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Hard Drive Cooling for 10 Cents
David Tiberio writes "I've bought many hard drive cooling solutions over the years, sometimes spending $50 or more on drive cooling systems that were noisy and did little to cool down the drive. After much tinkering, I discovered a simple solution that cost me only 10 cents per drive... the 1/2 inch bracket. Mounts any 80mm fan to the belly of an internal hard drive."
I've seen a few HD coolers. This seems to work alright.
My question is - why? I guess I've never really heard of anyone over-cloking there hd's. Do they really overheat? How can you tell? When should you worry about it?
-dave
http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
He could mount it in the other side, blowing at the disk cover. I would also add some rubber in the contact places (or rubber "screws"), so the vibrations of the fan do not pass to the disk. Damn, even a 120mm fan that blows that the side, if you case allows (use the PCB side holes instead of the thin side holes).
If you're going to those lengths, you probably aren't just some random person who wants to stop his pr0n collection being discovered. Hammers do not reliably erase data; sure, the discs may be bent and the HD itself is never going to work again, but you'd still be able to get a competent disaster recovery specialist to get at least 90% of the data off the disc.
That said, if you're being paranoid then railway thermite (melts, doesn't explode) is cheap and very effective. Open the case, pour thermite powder in all round, use a mag ribbon to light it and no data will be coming off that disc.
I find this sort of cooler much more useful:z m2hc2
http://www.quietpc.com/uk/harddrive.php#
The heatpipes per se only make a small difference to the temperature (perhaps 6-10 degrees?), but the rubber mounts do a fabulous job of reducing the noise.
This is obviously just a ploy to make some money. The guy has an affiliate link to PCMALL. He is hoping some people click and buy some other stuff along with the screw. Can we get back to real news?
No, but he's happy to tell you where to buy them.
/.
Approximate quote from TFA: "you can buy fans here ( http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-1651435-54502),
This is just another case of Roland Piquepaille... Check out the top level of his domain too, it's just an ad site...
1. Create site about obvious hack with refferer commision links.
2. Post your site on high volume site like
3. Profit.
4. Piss me off for wasting my time. I even wasted my time typing this up, I'm sure some "people have a right to profit" dude will mod me down.
But back to the parent post...
It *is* kinda funny, the 10-cent claim. I read a lot of those backwoods and country living kinds of managzines. They're usually full of great projects that the average person can usually pull off to some degree.
What kills me is often the low-cost claims: "Build a central, forced-air wood heating system for only $10 !" Sounds really cool, until you read the article and find that the person already had a house's worth of air duct on-hand, an arc welder, and a friend who gave him enough plate steel for the furnace in exchange for a dozen eggs and a case of beer. :)
These articles are still great, as they illustrate the make-due-with-what-you-have mentaility. However, a little truth in advertising would be appreciated. :)
Method of processing duck feet
I've done this to one of my drives, and I blow on the PCB. Why? Because when you think about what typically fails on a HDD, it's the controller. Keep the electronics cool, the drive will last longer.
"No one likes working in a hamster wheel, and your shop smells of cedar shavings from here." - TaleSpinner
A few readers have pointed out that the magnetic field from an 80mm fan is probably nowhere near strong enough to penetrate the metal platter cover, let alone affect the bits on the platters themselves. Then one reader mentioned that if the fan was mounted on the underside, it would have to go throught the PCB as well. Can a fan motor induce enough current in the PCB traces to cause data errors (or CRC-type errors and thereby slow down data transfer)? What about all those fancy-but-cheap (look, it's UV reactive!) unshielded round cables that no longer have a ground next to each data line? I wonder if that might be one more reason not to have 12 fans in one case, but have not seen the issue addressed...
An MIT prof just released a new book that you can read online called Democratizing Innovation. I haven't read the whole thing yet but it looks like he may be on to something. Also see Pro-Am Revolution .
What if Digg added local news and a Slashdot inspired comment karma system? ---
http://houndwire.com
...hook up a spray mister as well to increase your cooling capacity!
Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
Doesn't 2000rpm fan produce 2kHz electromagnetic wave regardless of the current?
No.
the magnetic field in any motor is VERY tightly coupled. Use a magnetometer (I think that's the name of the instrument anyway) -- you'll be hard pressed to find any significant magnetic field near a motor. And I'm talking about the thousands of horsepower motors industry uses, not the tiny little impedance-protected DC motors in your computer.
Similarly, you can't set up a coil and pull power from the high tension lines running around the nation -- the three phases are in close proximity to each other (at least relative to you on the ground) and their magnetic fields cancel out. If you can get close enough to one of the lines you can induce a bit of power and run some lights... we had a snowmobile hut that had "free power" for lights by doing this.
This brings up a related subject, namely, putting a filter in front of the fan to filter out dust. Antec rackmount cases have a great solution, namely a removeable tray in front of the fan. The tray comes with a spongy filter type of material which is anti-static.
I've tried finding a raw source for this material, with no luck. Does anyone know where one might find this?
Basically I'd like to get a large sheet of this, and cut it up appropriately for all of the various fans that I have. I'd really like to reduce the dust in my systems.
If anyone knows of a source for the raw anti-static material in large quantities, I'd appreciate knowing it. Thanks in advance.
The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
Actually, I recall having an old Micropolis MFM disk, which did exactly this.
Except for the toothpaste-and-glue bit, of course.
Unmount your hard drive (but leave the cables attached) and power up the system. Touch your hard drave - can you even tell that its spinning? No vibrations.
Now, mount a cheapie fan to it, and touch it - a LOT more vibrations. And it will only get worse as the fan wears.
Anyone who mounts fans to their hard drives to cool them deserves what they get - you'll be losing data within a few months, and probably end up with a completely fucked drive.
Simple, we'll outsource the job to India, paying them to jump up at the same time the Chinese land, and land the same time the Chinese jump.
With the nearly identical population size, and geographical proximity, this should counteract the forces, or perhaps send the earth hurtling into the sun... Either way.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
This is a great idea if all you needed to do was cool the circuit board. The fans don't effectively cool the platters, though, and sometimes that thermistor that tells you the temperature is mounted on the same side as the circuit board, getting cooled by that fan, and showing you lower temperatures, but the platters are still running hot.
Kriston
I've used double-sided sticky foam tape to attach 40mm fans to hard drives before. The foam tape can be stacked a few layers high to provide room for air to flow away as it is pushed down against the drive.
Considering the length of a roll of this stuff and the number of fans you can mount in the fashion I have done, it's probably cheaper per fan than those 10cent brackets are.
And I've never had any problems with magnetic field interference with data on the disk. Everything has worked great, and I've been doing this for at least 10 years.
I have never met anyone that expressed a need to specifically add cooling to their hard disk in the first place. Hard disks come factory sealed and if one is overheating it is defective or absorbing heat generated from other sources, like maybe a hot CPU. Cool the CPU.
Or is he overclocking his disk from 7k rpm to 14krpm somehow? Don't get too close to that machine.
Is this guy selling a solution to a frictional problem or a fictional problem? Shheeeez.
--- -- - -
Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
The one concern about the airfilter material is that they usually work using static electricity to trap the particles. I'm a little hesitant to use this so close to computer equipment. The Antec filters are specifically anti-static material. The other nice thing about them is that they are washable, so you don't have to buy a whole new set every three months.
This is why I was looking for the anti-static foam. I may give the airfilters a limited try though, if I can't find any anti-static foam filters.
As far as ForestGrump's suggestion that I'm bordering on paranoid, no, not at all. You should see dust I'm dealing with. The Antec filters get absolutely caked beyond belief if they aren't cleaned frequently. And unprotected boxes get filled with dust after a year. So much so that blowing out the dust with a compressed can of air is a major undertaking.
I've already had one hard disk fail, and it was most likely due to dust. If you don't have to live with this situation, count your blessings.
The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.