DIY hdd fan. DIY illuminated fan made from a hard drive
Those who work at the computer at night or just late into the night are well aware that the computer can seem very noisy at those moments when the bustle around subsides and the background noise of everyday life fades to almost nothing. First of all, fans make noise; they can be replaced with quieter ones; coolers for processors and video cards are also not a problem - even passive radiators are easy to buy these days. And it is precisely at that moment when we quiet down all the fans in the computer that the presence of hard drive. The grinding, growling and sobbing of the hard drive accompanies every copying, loading or other access of the computer to the hard drive. This may sound funny to some, but let us remember that this becomes clearly audible only when other sources of noise are defeated. In the depths of the hard drive, a spindle with magnetic plates rotates at tremendous speed, and the reading head runs intensively along all their radii, reading and writing information. During operation, the hard drive creates quite significant vibrations, which are transmitted to the case of the system unit if the hard drive is classically mounted in a 3.5" connector. Some “advanced” cases have rubber gaskets at the points of contact between the case and the hard drive, which greatly reduces the vibrations transmitted to the case (for example, ASUS Ascot series cases). But the hard drive itself continues to be a source of noise, although the overall noise level becomes noticeably less. But the hard drive also heats up significantly. separately, and then study the pair complex systems to solve these problems.
Methods to combat hard drive noise
If your case is not equipped with rubber inserts, then you can use a special rubber suspension for a hard drive in a 5.25" connector. One of these adapters was discovered in Russian retail under the name "Scythe Hard Disk Stabilizer 2". There are many more similar devices, but It’s very difficult to find them on sale, but this one came to hand successfully. The principle of operation is simple: four rubber posts expand the hard drive mount from 3.5" format to 5.25". As a result, the hard drive hangs in the 5.25" case slot. rubber suspension.As practice has shown, the noise level after such a modification becomes noticeably lower. It is not surprising, because this approach allows the best way dampen vibrations transmitted to the body. The second way to make a hard drive quieter is to use noise-reducing boxes under the 5.25" bay of the case.
The hard drive is hidden inside this box, the task of which is to absorb vibrations and noise from the operation of the hard drive. This method is most effective in suppressing noise, but exacerbates another issue - cooling the hard drive. To solve this problem, additional ventilation fans are sometimes used. But this is a separate topic.
Cooling
The hard drive also heats up, because mechanical and electronic units inside it work almost continuously, generating heat. Manufacturers hard drives admit that the reliability of their devices decreases by 2 (!) times when the operating temperature increases from 45 to 55 degrees. IN normal conditions heat is dissipated from the surface of the hard drive case and transferred to the walls of the case at the points of contact. Modern cases are often equipped with blow-in fans located on the front wall of the case. In addition to general ventilation, they also blow on hard drives. This method is considered the most effective for cooling, especially if the system has several hard drives that are tightly clogged seats in the case. In cases that are not equipped with such fans, additional cooling of the hard drive can be provided by a variety of HDD coolers. For the most part, they are divided into three types:Suspended fans
Suspended fans are attached to the bottom of the hard drive and blow air through the case along with the electronic equipment. They usually consist of one or two fans that rotate at 3000~6000 rpm. Such devices most often do not even differ initially low level noise, and over time, when the fan bearings begin to deteriorate, the noise from the fans becomes simply unbearable. However, the cooling efficiency is quite high level, active airflow of the case does its job.
Slides for 5.25" socket with blow-through fans
The name eloquently describes the design of such a cooler: using a sled, the hard drive is installed in a 5.25" connector, and in place of the plug on the front of the case, a panel with fans is attached, which takes air from outside the case and blows it over the hard drive. The advantages of the design are that The air for blowing is taken from outside the system unit, it will always be cooler than the air inside. The disadvantages are also obvious from the description of the design: the fans, the number of which is usually two or three, have a standard size of 30~40 mm, since they are limited by the speed of such “babies”. "even higher than in the previous case, approximately 5000~7000 rpm. Initially, the noise from them does not put much pressure on the ears, but the durability of the bearings at this rotation speed is much lower, and they fail faster, with corresponding consequences.
Radiators for HDD with installation in a 5.25" connector
This is a more advanced device; a radiator is attached to the hard drive, which increases the heat dissipation surface, thereby improving cooling. Sometimes these radiators are also blown by fans for greater efficiency. In fact, the effectiveness of such a radiator most depends on the organization of heat exchange between the hard drive and the radiator. The lower the thermal resistance where the hard drive contacts the radiators, the higher the efficiency of the cooling system. But it's very difficult. The hard drive does not have special contact surfaces for heat sinks; heat can be more or less effectively removed only from the side walls, which have a flat surface and are equipped with mounting holes for installation. Cooling the electronic equipment of a hard drive is possible only with the help of thermally conductive pads, which are the least efficient of all heat removal methods. The efficiency of this type of HDD cooler is determined by the efficiency of heat removal from the hard drive and the efficiency of its dissipation from the surface of the radiator. Today we will look at two radiators for HDDs installed in a 5.25" connector, which are designed to reduce the noise level from the operation of the hard drive, while providing proper cooling.
