Icy Dock Not So Icy

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Sovereign

2[H]4U
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Mar 21, 2005
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I have this hard drive cage with these drives stuffed inside.

I didn't go with the stock fan--I have a Noctua that's rated about 37CFM (64.7 cubic meters/hour).

Problem is, the drives are hitting 55-58C.

The fan's currently positioned to pull air in.

I realize this may not be optimal, but what can I do to improve on a bad situation? Reverse the fan? Get a higher CFM unit? I'm guessing part of the fan's problem is that most of the frontal area is obstructed by hard drives...
 
What speed is the fan running at?
Have you tried removing a HDD or two to see what the temps are?
Try reversing the fan if it's easy to do.

I'm using a 2x bay 3x hdd version and don't even have a fan on it, but my case has 3x 140mm intakes and no exhaust so there is airlfow coming out through it. ;)
 
I've been told for situations where there is lots of obstruction, a "high static pressure" fan is recommended.

Of course, I find out that the fan I swapped in without even trying the stock is half the static pressure of the fan it shipped with.

And I can buy 92mm fans meant for radiators which have even higher static pressure than that. I will swap in the stock fan tomorrow and see what that does to the temperature.
 
Looks to me like there is almost no place for the fan to actually pull air through the unit. From the pics on Newegg, it looks like there are maybe 1-2 slits that are not being blocked by the PCB.

Not much you will be able to do about it besides modifying the cage to be able to mount one or more fans somewhere else.

Just looks like a very poor design to me.
 
I have a few similar 5in 3s and have not had a heat issue at all. Although the fans tend to be pretty loud.
 
Stock fan took the temperatures down 3-4C.

Time to order something with even higher static pressure--like this.
 
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Did you try with the side of your case removed? Perhaps your case has too much inward pressure.
 
Holy diminishing marginal returns, Batman!

The bgear blaster got me about two more degrees at half-speed compared to the stock fan at 66% (at full even the stock fan was annoying). And you can imagine what a 39dB rated fan called "blaster" sounds like at full power...

Still, 45C is decent, 50C (when the windows are closed and the room's air heats ups) is certainly better than 58C.

This turned into an education on what static pressure means for fans. I thought CFM was everything--it isn't!

Thanks!
 
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