Its that time of the year

[epion2985]

I was wondering how to start this because if worded straight to the point I am sure there would be alot of rebelious posts against the master plan.

My 10 hard drives are in a somewhat air tight enclousure for various reasons.
They need to be cooled as with no airflow its not a matter of having a flashy pc but to stop them from melting.
I have a HW Labs Black Ice Pro.
The hard drives are mounted vertically.
Space is very tight.

I am looking for hard drive water coolers that would work.

I have looked in to the asetek (http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cooling/liquid/asetek/blocks/hdd/) solution but it only cools one drive and is rather large.

The Koolance HD-55-L06 dual hard drive (http://www.planetamd64.com/lofiversion/index.php/t11592.html) solution sounds good, cools two drives and is small but it is aluminum (the radiator is copper) and it doesnt work if vertically mounted.

I know if there are good options out there someone here can point them out.

Thanks.

[eXa]

for that many hdd i would make it myselves. make it out of 2 copper plates with copper tube soldered on!

[epion2985]

Well I dont see hard flat plate working, hard drives are not flat on the bottom. I can see the hydrapack working it molds to a surface to a degree. The asetek block I like there is a thermal cloth that you can get with it that fills the gaps. Hm, I wonder if I can buy the cloth seperatly and make my own block.

[Fairydust]

I guess coolers like these (http://members.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=www-meisterkuehler-de) are too big?

[epion2985]

Well in my opinion coolinghard drives from the sides is worthless. The heat is not generated there.

That and that solution offers very little surface area for the heat to be transfered to the water.

it seems the best solution is to make the block myself, which is just fine I have a machine shop avalible to me. But I need to get a hold of some thermal cloth, not sure what its called, to fill the gaps. It works extreemly well from what I have seen.

[creidiki]

Works quite well from the sides actually.

If you want to cool it from the bottom you have to fill the gap, and thats not really a good idea imo. And it doesent actually work better than from the sides because the heat dosent transfer that well through the PCB, even if you fill it in.

Its only the top that bloody useless.

As far as suface area... uhhh... its like, easily 5x the surface area of an IHS, for a heat dump of like 5-10w...

So yeah, cooling from the sides ftw. Youll want to make a custom block because youd need 4 DD HD blocks and that would cost you a fortune :)

[epion2985]

The spindle generates alot of heat and it is on the bottom.

You would be surprised how much heat you can suck from the PCB.

From what I have seen the asetek solution preforms the best, and they cool from the bottom.

Lets see preformance like this from side coolers.


asetek cooler
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/5950/asetek4ha.png

Thats 14C cooler, what I see from other coolers is about 5C cooler.
Their gap filler is great, but even without with mostly only spindle contact thats 10C cooler. This shows just how much heat comes from the spindle.

http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cooling/liquid/asetek/blocks/hdd/

20C cooler acording to aseteks tests, got linked from Jab-tech :)

http://www.asetek.com/filarkiv/Products/waterchill/Antarctica/WaterChill%20Hard%20Drive%20Coolers.jpg




What do you think its made of? Anyone have any ideas?
http://www.jab-tech.com/Asetek-Heat-Conduction-Pad-3-1-2-bay-%5B03-L-9075%5D-pr-2635.html

[epion2985]

Something got me thinking, how hard is it to fight galvanic corrosion when you have a large copper and a large aluminum masses in the same loop. Alumunim is really reactive and if there is a lot of it is it hard?

[Fairydust]

Well, I've been running sidecooled (and silenced) harddisks in my pcs for a while, thermal sensors and infrared thermometer don't give me any reason for concern.

Afaik it's the spindle motor and to a lesser degree the actuators that dump the vast majority of heat, the control circuit only converts relatively little amounts of energy. PCBs can conduct heat pretty well and are often used as main cooling surface for ICs, but I very much doubt it's anywhere near the capabilities of the aluminum casting of a HDD.

As for surface area, it's massive compared to most other areas found in PC cooling and certainly more than capable of handling the the output of a hdd.

Anyway whatever way you go, all versions will offer far more cooling capacity than needed to keep an HDD within it's operating range at high ambient temperatures.

[epion2985]

Well, I've been running sidecooled (and silenced) harddisks in my pcs for a while, thermal sensors and infrared thermometer don't give me any reason for concern.

How do you want to cool the heat generating part exactly? Afaik it's the spindle motor and to a lesser degree the actuators that dump the vast majority of heat, the control circuit only converts relatively little amounts of energy. PCBs can conduct heat pretty well and are often used as main cooling surface for ICs, but I very much doubt it's anywhere near the capabilities of the aluminum casting of a HDD.

