Is this a bad internal PC configuration?

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Random Person

Hello, I've uploaded a pic of my desktop :)

http://www.geocities.com/nonexistent2032/desktop_marked.jpg


You can barely see the red vertical lines I added with Paint (I, II,
III), but they mark my SB Audigy, PCI/IDE controller and my Radeon 9800
Pro. I tried to leave as much space under my Radeon as possible.

It has 2 new 80cm fans at the back, and one new 80cm fan in the front.

What I'm worried about is how my 2 HDDs connected to my PCI/IDE
controller card are just dangling vertically.

I thought about mounting all 4 (horizontally) on my IDE bay, but after
trying there is absolutely ZERO airspace available. I got worried after
reading here that heat kills hard drives. For the alternate
configuration, see:

http://www.geocities.com/nonexistent2032/desktop_marked2.jpg

Do let me know what you think!

Thanks.
 
Random Person said:
Hello, I've uploaded a pic of my desktop :)

http://www.geocities.com/nonexistent2032/desktop_marked.jpg
Click to expand...

That is a busy case! You could consider round IDE cables for better air
flow. Also, you should tidy away the power cables - route them round the
edge of the case. Hard disks are fine when vertically mounted (or even
free-standing like that), but if there is the slightest chance that the PC
might be knocked or they might somehow fall over or rattle whist running,
then the heads might hit against the drive surface + totally wreck the hard
disk! How about lying them flat in the base of the case - could you then
devise some kind of spacer for them.
 
Heya. I thought about getting them to lie flat, but the cables aren't
long enough :(

I was also worried about anything that might touch the circuitboards at
the bottom of the hard disk and cause a short circuit or just damage
the components.

So I take it the second configuration with all the HDDs in the IDE bay
is not recommended? ;)
 
Random Person said:
Heya. I thought about getting them to lie flat, but the cables aren't
long enough :(

I was also worried about anything that might touch the circuitboards at
the bottom of the hard disk and cause a short circuit or just damage
the components.

So I take it the second configuration with all the HDDs in the IDE bay
is not recommended? ;)
Click to expand...

In the second picture the HDDs have no ventilation space and will just cook
eachother. My case is similarly packed. You might consider getting HDD
caddies, so that you aren't running all your drives uneccesarily. They will
only add to the amount of heat and noise the system makes, and you might not
need all four of them all the time.

I got a pair of Lian-Li HDD brackets to add more bays in my case. I got
them from Maplin. http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Accessories/HDD_Kits.htm

ss.
 
Random Person said:
Heya. I thought about getting them to lie flat, but the cables aren't
long enough :(

I was also worried about anything that might touch the circuitboards at
the bottom of the hard disk and cause a short circuit or just damage
the components.

So I take it the second configuration with all the HDDs in the IDE bay
is not recommended? ;)
Click to expand...

Last week I had four SCSI drives in one bay packed like that for a little
while; I was just low-formatting them for later use. They got quite hot to
the touch in a couple of hours, and that makes me nervous.

Vertical is fine. Hanging loose works OK for a temporary installation, like
long enough to install something and then it goes in another box; but for
routine use, I'd worry about banging around or pulling wires.

So here's a suggestion:

Get a sheet of aluminum chassis material from Radio Shack, about 4x6 inches.
Bend an inch from one edge, 90 degrees, by clamping the edge in a vise and
bending it over as sharply as possible with a wooden block. Drill two holes
in the resulting flange and screw it to a small piece (say, 2" x 4") of 1/2"
plywood. Epoxy the plywood to the floor of your case, later, when you have
the correct spacing. That will let you screw it in or take it out without
drilling holes in that crowded environment.

Drill four small holes in the aluminum sheet spaced to match the holes in
one side of the two drives so they are about an inch or more apart. After
temporarily mounting the drives to see where they are, you can cut away
extra metal or drill holes between the drives to increase air flow if you
want. I suppose you could even cut a larger hole in the middle and run a
small fan mounted on the board between the drives, but this part I haven't
done.

Anywhere you're concerned about the aluminum touching components and causing
a short, black plastic electrical tape can be applied.
 
Random Person said:
Hello, I've uploaded a pic of my desktop :)

http://www.geocities.com/nonexistent2032/desktop_marked.jpg


You can barely see the red vertical lines I added with Paint (I, II,
III), but they mark my SB Audigy, PCI/IDE controller and my Radeon 9800
Pro. I tried to leave as much space under my Radeon as possible.

It has 2 new 80cm fans at the back, and one new 80cm fan in the front.

What I'm worried about is how my 2 HDDs connected to my PCI/IDE
controller card are just dangling vertically.

I thought about mounting all 4 (horizontally) on my IDE bay, but after
trying there is absolutely ZERO airspace available. I got worried after
reading here that heat kills hard drives. For the alternate
configuration, see:

http://www.geocities.com/nonexistent2032/desktop_marked2.jpg

Do let me know what you think!

Thanks.
Click to expand...
of course its bad - you'll get very poor airflow through the case and those
hard drives are not properly supported either. you need a new case with hard
drive bays that extend to the bottom. £30 for a case is preferable to what
you'll pay if those hard drives go belly up anytime soon.
 
Random Person said:
Heya. I thought about getting them to lie flat, but the cables aren't
long enough :(
Click to expand...

