hey guys

i have 7 ICE-CLEAR 3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure with FireWire and USB 2.0 COMBO for video work that i do and want to make a "carrying case" for them, either out of an old breifcase or a leather loptop case. my only concern is that they will over heat. can i take some cpu cans and attach them to the breifcase/bag to cool them down?

if so how can i power them up? my plans are to put a power strip in the bad and plug it all in there. is there anyway i can convert the fans either plug into the power strip or make them battery powered? either will work fine.

i would like to leave the bag closed and the only thing i have to plug in would be the power strip cord coming from a whole in the bag.

thanks

#tbone

Sounds like fun. I can't wait 'till you try to get your "briefcase" through airport security! Hee hee - we'll read about you in the paper and say, "didn't I see that on Daniweb?"

You are inviting problems, I feel, because of heat issues. Consider this:

You have 7 drives, all enclosed in thermally inefficient casings. You have 7 individual power converters to run them. If you want to enclose it all in a case you'll need fans to cool it (case fans, not heatsink fans) and yet another power converter to run them. All that adds up to a lot of heat, and I'd suggest that a briefcase is not a good idea.

Here's an alternative suggestion, to simplify your setting up:

- Take all those little 'feet' off the drive enclosures. Obtain 4 strips of suitable material (planed wooden slats, acrilyc strips etc) and use velcro strips to fix the slats to the sides of the drives, ensuring that you leave about 25mm (1 inch) of ventilation space between each drive.

- Use labels or some other suitable method to number both ends of each data cable for identification, connect up all the data cables to the drives, and use flexible cable wrap or cable tidy to bundle them together, leaving only enough free cable at the PC end to enable the cables to be plugged in.

- Fit all the power converters to a powerboard. Number the units and the plug ends of each cable for identification, and again bundle the wires together with cable wrap.

- obtain a case of sufficient size to accomodate both 'units' you've just 'assembled', and fix the powerboard inside with Velcro strips.


Now, when you reach your destination it's a rather quick setting up process. Open the case, sit the drive unit on the desk and the case on the floor out of the way, connect the cables, plug it in and turn it on. It should only take seconds to set up, and you can leave the case open to ventilate the power converters.

How's that sound?


Moved to 'Hardware', by the way.

does sound like fun, and i hope that i dont get in trouble at any airport.

thanks for the ideas. some new stuff though. i only want to be able to take 4 drives with me so that will cut down on the amount of heat and wires. also i wanted to try and put the hard drives in a case with the power etc. but wanted to be able to just leave it inthere. like just have one power cord coming out to plug into the wall and then have the 4 firewire cables coming out to the comp. would that be possible?

lol it took me a while to find it since you moved it to harware. hehe.

#tbone

What capacity and rotation speeds are the hard drives you refer to?

Heat is the issue, of course, and high capactity, fast spinning drives run hotter than drives of lower specification. With the drives already enclosed in a casing, heat is the thing you need to be very mindful of.

ummm sorry it took so long to respond.

the drives are 80gb and run at 7200 rpm's. i know heat is a huge issue. i just want to know if puttine them in a briefcase with sufficient cooling will be possible, and if it is, how many fans do one of my drives need to stay kool?

thanks for you help man.

#tbone

i think because it will be located in a briefcase and im sure you dont want to cut holes into it for vent, i think water cooling might actually be the best bet, a good cooling system to run throughout the case and keep things nice and cool. Though the kit would probably have to be custom piped and such because i dont think they make a cooling kit for briefcases. lol

Water-cooled???????

Now THAT's getting quite over the top!

I wouldn't be comfortable with what you sugest, tbone. It's not the drives themselves that are the main cause for concern, it's the transformer packs powering the drives. I wouldn't be operating them with both drives and power packs enclosed in a restriced space, regardless of any fans fitted to the case.

The setup I suggested earlier is the ONLY portable solution I'd adopt.

well thanks alot for all the help. thats what i will try then. you can mark this item as solved.

#tbone