IntroductionAfter the publication of the previous article, I received quite a lot of responses in my mail. :)
Basically, they contained descriptions personal experience communication with IBM hard drives and almost all of them contained the question “why did my hard drive die?” Unfortunately, I cannot answer such questions. :(
Of course, it is not in my power to ensure that such questions are not asked to me at all, but I will try to make sure that as few users as possible encounter such problems.
In the previous article, I took the liberty of giving a few tips, the implementation of which should reduce the likelihood of a hard drive failing and thus extend its operating time. One of these tips was the suggestion to cool the hard drive...
Why is this necessary?
Why do you need to cool the hard drive at all? In order to understand this, let's look at what a hard drive consists of. First of all, you can “split” the hard drive into two parts - the electronics and the jar with disks and heads. Electronic circuit contains several specialized chips: the DSP itself, a motor control processor, a power unit and a cache memory chip. For any of these elements, overheating is extremely dangerous - the DSP of the hard drive can generate “wrong” commands, changing the physical parameters of the engine control system can lead to the engine “spurting” too often... Well, what is the threat of data destruction in the cache? I think it's clear to everyone...Overheating is also dangerous for the mechanical part of the hard drive. Firstly, due to the thermal expansion of the metal, the load on the bearings increases. Secondly, due to heating, the profile of the plate changes and the tracks end up in a completely different place where the heads are looking for them... The hard drive is forced to do thermal recalibration...
Frequent significant changes in the surface temperature of the wafer may well cause shedding of the magnetic layer, which can lead to the occurrence of bad sectors. It is possible that glass (and the platters of the latest generations of IBM hard drives are made of glass...) is very sensitive to such local temperature gradients...
There is a fundamental article (on the topic of hard drive reliability and factors influencing it) published on the iXBT website, which should be read by anyone who is even a little interested in how the mean time between failures for hard drives is calculated. So there is a very interesting plate showing how the probability of hard drive failure increases as its temperature increases, part of which I will show in the form of a graph:
Those. at a hard drive temperature of 40 degrees, the probability of failure doubled! But we don’t want to shorten the service life of the hard drive with our own hands, do we? Hence the moral - the hard drive needs to be cooled!
How it's done
I know two ways to cool hard drives (not fantastic, but simple and accessible) - either you need to “press” a massive radiator to the surface of the hard drive to remove heat, or blow the hard drive with an air stream (preferably, the air temperature should be lower than the temperature of the hard drive).As for the first recipe, it is implemented very rarely in practice. Common computer cases have very thin metal and their hard drive baskets are unable to remove a large number of heat.
The second option can be found much more often - all kinds of fans under the basket, in the basket, etc., that is the main objective Case designers and cooling devices - make air move inside the case. The fans suck in cold outside air, it passes next to the heat-generating blocks of the computer, heats up and is thrown out.
What are they offering us?
In this review we will look at four devices for cooling hard drives.I present the test participants:
HD3
The device is a plug in a 5" bay on the front panel of the computer, on which three fans and a set of 3.5"->5" "pants" are installed.
The fans are powered from a standard 5-12V connector; there is no fan speed sensor.
Device
HD2
differs from the above only in the smaller number of fans.
But the next device is strikingly different from the previous ones:
SHDC
This is a kind of “overlay” that is screwed to the hard drive from the electronics board side and cools bottom part hard drive and, naturally, the electronics board itself. The fan is powered from a standard connector; there is no monitoring of the rotation speed either.
And finally, the last participant in our tests - UHDC(Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler):
This kit consists of a front panel cover with two fans, a massive radiator and traditional 3.5" -> 5" "pants". I should immediately note that, unlike HD2 & HD3, the UHDC plug has a removable air filter panel. In my opinion - a very nice little thing!
And this is what the kit looks like from the back:
The fans are powered via a standard power connector; fan speed monitoring is not supported.
Test system & methodology
Since our task was to create unbearable conditions for the hard drives, we selected the components for the stand as hot as possible. Judge for yourself:
Abit KT7A
AMD Athlon 1200MHz
GeForce 2 Pro
Creative SB Live
IBM DPTA 372050
ViewStation 701
Those. We took the inside of a good gaming machine and used a case that was not the best in terms of ventilation. Plus, as I predicted, summer has arrived in Moscow (the temperature in the room was 27 degrees)...
So, the technique is to load Windows on the computer and leave it alone for an hour (disconnecting disks was prohibited in Windows properties). An hour later, the temperature value was taken from an external sensor attached to the middle of the top cover of the hard drive.
After this, the IOMeter test was run on the computer with the “random reading” pattern. Since the calculation of the block address in this pattern is completely random, the actuator of the head block moved intensively. That is, we can assume that this is the maximum possible load on the hard drive.
After an hour of such work, the temperature value was taken, after which the computer was given time to cool down.
The tests were repeated three times, the results were averaged.
Test results
I must admit, I didn’t think that the hot Moscow air would be able to cool a three-plate DPTA, but the results pleasantly surprised me:
The HD3 and HD2 coolers showed the best results - the hard drive temperature when using them was only 30 degrees. Moreover, it was the same for the rest mode and intensive work!
