Cases and fans

[jamespetts]

I am looking for a mini-ITX case, cube style, that can take a slim optical drive, two 2.5" HDDs and a PCI card, and is fanless. The closest that I have come so far is the rather lovely Noah case, but that only has room for one 2.5" HDD, and has a fan, and the beautiful Nexus Psile, which also has a fan, only one 2.5" HDD, and, additionally, is extremely expensive.

So, two questions:

(1) can anybody think of a way of modding one of the above cases (preferably the Noah) to fit an additional 2.5" HDD into it, or alternatively, find a good external SATA HDD enclosure (not USB); and

(2) if I use a fanless motherboard/CPU, would removing the case fan cause overheating?

The alternative is embarking, with a little help from my father, on building a custom case, from an old FM radio or something like that. That might be fun, but it would also be a great deal of work. Would there likely be overheating problems with that sort of project if used with a fanless motherboard and no "case" fan?

All replies would be appreciated :-)

[BUFF]

How about a Morex Venus 668 or is that too big?

[Sprite]

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/122733 ?

Or is that the Venus thing BUFF said ?

[jamespetts]

Those are a little too large for my tastes: it doesn't make much sense to me to get a mini-ITX form-factor motherboard, then get full-sized optical drives and hard drives - I might as well make use of the space saving and use 2.5" hard drives and slimline optical drives, and omit the obsolete floppy entirely.

Thank you for the suggestions, though :-) Really, what I am thinking of doing is using a Noah case with the EX1000EG, and removing the case fan, since the motherboard/CPU is of the fanless sort. Would that cause any terrible problems, does anybody think?

[Gordy]

Hoojum cubit 3.

Takes slimline optical a 3.5in hdd and has a pci space too.

One 3.5in space will take 2 laptop hdd's easily. Though I would get a normal one as it will cheaper and you'd get much more space.

[saltynay]

The nexus Psile has a 3.5" wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to do that? Im planning to the psile case and put a 750gb Seagate Barracuda in it.

Matt

[jamespetts]

Hoojum cubit 3.

Takes slimline optical a 3.5in hdd and has a pci space too.

One 3.5in space will take 2 laptop hdd's easily. Though I would get a normal one as it will cheaper and you'd get much more space.

Thank you for that. Following your post, I did give the Cubit 3 some serious consideration. However, it still requires a fan, and even a quiet fan might very well disturb my sleep, as I have sensitive hearing (and have in the past noticed and been slightly disturbed by a watch ticking at the other end of the room). I also doubt that two 2.5" HDDs could satisfactorily mounted: the pictures in this review suggest that the trays are designed for, and only for, single 3.5" HDDs.

Thank you for the suggestion, though :-)

[saltynay]

If silence is the key I would recommend a 320gb Seagate barracuda with rubber hdd mounts it is 3.5" that would be very quiet only problem would be if you had a loud fan....

Matt

[jamespetts]

The nexus Psile has a 3.5" wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to do that? Im planning to the psile case and put a 750gb Seagate Barracuda in it.

I am now seriously considering the Psile. I also note this comment:

One 3.5in space will take 2 laptop hdd's easily. Though I would get a normal one as it will cheaper and you'd get much more space.

I am hoping to get a Psile and put two 2.5" drives in its single 3.5" bay (I want two drives as I specifically want a physically separate backup drive).

Does anybody have any recommendations of (1) quiet but fast 2.5" hard drives; and (2) mounting brackets of the sort that would allow two 2.5" drives to fit into a single 3.5" bay?

Thank you all for your help so far :-)

[Gordy]

Thank you for that. Following your post, I did give the Cubit 3 some serious consideration. However, it still requires a fan, and even a quiet fan might very well disturb my sleep, as I have sensitive hearing (and have in the past noticed and been slightly disturbed by a watch ticking at the other end of the room). I also doubt that two 2.5" HDDs could satisfactorily mounted: the pictures in this review suggest that the trays are designed for, and only for, single 3.5" HDDs.

Thank you for the suggestion, though :-)

It could be run without fans, in fact I've run it as such.

2x 2.5in drives take up less room than a single 3.5in drive. The drives in the cubit are stored on sliding trays. You could easily modify the existing one for 2x 2.5in drives.

Though I would suspect 2 2.5in drives are noisier than 1 3.5in one if you pick a nice quiet one.

I've written a bit more info on my website here, and there are tons of cubit 3 pictures as well.

http://www.gordyhand.co.uk/cubit.htm

[saltynay]

if backing up is an issue surely an external hard drive would be easier you could even use a wireless one so you dont have the the noise factor or the space issues just the internal hdd

Matt

[Toiny]

What do you think of the Morex Venus 668. I had great experiences with it!