Replacement round cables will help air flow and you could get longer ones.
I was also worried about anything that might touch the circuitboards at
the bottom of the hard disk and cause a short circuit or just damage
the components.
Click to expand...

Find some non-conducting plastic and lay them on that. I would recommend an
air gap below and above them if you can arrange something?
So I take it the second configuration with all the HDDs in the IDE bay
is not recommended? ;)
Click to expand...

Jamming all the drives in together will cause the heat to climb, but if they
are older, 5400 drives then they might not get too hot anyway - I assume
from the number of drives that you are running a RAID, so you might have a
set of older drives? If they are newer 7200 (or faster) drives, then they
would probably overhead and shorten their lifespan. It all depends on how
much air you could squeeze past them.

A new, larger case would be a safe option?
Can you get one of the drives into a 5.25" bay and put the other 3 in the
drive area with air gaps?
Do you really need 4 drives, or could you sell them and get 1 big drive?
 
Hello, I've uploaded a pic of my desktop :)

http://www.geocities.com/nonexistent2032/desktop_marked.jpg


You can barely see the red vertical lines I added with Paint (I, II,
III), but they mark my SB Audigy, PCI/IDE controller and my Radeon 9800
Pro. I tried to leave as much space under my Radeon as possible.

It has 2 new 80cm fans at the back, and one new 80cm fan in the front.

What I'm worried about is how my 2 HDDs connected to my PCI/IDE
controller card are just dangling vertically.

I thought about mounting all 4 (horizontally) on my IDE bay, but after
trying there is absolutely ZERO airspace available. I got worried after
reading here that heat kills hard drives. For the alternate
configuration, see:

http://www.geocities.com/nonexistent2032/desktop_marked2.jpg

Do let me know what you think!

Thanks.
Click to expand...


You need some cable management. Even if the cables can't be
routed "perfectly", there is certainly a lot of room for
improvement.

Neither alternative is sufficient. Even when there are only
two drives in the drive bay, they'll be getting hot because
the bay doesn't have sufficient intake in front of it, and
while the bottom fan helps overall case temps (a little), it
even further reduces flow through the drive bay.

Put simply, the case is poorly designed. It "could've" had
a decent drive rack, but it's just not suitable as-is, not
even for ONE drive! It's hard to tell but the case might
be an inch or two too shallow to mount a different bay with
pusher fans in front of it, but if that's possible, I'd
strip the case down and do that. It would be easier to
just buy a better case.
 
Random said:
Hello, I've uploaded a pic of my desktop :)

http://www.geocities.com/nonexistent2032/desktop_marked.jpg


You can barely see the red vertical lines I added with Paint (I, II,
III), but they mark my SB Audigy, PCI/IDE controller and my Radeon 9800
Pro. I tried to leave as much space under my Radeon as possible.

It has 2 new 80cm fans at the back, and one new 80cm fan in the front.

What I'm worried about is how my 2 HDDs connected to my PCI/IDE
controller card are just dangling vertically.

I thought about mounting all 4 (horizontally) on my IDE bay, but after
trying there is absolutely ZERO airspace available. I got worried after
reading here that heat kills hard drives. For the alternate
configuration, see:

http://www.geocities.com/nonexistent2032/desktop_marked2.jpg

Do let me know what you think!

Thanks.
Click to expand...
that my friend is a mess :)

Get some round cables(fairly short ones, consider sleeving the PSU
cables, and possibly a new case, i think with 4 HDD and 2 optical drives
a full sized tower or mid-tower might be order.
 
Veritech said:
that my friend is a mess :)

Get some round cables(fairly short ones, consider sleeving the PSU
cables, and possibly a new case, i think with 4 HDD and 2 optical
drives a full sized tower or mid-tower might be order.
Click to expand...



It looks like a 21" case, Chenming perhaps, with the lower drive bay
missing.
 
It looks like a 21" case, Chenming perhaps, with the lower drive bay
missing.
Click to expand...


I have one of the (almost full) tower Chenmings here, it
looks like it's roughly 1-2" deeper than the OP's, which
unfortunately enough is everything when it comes to having
enough room for a front bay fan without the drives hanging
back far enough to interfere with AGP/etc cards or blocking
too much board space.
 
Actually, it is a "Super Flower Silver ATX Tower Case"

Crappy thing, I might actually go for the "natural ventilation"
option...i.e. open the case and put a desk fan in front of it :)

I reckon that option will be cheaper than a new case/IDE cables. I'll
have to think laterally about mounting the two vertical drives though.

This was my first homebuilt PC. I never thought the case was important
until now!
 
Actually, it is a "Super Flower Silver ATX Tower Case"

Crappy thing, I might actually go for the "natural ventilation"
option...i.e. open the case and put a desk fan in front of it :)

I reckon that option will be cheaper than a new case/IDE cables. I'll
have to think laterally about mounting the two vertical drives though.

This was my first homebuilt PC. I never thought the case was important
until now!
Click to expand...


If you aren't using all of your external 5 1/4" bays, you
could just use brackets and mount a drive(s) in them. Then
you'd want to have a front cover with vent-holes or a piece
of framed filter material. At least that wouldn't require
completely disassembling the system to implement. However,
the bottom front fan then works against you, as it relieves
some of the negative pressure created by the rear exhaust
fans so there would be lower passive intake rate up top.
 
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