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HDD Cage Fan Mounting?

wpirobotbuilder
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Go to solution Solved by jmaster299,

I should have clarified, I meant directly on the cage.

 

The idea is to run fans in push/pull on the hard drive cage. This is mostly to ensure that the airflow reaches the other side of the cage at a good speed so it can cool PCI-E cards. A fully loaded hard drive cage, AFIAK, will reduce a lot of airflow, even with a good pressure optimized fan.

It's not a feature that most cases offer. I can mount one in my HAF X, but it requires and additional bracket and shroud. That part is included, but it's necessary to use that extra part to mount the fan. Your other option is to secure a fan to the HDD cage using zip ties. I did something similar in my old system. It had no rear exhaust fan, just passive grate in back, so I mounted two 120mm fans using zip ties on that back grate.

Generally speaking though, it's not going to be necessary, or make a significant difference. Unless your GPU temps are running hot, the intake from the basic front fan(s) should be sufficient. The overall positive pressure of the case draws in a lot more air then you may think. Also, airflow optimized cases are more likely to use a side intake fan to help cool the GPUs, over fans mounted on the HDD cage.

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I haven't seen this advertised on any cases, but I'm (pretty) sure it's a thing: the ability to mount 120mm fans on a hard drive cage in a modern PC case. So you could, for example, run a hard drive cage with fans in push/pull (one fan on the front of the case, the other on the rear of the hard drive cage).

 

Is this actually a thing? If so, can you list the names of some cases which support it?

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Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

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If not directly on the cage, then in front of it

It's normally just classified as a front intake fan

I should have clarified, I meant directly on the cage.

 

The idea is to run fans in push/pull on the hard drive cage. This is mostly to ensure that the airflow reaches the other side of the cage at a good speed so it can cool PCI-E cards. A fully loaded hard drive cage, AFIAK, will reduce a lot of airflow, even with a good pressure optimized fan.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

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I should have clarified, I meant directly on the cage.

 

The idea is to run fans in push/pull on the hard drive cage. This is mostly to ensure that the airflow reaches the other side of the cage at a good speed so it can cool PCI-E cards. A fully loaded hard drive cage, AFIAK, will reduce a lot of airflow, even with a good pressure optimized fan.

It's not a feature that most cases offer. I can mount one in my HAF X, but it requires and additional bracket and shroud. That part is included, but it's necessary to use that extra part to mount the fan. Your other option is to secure a fan to the HDD cage using zip ties. I did something similar in my old system. It had no rear exhaust fan, just passive grate in back, so I mounted two 120mm fans using zip ties on that back grate.

Generally speaking though, it's not going to be necessary, or make a significant difference. Unless your GPU temps are running hot, the intake from the basic front fan(s) should be sufficient. The overall positive pressure of the case draws in a lot more air then you may think. Also, airflow optimized cases are more likely to use a side intake fan to help cool the GPUs, over fans mounted on the HDD cage.

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Generally speaking though, it's not going to be necessary, or make a significant difference. Unless your GPU temps are running hot, the intake from the basic front fan(s) should be sufficient. The overall positive pressure of the case draws in a lot more air then you may think. Also, airflow optimized cases are more likely to use a side intake fan to help cool the GPUs, over fans mounted on the HDD cage.

No GPUs in this system, the concern is for passive cards (RAID and NIC cards) that will need a decent amount of airflow to stay cool.

 

It's not a feature that most cases offer. I can mount one in my HAF X, but it requires and additional bracket and shroud. That part is included, but it's necessary to use that extra part to mount the fan. Your other option is to secure a fan to the HDD cage using zip ties. I did something similar in my old system. It had no rear exhaust fan, just passive grate in back, so I mounted two 120mm fans using zip ties on that back grate.

Thanks, I might just go with a zip tie solution on the cages or stomach a side-panel fan.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

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