Can I suggest a new type of design? Turn the drives 90 degrees, so they sit on a long edge. Mount them as levels in a sky-scaper arrangement. Make a thin & tall unit with fans pushing the air up through the stack. You could probably do some clever ducting to vent some of the hot air mid way up, or just rely on the fans taking air in the bottom and venting it all from the top. Noise is going to be a big issue, so something you can sound proof without compromising size, weight or thermal is the key. My idea only has one bottom air-in for the fans and one air-out at the top, the outer walls can be made soundproof-ish. As a tall tower, it could be moved by mounting a pair of skate-wheels at a bottom edge (normally just off the ground), and using a handle at the top - just tip it like a trolly to put weight on the wheels. Likey?
Not all large fans are low static pressure; just the cheep nasty 250mm ones often seen in pc modding; something like this, might be better, it's got a smaller diameter than the 250 but a greater depth and a stronger motor (and it's from the people who bring you gentle typhoons) because they're a manufacturer they've probably got a huge minimum order, but look elsewhere for similar, there's bound to be something out there. For large fans that are anything much more than cosmetic look out-with the pc enthusiast market.
It might replace the range cooker. 80 drives put out a bit of heat... Seriously though, have you calculated the power requirements? Remember that spin-up takes much more juice than general operating power --16 Watts (for the WD GreenPower series) to 25 Watts (for a Seagate). For 80 drives we're talking about 1280 Watts to 2000 Watts. So you'd have to boot them up in, say, batches of 10 sequentially to keep it all managable. Then average power consumption will settle around the 5 Watts, depending on model. So that's 400 Watts chugging away 24/7 right there. Toasty. Can't wait until Summer. In any case, as much as it pains me (but them's the rules), until there are photos of work in progress, this is not a project log yet. Moving to Modding... when you have the first photos of work in progress (not just a bunch of parts), please let us know and we'll move this thread straight back. Or start a new one; keep this for planning, the other for execution.
nice project... but have you already given up dude? would love to see the progress!!! update us all! thanks!
Isn't that the computer core from star trek? Good luck with it 80 drives ..................................................................
