this box in a new case, but that'd be too much work.

Re: power supplies, I swapped out my Enlight 340W last week for an Antec TruePower 430W, simply because I suspected the old power supply to be responsible for random lockups I've been having. I haven't really concluded whether the power supply was indeed the problem yet, though...