jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm considering getting an external hard drive box to hold four or more drives. Amazon offers an assortment from $99 and up. Some are RAID, and some are not. I don't need RAID. Some allow for individual drives to be turned on and off. One thing I'm concerned about is cooling. These boxes are about the width of a drive, so the fans aren't large, nor could a larger one be installed. Of course reading reviews on Amazon I see both praise and condemnation.

I have a small 4-drive box I got years ago, but even with just two drives, the temp rises. The fan is small, and I might add a 120mm fan front and rear. Unfortunately, I lost two of the four slides for installing the drives, so now it's a 2-drive box.

What I'd like to do is have different types of files - or maybe backups - on separate drives. I have about 500GB of instructional videos, and they're taking up a lot of space on my D drive (about 500GB ). I don't need hot swapping. And, yes, I do have those "stick it in the slot" docking stations, but I want something something permanent for several drives.

If any of you have ideas about this, I'd be glad to hear them.

Some examples below -

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VHJ5N6K/?coliid=ASIN-B07VHJ5N6K-ATVPDKIKX0DER&colid=1K6S0U4KGY5NH&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003YFHEAC/?coliid=ASIN-B003YFHEAC-ATVPDKIKX0DER&colid=1K6S0U4KGY5NH&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003X26VV4/?coliid=ASIN-B003X26VV4-ATVPDKIKX0DER&colid=1K6S0U4KGY5NH&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MD2LNYX/?coliid=ASIN-B07MD2LNYX-ATVPDKIKX0DER&colid=1K6S0U4KGY5NH&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

OlinBost Loc: Marietta, Ga.

I have an older external drive that had no cooling. As a last resort I glued an old cpu heat sink to the top of housing. Does not look the best but it works.

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

I have a 4 bay drive box that I ordered from Amazon a couple years ago. It currently has only 1 drive plugged in and even with heavy read/write activity, it only gets warm. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H11KXCL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I save everything, and I'm sure I have some heat sinks in the garage. I know I have a kitchen sink out there. That will go to the dump for recycling. I's like to see a minimum of a 120mm fan n everything that need cooling, preferably two fans. One of the boxes I posted has a 40mm fan. Are they serious. A 40mm fan is going to cool eight drives?

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Unless you need all four drive instantly available at all times, then why use a 4 drive enclosure? 4 drives in an enclosure are going to be hard to keep cool, plus they're just sitting there running for no reason. Obviously I don't know your setup or workflow, but maybe a different drive arrangement would be more beneficial.

OlinBost Loc: Marietta, Ga.

snicker.... I have a 120V cooling fan out of a data center cabinet or maybe you could use an old attic fan.... snicker

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Cooling, as you know is key. Consider a bigger box with room for decent sized multiple fans or a 6 or 8 drive box so you can leave space between drives. And if you do that, depending on the airflow, you may need blank covers for the unused slots. The best JBOD boxes will have multiple exhaust fans no the back or a fan pack underneath with a quality backplane for the drives to plug into. You might consider something like a professional grade SATA JBOD. They have big (and sometimes loud) fans and quality backplanes, and since there are usually few if any active components other than the power supplies, they last a very long time. I’ll browse around for some and post the results later, but SuperMicro and Xyratex are two that come to mind.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Funny. Not even Google could find that brand. "JBOD stands for Just a Bunch of Disks and typically is defined as a collection of disk drives."

Here's a nice one. "Low cost does not mean lacking in features!"

https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9siv1ds7b38522

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Take a look at SuperMicro Jerry. They make enclosures from $150 to thousands. They are big in the HPC (high performance computing) space for small to medium clusters, so they are a (big) cut above consumer products.

Brian S. Loc: Oak Park, MI

Here is some heat/cooling information directly from the Seagate web site.

What is the normal operating temperature for Seagate disk drives?

Discusses the normal parameters for operating temperatures for Seagate drives.

The drive should never exceed the temperature ranges below. If the drives ever exceed these temperature ranges then the drive is considered "overheated" or is not getting adequate air flow from your current case environment.

With our newer model drives the maximum temperature is now at 60 degrees Celsius.

The operating temperature range for most Seagate hard drives is 5 to 50 degrees Celsius. A normal PC case should provide adequate cooling.

However, if your enclosure is unable to maintain this range, we suggest that you contact your system manufacturer for information on cooling and ventilation hardware that is compatible with your specific configuration.

The answer to this question depends on your case environment. If you have adequate cooling, it is probably not necessary. If you feel that you need additional cooling, use your favorite internet search engine and enter the keywords "drive bay cooling kit".

Here is the temp conversion

5 degrees Celsius = 41 degrees Fahrenheit

60 degrees Celsius = 140 degrees Fahrenheit

I think you will have other problems if your drive enclosure ever gets any way near 140 degrees. They can run "hot", it's the nature of the beast.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Thanks. I'll do that. Isn't "SuperMicro" a contradiction in terms? Like jumbo shrimp.

docerz

Have you considered a NAS? Synology, QNAP, etc. makes a wide variety over a wide price range. You can do almost anything. Backup all your computers and data. Use Plex for all your video’s and music- and best of all photos. All data is accessible from any of your computers, iPads, phones etc. (even remotely). Setup your own mail server...it’s almost endless. Setting up in a RAID configuration gives some protection from hard drive failure. You can also have it back up you data offsite. A little pricey at first...but then you’re about done.

docerz

Have you considered a NAS? Synology, QNAP, etc. makes a wide variety over a wide price range. You can do almost anything. Backup all your computers and data. Use Plex for all your video’s and music- and best of all photos. All data is accessible from any of your computers, iPads, phones etc. (even remotely). Setup your own mail server...it’s almost endless. Setting up in a RAID configuration gives some protection from hard drive failure. You can also have it back up you data offsite. A little pricey at first...but then you’re about done.

Caranx Loc: Atlanta

For what it’s worth, I built a NAS using an older mb in a Thermaltake mid ATX case. It came with 2 front + 2 top fans. The photo drives (5TB RAID) & data drives (SATA & SSDs) have lots of room for airflow. Those fans keep everything cool! I did this because I thought those dedicated boxes were too confined with poor airflow and too expensive! You do sacrifice some space but it’s quiet and cool. Just suggesting an alternate solution to your heating issues while allowing for expansion. It’s cheaper too! My 2cents

Bmarsh Loc: Bellaire, MI

I just use a "dock" which allows me to "drop in" a drive of any type as long as it is SATA. I normally leave the dock turned off unless I am going to run a full backup of my network (5 machines). I use 2 4TB drives and put one in a safe after about 3 backups. But my dock has two slots and could just as well be used as an external drive case. And cheap too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XYL599P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$35