How to cool the two 5.25" drives on the R5 case?

[lmannyr]

I have 10 drives in my Fractal design R5 Case. This utilizes the 2 top 5.25" drive bays. Currently my temp spread is 30 to 38 C. Most are 30-33 except for two drives which are 37 and 38. I'm going to assume those are the two installed in the 5.25" drive bays which do not get cooled from the 2 front fans.

My goal is to even out the temps a bit better.

Anyone ever try one of those 5.25" bay fans in front of a HDD? Will it fit with the HDD behind it? And will the R5 case front door close? Ideas?

 

[Spearfoot]

I have 10 drives in my Fractal design R5 Case. This utilizes the 2 top 5.25" drive bays. Currently my temp spread is 30 to 38 C. Most are 30-33 except for two drives which are 37 and 38. I'm going to assume those are the two installed in the 5.25" drive bays which do not get cooled from the 2 front fans.

My goal is to even out the temps a bit better.

Anyone ever try one of those 5.25" bay fans in front of a HDD? Will it fit with the HDD behind it? And will the R5 case front door close? Ideas?

Would this Icy Dock gizmo work? It's a 3x3.5" drive cage that fits in a 2x5.25" bay like you have in your Define R5 case, and it has am 80mm fan.

FWIW, I use several Icy Dock items and have had good luck with them.

 

[lmannyr]

That Looks promising. It adds 1 HDD too! Sweet! I'll have to measure my case to see if it would fit with the fan.

 

[GBillR]

Will it fit with the HDD behind it? And will the R5 case front door close? Ideas?

FWIW, you could take that front door off if you like... I did on my R5 because I wanted to improve airflow, which it has... But obviously this alone would not help in your case since the drives you've installed in the upper section of the case have no intake fan. Please let us know what solution you come up with... I was looking at one of those icy dock cages, and I am wondering how well it works with the R5. I wasn't too keen on that particular model due to lack of air filtering, but icy dock does make one that includes a filter...

 

[lmannyr]

I couldn't find their filtered version. But, flipping the fan to push air out the front of the cage is an option I think. The cage would act as an exhaust. This can eliminate the filter issue. Not ideal as it would be pulling warmed air across the drives. Probably better than the current stagnant air setup though. I think pulling cool filtered air would have a greater benefit though. Wonder what temps people are seeing with 3 drives in this cage.

Another option I thought of and would require some experimentation is, attaching 2 60mm pwm fans to the inside of the front covers (need to check if it would clear the HDDs). The covers would need to modified of coarse.

 

[GBillR]

I couldn't find their filtered version. But, flipping the fan to push air out the front of the cage is an option I think. The cage would act as an exhaust. This can eliminate the filter issue. Not ideal as it would be pulling warmed air across the drives. Probably better than the current stagnant air setup though. I think pulling cool filtered air would have a greater benefit though.

They make a filtered one in a different style that I recall others have used successfully... but I have not tried it: https://www.amazon.com/Black-Vortex...TF8&qid=1484428286&sr=8-1&keywords=MB074SP-1B

Manufacturer Link.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Here's another option: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032UUGF4

 

[lmannyr]

They make a filtered one in a different style that I recall others have used successfully... but I have not tried it: https://www.amazon.com/Black-Vortex...TF8&qid=1484428286&sr=8-1&keywords=MB074SP-1B

Manufacturer Link.

That one is nice but won't fit the 2X 5.25" space the R5 case has available for it.

 

[lmannyr]

Here's another option: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032UUGF4

Looks like like my fan modification option.

 

[lmannyr]

Looks like the Icy Dock version is the best option so far. I could simply put a piece of window screen on the front for a filter.

Question is, will it fit? Here is a snippit from the manufacture site:

"The MB973SP-1B has been designed to maximize space use by allowing up to 3 x 3.5” SAS / SATA hard drives, while only consuming two external 5.25” drive bays"

Says will fit 2 EXTERNAL 5.25" drives bays. Will this fit INSIDE the 2 INTERNAL 5.25" drive bays?

 

[MrToddsFriends]

Says will fit 2 EXTERNAL 5.25" drives bays. Will this fit INSIDE the 2 INTERNAL 5.25" drive bays?

AFAICT, the 5.25" drives bays in a tower case like the R5 are EXTERNAL ones in the Icy Dock parlance because the optical disk drives that can be installed there are accessible externally.

The length of the Icy Dock unit should be no problem if you neither have two fans nor a radiator installed in the top position of the R5.

 

[lmannyr]

AFAICT, the 5.25" drives bays in a tower case like the R5 are EXTERNAL ones in the Icy Dock parlance because the optical disk drives that can be installed there are accessible externally.

The length of the Icy Dock unit should be no problem if you neither have two fans nor a radiator installed in the top position of the R5.

Thanks for the clarification. I'll probably give it a shot if I can't modify the two front covers to take 2 60mm fans across.