I have an old Dell case that I'm using to house my unRAID server for now. I just ran my first parity sync last night and it went fine on my desktop-class drives (the hottest that either got was 47C, which is really high, but within spec for the drive). However, I have some old enterprise drives laying around and I threw one in for parity and it is ALWAYS SMOKING HOT. If it is spinning, it runs at 54C and when I was doing my parity sync it was above 60C!

 

This case only has one fan (on the CPU) and no brackets to install additional fans. What's my solution here? Should I just start tacking fans all over the case to move air around, even though they aren't supposed to go there? I really just want one on the disk drives, but they sit in a solid cage (which is ridiculous, I can't believe Dell thought that was a good idea).

 

I might just have to trash this case, but that would be sad. Help me make it cool again!

 

Thanks for your time.

Is there a spot to mount a fan on the rear of the case? I'm a firm believer of fans on the rear to draw air through the case.

 

Personally I'd invest 50-60 bucks and ditch that Dell case for something a bit friendly to fans and more drives.

Enterprise drives tend to run faster and therefore hotter than other drives, so I guess there are two options, slower, cooler, drives or better ventilated case.

 

Might help if you posted the case model and see if anyone else has any ideas.. 

While you could likely do a bit of "surgery" on the case to provide a space for a fan to blow over the drives, I'd simply ditch the case and move everything to a case that has better airflow design.    There are plenty of very good cases for under $100, and some stellar ones for not much more than that.

 

Get a good foundation for your server -- and then as it grows you won't have to replace the case.

 

Enterprise drives tend to run faster and therefore hotter than other drives, so I guess there are two options, slower, cooler, drives or better ventilated case.

 

Might help if you posted the case model and see if anyone else has any ideas.. 

 

Certainly. It's an old Optiplex 760. If you google some pictures, it's not very well laid-out.

Is there a spot to mount a fan on the rear of the case? I'm a firm believer of fans on the rear to draw air through the case.

 

Personally I'd invest 50-60 bucks and ditch that Dell case for something a bit friendly to fans and more drives.

 

There sure is. It doesn't look like it was meant to have a fan mounted there, but it would be very easy to put one over the grill on the back of the case to pull air. I don't know how effective it will be at passing air over drives that are stuck inside a solid-walled cage, though. That seems like a pretty easy thing to test, though. I'll give it a go and check for reduction in temperature just from tacking on a fan in the rear.

While you could likely do a bit of "surgery" on the case to provide a space for a fan to blow over the drives, I'd simply ditch the case and move everything to a case that has better airflow design.    There are plenty of very good cases for under $100, and some stellar ones for not much more than that.

 

Get a good foundation for your server -- and then as it grows you won't have to replace the case.

 

I was looking at one of these just the other day (NZXT 210/220). They're pretty cheap ($39-$49) and they both have two fans that sit right in front of the HDD cage and move air over all eight of them.

https://www.nzxt.com/products/source-220

Zip ties! find an airflow opening and zip tie a fan to it. I even use them to mount an SSD (attached to adapter) to the back of my case through the little air holes.

While you could likely do a bit of "surgery" on the case to provide a space for a fan to blow over the drives, I'd simply ditch the case and move everything to a case that has better airflow design.    There are plenty of very good cases for under $100, and some stellar ones for not much more than that.

 

Get a good foundation for your server -- and then as it grows you won't have to replace the case.

 

I was looking at one of these just the other day (NZXT 210/220). They're pretty cheap ($39-$49) and they both have two fans that sit right in front of the HDD cage and move air over all eight of them.

https://www.nzxt.com/products/source-220

 

That's exactly what I was suggesting => find a case with good airflow (these certainly qualify); and spend a few $$ for that instead of being frustrated about the design of the case you're using now.

 

I was looking at one of these just the other day (NZXT 210/220). They're pretty cheap ($39-$49) and they both have two fans that sit right in front of the HDD cage and move air over all eight of them.

https://www.nzxt.com/products/source-220

 

I have a very similar case, COUGAR Solution I bought 3 - noctua fans for the front panel that push air into the case over the drives. I replaced the crappy "dust foam" with actual HVAC dust filter. The current average temps of all my drivers is 27 degrees C. I do not have any other fans in the back. The nice thing about that is that my case is just about dust free. I typically blow out the dust in my case 2 times a year and with the "dust foam" it was pretty dusty, with the HVAC Filter hardly any dust gets inside, just blow off the front panel (which is very dusty). Moral of my life long story  , that NZXT case should help out a lot (and get HVAC filter... It's awesome).

...

 

That's exactly what I was suggesting => find a case with good airflow (these certainly qualify); and spend a few $$ for that instead of being frustrated about the design of the case you're using now.

 

three thumbs up! this is the best long term solution

Your new found case kinda reminds me of my CoolerMaster 590. I love that Case.

Okay, I guess I'll go that route, then. I just ordered an ICY DOCK to stick three more disks in my Dell, too.

 

(1) New case

(2) SHAME ON YOU, DELL

 

Thanks everyone.

 

Seems like my alarmist title got some attention, too. This thread has a lot of views for being so new