Fractal Design R5 hard drive cooling?

[Nimblor]

I have a Fractal Design R5 that I am using for a home server. I like the case because it can fit a lot of stuff. Currently 7 spinners, 3 SSD , and 1 M.2. The spinning drives get a little warmer than I would like when doing monthly maintenance. I have the fans in the front grill blowing in but they do not seem to be cutting it. I have some room on the other side of the drives for more fans that I could zip tie in for a pull configuration. It seems like a messy solution though.

I'm using a MSI c236a workstation MB if that helps at all.

Anyone have any other ideas?

 

[EarthDog]

The spinning drives get a little warmer than I would like when doing monthly maintenance.

My first question is......what temps are you actually seeing, and is there an actual need, or are you overly concerned even if it's well within spec?

Push/pull should help things out. Otherwise, I can't think of much outside of that.

 

[Nimblor]

They are SAS hard drives some 10k rpm and spec up to 140F. During some maintenance some are up to 125F ish. Yes, it is within spec. No, I do not like it. I do periodic maintenance like cleaning out the dust filters but I like it to be more of a set-it-and-forget-it type of situation.

I took another look at it pondering my options and saw one fan not spinning so this may all be a hardware issue.

Another factor is that it runs headless and it is superbly annoying to put a head on it to tinker with the bios fan settings.

 

[Kenrou]

HeH I loved that case, good but heavy, if you're using the front caddy's, realistically the only thing you can do is more/better fans, take the dust filter out or remove the sound isolation material as it makes things a tad toastier (like insulation), when compared to other cases I got after. Personally I would get more/better fans, 2x Noctua 140mm PWM (or even the PPC variant if you hate quiet) on the front should do the trick as they move quite a bit more air than the ones that come with the case.

 

[freeagent]

Just need to move some air through it. I have an R4 and I had to force feed it through the front, no filter.

 

[Nimblor]

I added a Noctua 140 PWM for the exhaust and moved the 140 fractal fan from the rear to the front. The front fans are both 'dumb' fans and controlled by a switch on the front, I put it on high. I sorted out the front fan problem and spent entirely too long on profiles. It is so tedious and I have no idea what it should be for a 7700k. I ended up putting the 120 that I had in the front inside the case, pointed at the HBA inside the case. Everything is cool now. We will see what happens when the hard drives get working.

 

[Kenrou]

The fractal fans that come with the case are really not good with obstructions like dust filters or the front panel, trust me on this, I had them for ages. If memory serves the later models (v2 or something) were a tad better but still miles away from a good (more expensive) fan like Noctua, Corsair, Typhoon etc.

 

[freeagent]

Those old Fractal fans are terrible. You would get better results by sticking your head in the case and blowing on it yourself.

 

[WrkBoot]

What does "headless" mean in the computer world?

Post magically merged: Feb 25, 2024

They are SAS hard drives some 10k rpm and spec up to 140F. During some maintenance some are up to 125F ish. Yes, it is within spec. No, I do not like it. I do periodic maintenance like cleaning out the dust filters but I like it to be more of a set-it-and-forget-it type of situation.

I took another look at it pondering my options and saw one fan not spinning so this may all be a hardware issue.

Another factor is that it runs headless and it is superbly annoying to put a head on it to tinker with the bios fan settings.

 

[Kenrou]

What does "headless" mean in the computer world?

Computer that is meant to run without monitor/keyboard/mouse right?

 

[Nimblor]

Yes. Headless means just the PC tower and nothing attached except the network, and a usb for the UPS in my case. It is alone in my basement. I have a cheapest keyboard and mouse, and a very old monitor I can hook up to it if needed.

The re-arrangement of fans and new profiles seemed to do the trick. Monthly maintenance had a high temp of 91F. Even with the not-the-greatest FD case fans in the new configuration. I did have some 120mm fans I could have put in there, but the 140s seem to be doing the job.