Modding Hard Drive cooled Silenceing mod

Ok, This is my second post on the forum (joined just for the macroblack thread, where is the fanbus article!) but anyways, would love to hear any questions/ideas/comments on how to go about this.

Here is my idea, take this:



and enclose it in something like this:






The reasoning behind this is that every single review site that I have gone to, has said that the hard drive noise was reduced substantially, but the overheating was a problem, especially for 7200 rpm hd's (I have a WD and IBM both 7200)

So anyways, don't really even know how I am goin to go about this, but any comments would be most appreciated.


Oh, and here is a bad pic of the pc i'm currently working on



Thanks in advance,
LuLu

 

The way I'd tackle it is.

Step 1.
Put together an enclosure with the dimensions to fit a 5.25" cage slot. Inside this is a foam layer to deaden sound. Then there is the inner support to mount the HDD.

Step 2.
You don't have to copy the Koolance HDD waterblock exactly. You'd be surprised how effective a smaller block is at removing heat from a HDD (since most of the drive is metal and therefore a heatsink anyhow).
Something of similar design but on the scale of a CPU block or VGA block would work nicely.

Alternative Step 2.
Leave the front and back of your enclosure open. Here you could use really light weight/density foam and use fans to push air through (or even leave them open).
Obviously, the fans negate silencing the HDDs somewhat, so you'd have to experiment with size and type.

Hope that helps

btw, you might wanna copy those pics to your own host. Leeching's bad mmmkay

 

One point when trying to actively cool a Hard drive. The nice flat bit of metal on the top of the drive is actually insulated from the rest of the drive by an o-ring. The best place to place a water block is on the sides. Apparently the motor is directly connected to this for cooling.

I guess it makes sens really when you consider that you are screweing the sides to a big metal case, which will act as a large heatsink.

 

which is why on the top pic the drives are electonics facing the waterblock.

 

Hmmm has anybody seen a comparison between the Innovatek and Koolance hard drive water coolers? Innovatek has a solution where they mount the blocks on the side of the hard drives (aka 8-Balls method) Or the Koolance mount on the bottom of the hard drive where all the electronics are?

The alternative method is really not what I am looking for, as that would kinda defeat the purpose of trying to get rid of noise in the pc. However, I am curious as to how a waterblock would even mount onto the Hard drive? if you have a link to a pic, would be most appreciated.

 

I've done a bit of research, and apparently the material I was going to use, Dynamat Extreme, only dampens the vibrations. Does anybody have any recommendations as to a type of sound dampening material that would get rid of the higher freq?

 

Foam. Look in the yellow pages for a local fabric type shop.

 

the mat u have is gonna deaden out some sound isnt it.. i mean, most things will deaden out SOME sound..

the mat is blatently thin foam anyway.. have u tried wrapping it around a hard disk just to see what effect it has?

 

im using egg crate to silence my hdd

 

Bradford: What type of fabric am I looking for? I have absolutely no knowledge in this area.

Hydrogen18: is it very effective at lowering the higher frequency's of your hd? Do you have any pics of your setup?

Thanks.

 

Absolutely any. Go and pull the foam out of your mam's sofa, that'll work
As long as whatever you use is soft and spongy, it'll do just fine.

And egg carton is also a good suggestion. It's so good it's what whackos use to sound proof their rooms.

 

I heard somewhere that the egg carton thing doesn't actually work all that well for some reason. Maybe it was wrong though, I don't know much about acoustics.

 

Question about painting on acrylic:
Will using the same paint they use for Lexan R/C model cars work just as well on plexiglass/acrylic?