HDD Enclosure fan mod

sirtoby · May 25, 2014

Hello guys,

Introduction:

Since I'm running slowly out of empty storage, I needed a new harddrive. This led to a problem: The HDD cages in my Prodigy are fully populated. So should I use a notebook drive? I decided to go 3.5". 2.5" HDDs are too expensive per gigabyte to use them as storage. I started looking for a external HDD enclosure with at least space for two drives. I stumbled across a sale on the Icy Box IB-RD3219StU3 (PDF datasheet. Only available in german, sorry). I bought it online and also bought a 3TB WD Green at a local retailer. As I moved some data on to the drive in the external enclosure, I checked with CrystalDiskInfo if the SMART values of the drive were allright. They were, but the temperature readout displayed 42°C and only dropped to 38°C in idle. All my other harddrives and SSDs were around 30°C. This is caused by the only issue that the enclosure has: There is no fan to cool the drives. I hoped that this wouldn't be an issue with the WD Green but 42°C is too high for me.

The Enclosure:

Space for two 3.5" HDD which can be configured in JBOD, RAID 1 or 0. Has an external power supply with 12V output. Full metal construction. USB 3.0. All that for 30€ shipped.

What needs to be done?

I plan on adding one (60mm) or two(50mm) fans to the front of the enclosure. I ordered both options. They should arrive on tuesday. There are allready some ventilation holes in the back. I need to drill some holes in the mesh at the front, alongside with removing the plastic behind it which holds 3 way too bright LEDs to indicate power, Read/Write access and HDD failure. They will be replaced with some less brighter ones. Where those will be mounted, will be decided when the fans are installed.Of course, the fans need to be powered. Fortunately Icy Box uses a 12V 4A external PSU. I will grab the power for the fans directly from the circuit board where the power plug is soldered on and run the cables through te enclosure.