Big plug in cooling?

[Wildfire]

I was fiddiling around inside my case the other day, and found that my hard drive was getting very hot, now I know I have a cooling problem at the mo. So I am going to remove the case holes where the fans are soon and possibly install a 120 mm fan in the side.

Where is the best place to put this? I have an 80mm YS TECH sucking at the front and one blowing at the back.

Don't think I have the space to install anything except a 60mm in the top, if that.

Also is it worth gettin hard drive cooler that plugs into the bay at the front?
I was looking at the Global Win I storm, but I can't see how this cools your hdd. If I put it in the bottom bay it is only above my floppy drive. My Hdd is below this. So how does it cool the hdd?

Cheers

 

[Monaco]

HDD bay coolers seem like a waste of time to me. I stuck on in my box, and temps went UP because it messed up my airflow. I switched the fans around to be a front exhaust, not an intake as it is designed and that really did cool my hard drive. By about 1 Celsius degree.

I only had a 5400 RPM drive tho, a 7200 or a 10,000 RPM SCSI screamer might get some more benefit.

I ended up taking the fans out and leaving the bare grill in my bottom drive bay just because it looks cool as hell.

In my case at least, decent case airflow is more than
enough
to cool th HDD.

And, most folks seem to put side fans so they blow at your PCI slots and AGP card. But I never bothered putting one in.

-the monster

 

[William]

you need to worry about balancing your airflow. You should have about the same amount of air in as out. Are you sure you can take your 80 out and put a 92mm in? That would go a long way to giving more airflow and give you a whole lot leeway in what to put on the front. As for cooling the HD, if you can put anyairflow on it(a slow 60) then you should be fine.

 

[Colin]

I have a 51 CFM 92 mm fan in a blowhole on the right side of my case, focused on the HD cage. It keeps four 7200 RPM drives and one 5400 RPM drive nice and cool. Cheap and highly recommended.

Remember to figure in your PSUs exhaust when balancing airflow.

 

[cjtune]

Monster of Rock (Jul 29, 2001 08:16 p.m.):
HDD bay coolers seem like a waste of time to me. I stuck on in my box, and temps went UP because it messed up my airflow....

Without bay coolers (not those with the little tiny 40mm fans! The one with the BIG centrifugal fans), my case temperature would be up to 5'C higher! Bay coolers, to me, are also an alternative to cutting holes out of the case to make blowholes.

 

[Wildfire]

Nope checked yesterday, can't get a 92mm in the back or front at all. The only thing I can fit is 80mm. I'll have to cut a big hole in the side pannel to fit a bigger fan. What about the Delta 80mm? I could get that for the back and front.

Do the rounded IDE cables make alot of difference?

How do I know if I've got good airflow?

 

[bdf24]

Wildfire (Jul 30, 2001 05:42 a.m.):
Nope checked yesterday, can't get a 92mm in the back or front at all. The only thing I can fit is 80mm. I'll have to cut a big hole in the side pannel to fit a bigger fan. What about the Delta 80mm? I could get that for the back and front.

Do the rounded IDE cables make alot of difference?

How do I know if I've got good airflow?

Buy a Dremmel and make a 92mm fit. As far as rounding the cables It does help with air flow. Atleast it did on mine. My case is a mess right now though. Can't seem to ever find time anymore to get everything the way I wan't it anymore.

 

[asmodean]

I think those rounded cables are more like eyecandy, because you can stuff your normal flat cables against a sidepanel or so. I've done so with mine and they're not in the way, except for the dvd-rom cable. I have to stuff it away too...

But then again, I got plenty of space in my case. They might be good if you're limited on space. Even then I suggest you stuff 'em against a side panel...

I've got one of those centrifugal fans in a 5.25" bay, it's made by Titan. The same company that has licensed orbs from thermaltake... and made them crappier. It cools quite well, I'd propably see about 3C raise in case temps if I removed it. Doesn't even make a lot of noise for the amount of air it pushes, something like 6db or so less than a radial one that would move the same amount.

 

[cjtune]

Hey, asmodean, how many impellers does your Titan bay cooler have? One big 120mm fan, two 92mm fans, or is it a crossflow blower (looks like window blinds)?
Mine's from Justcool and has two 92mm fans and is rated at 80cfm (but I think it's lower). Pretty quiet too.

 

[asmodean]

I think my bay cooler is this. It's rated at 35cfm... It's very good anyway. It's a centrifugal blower, looks like those window blinds.

 

[cjtune]

Sweet stuff! Mines almost the same as yours but Justcool used existing axial fans and mounted them face-down to turn them into centrifugals. This is also why it was the cheapest drive bay cooler I've seen (and bought) -US$16.

The windows-blind thingy I mentioned are cross-flow blowers -it takes in air from the back and out through the front: --> O --> whereas centrifugal fans take in air and exhausts it 90 degrees. The axis of the crossflow blower bay coolers is across the face of your 5.25" bay and they suck at developing high pressures. Not to be confused with centrifugal fans.

 

[asmodean]

Ok, thanks for the info Mine is definitely centrifugal, it sucks it from below and blows it out from front. It looks like window blinds when it's rotating @5v, that's what I meant

 

[SteenkyBastage]

i have a full tower case and cannot fit all my HD's down at the bottom together in front of my two 80mm's on one rheostat. for the last HD, i placed it in a 5.25" kit with a bay cooler from best buy. it is virtually silent, and whereas the HD was hot to the touch before i did this, it is now very cool to the touch. i think the big benefit to this was having room for the air to flow freely around the entire HD.

i also found this helped by creating some airflow at the top of the case. the HD bay cooler blows over the HD, and then the air moves on to my two PSU's. whereas before most of the airflow was through the bottom of the case.

 

[cjtune]

Rabid Bob Dole (Jul 31, 2001 06:09 p.m.):
i have a full tower case and cannot fit all my HD's down at the bottom together in front of my two 80mm's on one rheostat. for the last HD, i placed it in a 5.25" kit with a bay cooler from best buy. it is virtually silent, and whereas the HD was hot to the touch before i did this, it is now very cool to the touch. i think the big benefit to this was having room for the air to flow freely around the entire HD.

i also found this helped by creating some airflow at the top of the case. the HD bay cooler blows over the HD, and then the air moves on to my two PSU's. whereas before most of the airflow was through the bottom of the case.

Right on, bro!