The UHDC cooler managed to cool the hard drive to 30 degrees in burn mode and up to 29 degrees in idle mode, which is the best result among the tested coolers. Most likely, the massive radiator played a role here...
The SHDC cooler did its job "C", but with it it's still better than without it...
conclusions
In total, three out of four coolers managed to “cool” the hard drive by 9 degrees in burn mode and, theoretically, “extended the life” of the hard drive by one and a half times. If we take a look at the price list, we will see that the price of these devices is not comparable to the benefits that they can bring.In conclusion, I will express my subjective opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of these coolers.
SHDC
Pros:
cheap
Can be used in a 3.5" basket
Minuses:
average cooling capacity
UHDC
Pros:
removable air filter
Minuses:
bulky
free 5" bay required
difficult to assemble
there is no way to control the rotation speed
HD2 & HD3
Pros:
excellent cooling abilities
low price
Minuses:
free 5" bay required
there is no way to control the rotation speed
As for measuring rotation speed - in my opinion, the manufacturer could have equipped these devices with a cable with a connector for installation on the motherboard + an adapter for those who do not have free power connectors on motherboard(or none at all). This, of course, would increase the price of the device, but would add to its attractiveness. Or maybe such devices exist in this world, but I don’t know about them...
P.S. From the first responses from readers (slightly edited by me...):
One very important thing to add to this review: important point, until no one ran to buy a cooler in a 5" bay - they are very difficult (and sometimes impossible) to insert into branded cases in which the devices are placed on a slide - InWin, SuperMicro due to the mounting features - they are screwed to the case with eight screws - the plug is separate , hard drive via adapters separately.
I used to have a cooler with three coolers on a plug, I took the InWin508 case and... I had to give up the cooler, although there may be those who want to make a miracle sled themselves ;) but most should keep this in mind.
I'm sorry, I missed this. Everything is exactly as DenKiller said. Unfortunately...
Background
What can a thirst for modding and lack of funds lead to? Often imagination is limited by material possibilities, so I had to work with what I had. The only useless device I had was an old Quantum hard drive (I don’t remember the model) with 200MB capacity.
During the day the project was thought over, and I made a decision: I need to cut it! First of all, I thought about the functionality of my model. As a novice modder, I realized that in the future it would be impossible to do without effective cooling. That's why the idea of a HDD cooler came to mind. I also wanted to dispel the doubts of numerous advisers like “impossible!” or “watch your fingers!”
Necessary tools: drill, metal drills (2 - 5 mm), files (round, semicircular and rectangular), soldering iron, GOI paste and felt circle for the drill.
Operations required to implement modd
1. Remove the cover. The washer securing the pancake (disk) is unscrewed. All mechanisms (reading head, microcircuit, magnets) are unscrewed from the inside.
2. A drawing (pattern) of the future impeller is made (in any graphic editor, but it is better to use COREL DRAW). Then it is placed on the pancake and glued. In my case, I made an impeller with 6 blades (in order for the cooler not to make noise, it is better to make it with an odd number of blades - 7, 9, 11...).
After this, it is secured in a vice and the blank of the future fan is cut out with a hacksaw (if you have a Dremel, there is no need to suffer here). The result is a pancake consisting of 6 parts. The blades are sharpened if necessary.
3. The workpiece is put on the spindle and secured with its original washer. Then all the blades are bent at one angle (this was done manually, because the right tools did not have). Bend them at one angle is not so difficult; you can orient yourself at any point. I simply made sure that they were not higher than its inner wall and did not touch its lid.
4. The time has come for the hard drive cover itself, cutting it is very easy - mark the future hole and drill it along the cutting line (easier, of course, with a Dremel). Any burrs formed after drilling can be easily ground off with a file, because HDD covers are most often made of soft metals, such as brass or aluminum. After all the work, the cooler parts are assembled together.
It should look something like the photo below. As you can see, there is nothing complicated in this mod.
Also, if you want to make it stand out from the pile of hardware, you can illuminate it with ultra-bright LEDs that will be attached to inside covers.
The mirror surface of the pancake (disk) will give an exact reflection, resulting in a pleasant “play of light”.
What are the advantages of this mod:
Can be installed in a standard HDD slot to cool another hard drive. Considering high speed spindle rotation can be very effective.
Connects with a standard power cord (Molex).
Can decorate any modder's case.
What are the disadvantages:
High noise level emitted by the fan. This is because you need to select hard drives with quiet engines, mostly new ones; at that time there was no such thing at hand.
There is a danger of losing limbs stuck to the rotating impeller by curious friends. In my mod, I provided this so as not to injure myself or others - the cooler blades were bent in the opposite direction.
This is how you can make a cooler in a few days that will blow out all the heat generated by the hard drives. Or simply, put it in a case for blowing air - both beautiful and cold! I think this mod will be a worthy and functional decoration for any case. The idea, which seemed complicated at first glance, turned out to be not so difficult to implement.
P.S: For me, this mod is attractive because no one has used such an idea yet.
IvanZhdankin aka JEEP
jeeps (a) yandex.ru
7
/07.2006