As for surface area, it's massive compared to most other areas found in PC cooling and certainly more than capable of handling the the output of a hdd.

Anyway whatever way you go, all versions will offer far more cooling capacity than needed to keep an HDD within it's operating range at high ambient temperatures.


Well here is the reason for my fear. The 10 drives are not here yet buy on the way. Now the drives I have now, are not activly cooled but the side of the case is open.

Now the sides to touch are not hot but not warm either, in between. But, if I put my hand under one of the drives to touch it it is very very hot, hot enough that I can not hold my hand there comfortably.

Now after going though that I do think if if the sides will be cooled but the bottoms wont and will be sandwitched face to face in a closed invoroment I really do think they will overheat very badly.

[epion2985]

hehe, I started a model in solidworks, its 4am and I have class at 8am so I am going ot bed, I will work on it tomorrow and post it :)

[LazyBum]

Not to crap on the test results, but its kinda obvious to me that putting a waterblock on top of the temp sensor is going to show lower temps. This may or may not reflect what the temps of the platters inside are experiencing.

[Vice]

Go download Everest Home Edition, it should show your hdd temps

[Delirious]

According to SMART my 4 raid 0 drives run at 25-28 c with just one 120mm yate loon.

I guess the seagates just run cool :D

I like koolances idea, not sure how rugged that bag is though. It doesnt come in 1/2 fittings either i dont think.

Or you could make something yourself for cheaper.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article96-page1.html

[JoeBar]

In my opinion a descent fan can keep hd's cool enough. Till now there's no real need to wc a hd, unless of course u're running for total silence... ;)

[epion2985]

In my opinion a descent fan can keep hd's cool enough. Till now there's no real need to wc a hd, unless of course u're running for total silence... ;)

I agree, water cooling hard drives is a waste under normal conditions but mine are in an air tight box so I dont have the luxury of air cooling.

I am working on a cooler right now, will post the model when done, and send it off to the shop, should be done soon.

[epion2985]

Well I got a few things done, but in that time something else has changed as so I maybe can get away with buying something.

I just have question, why the hell are all the hd coolers that can cool two drives are aluminum...

Anyone know of any hd cooler that can cool two drives and is made from copper?

On that note how hard is it to fight galvanic corrosion if you mix copper and aluminum?

[creidiki]

you need a 15% zerex mix if youre going to mix metals.

[epion2985]

you need a 15% zerex mix if youre going to mix metals.

and that completly solves the problem?

[creidiki]

Yup. Brings problems of its own - tube staining and possible accumulation/clogging in the jets of (semi)impingment blocks - but shouldnt be an issue with HD blocks.

[Bloody_Sorcerer]

are we all forgetting that harddrives are designed to carry their heat to the sides so that it can be naturally cooled by whatever its mounted to? sure, the bottom feels hot, but once you start cooling the sides it cools down quite a bit in its own right, hence why so many coolers cool the sides.

[Okda]

are we all forgetting that harddrives are designed to carry their heat to the sides so that it can be naturally cooled by whatever its mounted to? sure, the bottom feels hot, but once you start cooling the sides it cools down quite a bit in its own right, hence why so many coolers cool the sides.

a fact i didn't know, i though heat was carried to the top

[andersson.j]

Anyone know of any hd cooler that can cool two drives and is made from copper?
What about Danger Den Aqua-Drive (http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=197&cat=74&page=1) or Polarflo HDD46 (http://www.polarflo.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=129). They both cost way too much though. I've seen polarflo's block a few times on ebay for around $50, but shipping to sweden was too expensive.

[wildcard]

Well I dont see hard flat plate working, hard drives are not flat on the bottom. I can see the hydrapack working it molds to a surface to a degree. The asetek block I like there is a thermal cloth that you can get with it that fills the gaps. Hm, I wonder if I can buy the cloth seperatly and make my own block.

Maybe a some custom cold plates on the top of the drive? or the sides, making the combined width 5 1/4" ?

This is something I've been tossing around for a while too as i have 3x 15,000 RPM drives that get hotter than is comfortable for me.

Those custom copper ones look pretty interesting.. Perhaps I'll tinker around with some copper and make some custom ones.

[eXa]

alphacool got some copper hdd blocks, sill expensive though!
http://www.alphacool.de/xt/index.php/cPath/5_18_22/category/hard-disk-water-coolers.html

[Orangeman]

Why not go for that Asetek Vapochill Case Cooler thing?