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nil8
06-05-2005, 06:29 PM
I'm starting work on my third case mod and I was wondering about the options out there for hard drive watercooling. If someone out there could point me in the right direction.

I have no problems with technical specs. I want to cool my hard drives as much as possible with a regular wc setup.

Frakk
06-05-2005, 08:08 PM
it would probably take you 5 seconds to search on google. (for me its about 3 with opening a new explorer and typing in google because im very fast :D)
hint keyword: hard drive water block
go nuts.

nil8
06-05-2005, 08:59 PM
That helps a bit, but what I'm looking for is more information on the concepts behind the hard drive cooling systems.

Zeus
06-05-2005, 08:59 PM
it would probably take you 5 seconds to search on google. (for me its about 3 with opening a new explorer and typing in google because im very fast :D)
hint keyword: hard drive water block
go nuts.


see above

Frakk
06-05-2005, 09:03 PM
the concept? well, water goes in and comes out cooling the hard drive. there are different designs, some might be two blocks on each side with a tube connecting them like the zalman one, some might be laying on top of it taking the heat away. water doesnt go into the hard drive if thats what you are worried about. i think watercooling a hard drive is a waste of money, space and time. you can cool 2 hard drives with a single 80mm fan.

MisterChief
06-05-2005, 11:00 PM
Water cooling HD's seems kinda silly. Unless your HD's spin up very often, they won't generate enough heat to bother anything.

Zeus
06-05-2005, 11:00 PM
and if you are really worried about it. You can get the more reasonable alternative of heatpipe based coolers.

MisterChief
06-05-2005, 11:30 PM
Hell, even heatpipes seem overkill to me... they are, after all, just hard drives.

nil8
06-06-2005, 01:32 AM
Yes, they are just harddrives, 12 15k scsi drives in a raid setup causes enough heat to warrant water cooling.

Heatpipes are out of the question.

I know that water doesn't go into the hd, it's a sealed unit.
What I'm saying is I've seen kits that require you to put a heat transfer plate on the hd before you attach the cooling block.

I've also seen heat transfer balloon systems that are in the block.

I want to know which works better, or if there are more viable and space-saving options. I also want to know how much heat dissapation they have.

Zeus
06-06-2005, 01:34 AM
are saying 12 HDDs?

Xato
06-06-2005, 03:29 AM
Yeh, he was talkin about this in another thread... that he was going to have 12 scuzzy drives. I still dont think that warrents water cooling though... And why are heatpipes out of the question btw?

Malatory
06-06-2005, 09:57 AM
Only systems I have with more than 4 HD in are High End servers. If I was using 12 SCSI drives I would just get an external Drive cage and wire them up with 120mm fans, and have them in a Server Room that is kepts at 65 Degrees or lower.

I can hear some *Cough* BS *Cough* going on.

Zeus
06-06-2005, 12:03 PM
yeah, what kind of mod involves 12 hdds? That sounds like an enterprise server. (enterprise in a business sense not star trek, kiddies) I think modding a functional server is absurd. at least a production server. It would most likely hinder functionality. :rolleyes:

Frakk
06-06-2005, 03:26 PM
watercooling 12hds will cost you way too much money. to answer ure question, i dont know which method is better since i havent looked for reviews, but im sure you can find some.

Xato
06-07-2005, 01:50 AM
I agree... even heatspreaders which mount properly to the drives will be hella expenisve... then getting enough water flow through it with pumps, and you'll need to use fans to cool the water anyway...

The idea behind WC is to just get the heat away from the source as quick as possible... and water does that nicely... on a low heat item such as a HDD, heatpipes should suffice. Tho i spose we cant tell you not to do your mod... i just think its totally pointless.

nil8
06-07-2005, 01:08 PM
The reason I don't want to do heatpipes is because of their size.
Expense doesn't matter.

And this isn't for business. This is for personal use. I want to be able to archive large amounts of info without data loss. This is why I'm going with a scsi raid setup.

If I'm willing to spend the money on scsi & a hardware raid card, I think that wc won't be that big of a deal.

As for functionality, I want it to work properly and I want my drives to last as long as possible because of their cost.

Doing a temp controlled room would be easier, I'm sure, but not as much fun.

A 15k rpm scsi drive running 24/7 gets hot. If you don't agree, then you've never pulled a drive running for more than 3 weeks without a break.

Malatory
06-07-2005, 01:14 PM
The reason I don't want to do heatpipes is because of their size.
Expense doesn't matter.

And this isn't for business. This is for personal use. I want to be able to archive large amounts of info without data loss. This is why I'm going with a scsi raid setup.

If I'm willing to spend the money on scsi & a hardware raid card, I think that wc won't be that big of a deal.

As for functionality, I want it to work properly and I want my drives to last as long as possible because of their cost.

Doing a temp controlled room would be easier, I'm sure, but not as much fun.

A 15k rpm scsi drive running 24/7 gets hot. If you don't agree, then you've never pulled a drive running for more than 3 weeks without a break.

I know SCSI Drives get hot. I have a couple of servers at home and I work with them on a normal bais. I use them a heaters in the winter :D

I guess I would look at the two methods and let us know witch one you choose. I would also thing that adding water cooling to them would make it harder for HOT swappable drives. That is a big point for my RS/6000 Servers I have at home.

Frakk
06-07-2005, 04:24 PM
only the waterblocks for the hd's would cost you around $600 (12x$50). plus you would need the rest of the cooling parts. you wouldnt save much space because most hd waterblocks act as a 3.5 to 5.25 adapters, or occupy an other 3.5 slot on top. in the end you would be looking at 12x5.25" or 24x 3.5" drivebays. i dont know what you plan for the case, but if you build it yourself, you could design something with good aircooling focusing on the hard drives. anyways i dont want to hold you back from anything, if you want 12 watercooled hard drives, you will do it anyways.

Zeus
06-07-2005, 04:37 PM
the water cooled one has spoken ;)

Xato
06-08-2005, 01:13 AM
Lol, we gotta catch up to him Zeus!
Then we can bestow watercooled wisdom unto others too!

Zeus
06-08-2005, 01:53 AM
Lol

temmink
06-08-2005, 05:10 AM
You should mount your twelve hdds onto the blades of a really big fan and then.... wait, thats silly, mount each of them to their own really big fan :) Ultimate cooling solution. *WARNING COMPLETE DATA LOSS AND SEVERE INJURY DUE TO FLYING HDDS MAY OCCUR*

Pascs
06-08-2005, 12:00 PM
Koolance have a slim drive water cooler which doesn't use too much space.

And looks really neat in this layout.


http://www.koolance.com/images/hd-50-l06_p2.jpg

Guttenaffe
06-08-2005, 12:44 PM
I agree SCSI drives get HOT, so do Raptors (sATA board on a SCSI drive) mine get about 38deg C and that is with two 80mm 43cfm fans blowing across them.

The high RPM motor is what makes all that heat. Bestway to cool them is with vap-chill as the large multi Tera towers use. :D

if money is no object... go with that hehe

nil8
06-08-2005, 12:58 PM
I've seen those koolance water transfer balloons before. I was wondering how well they work vs a transferplate with water i/o. I'm going to buy 1 or 2 of whatever I decide and test it out for a month or two on my current pc before I decide to buy 12, because that is a big investment in something I might not like.

Zeus
06-08-2005, 01:44 PM
that's a good way to go about it. Let us know what you find