new case time or just replace icy box unit

davetherave2

davetherave2

davetherave2

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So a bit context.

I have had the majority of my casing now and hard drive storage for 10+ years now.

I currently have the coolermaster stacker with 2 icy box 5 x 3.5" hard drive hot swap bays in it.
http://www.coolermaster.com/case/full-tower/cm-stacker-atx-btx/ (current case)

The problem I have now is that the fans which seem to be custom fans for the icy boxes are starting to fail and making a horrendous whine. Given that they have been on 24/7 for the entirety of their life I am surprised they lasted this long.

So I have the decision to make either replace both of them with either the current equivalent models for approx £160 - £250 depending on the models purchased?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...to-3-x-5.25-drive-bays-oc-h500-sa-010-op.html

or

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/icybox-ib-555ssk-5-bay-sata-sas-hard-drive-backplane-hd-036-bt.html


or is it just time now to upgrade the case and get something that is a bit more sleek and can hold the number of hard drives I need which includes a couple of ssd's which just sit at the bottom of the case currently.

So my budget really is £300 tops if I was looking to replace a case I am looking for a full tower to replace the existing one and I'm looking for more of a simple reserved look rather than something that has come out of back to the future II.

If I did go for the replacement icy boxes do they come with standard fans that I could replace with my own ones should i hit this problem again.
 
davetherave2 said:
the model I brought pre 2009 as i can't even find my online order for it (unless I got it from the physical shop) was this one: Data Cage Classic MB455SPF-B (or at least I think it is)

https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=48

The fan doesn't have the usual 3 pin or 2 pin connector so not sure how much of a mod I would need to do to get a standard fan working.
Click to expand...

I’d wager not much, I wish I could sit down and have a look for you. Could you take some photos of the mounts and wiring?

Surely you could just control some new fans with a fan controller?
 
WantoN said:
I’d wager not much, I wish I could sit down and have a look for you. Could you take some photos of the mounts and wiring?

Surely you could just control some new fans with a fan controller?
Click to expand...

Sure I'll try and take some tonight. I have one of the cages empty at the minute so shouldn't be too hard to pull out.
 
davetherave2 said:
Sure I'll try and take some tonight. I have one of the cages empty at the minute so shouldn't be too hard to pull out.
Click to expand...

Cool mate. Worst comes to worst you can connect a standard fan, extend it and run it to the case. I do this with intakes & exhaust for the cupboard my pc is in. I use custom connectors fitted to a PCI-E bracket. Looks OEM.

I doubt they’ve designed a proprietary fan and control system, not worth the bother. It’ll likely be off the shelf stuff, maybe with a weird connector and/or different wiring just to be awkward.
 
davetherave2 said:
the model I brought pre 2009 as i can't even find my online order for it (unless I got it from the physical shop) was this one: Data Cage Classic MB455SPF-B (or at least I think it is)
Click to expand...
Looks like 80mm fan when looking Google search results.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YwugoTZ-aA
Likely also standard 25mm thickness and it's quite certain to be 12V fan.

So should be easy to replace them.
And if not wanting to wire them to hot swap cage should be easy to get standard wiring out from rear for connecting them to motherboard or to PSU with adapter.
 
I see the problem with the fan, its a removeable modular unit that has four tabs that it takes power from. However, it looks like a standard 80x25mm fan and there are 3x molex power connectors underneath and to the side of it. I would probably find a quiet 80mm fan, unplug one of the molex cables and add one of these into it. The fan will run flat out all of the time but shouldn't be too bad if you get a quiet 80mm one. You could even add a Zalman Fan Mate 2 into it so that you can control the fan speed. You will need to drill 4x holes in the case for the fan mounts (I would use rubber mounts to isolate any noise) but that should be easy enough to do. OCUK sell these Noctua anti vibration fan mounts but I prefer the Akasa AK-MX003 20 pack that you can get for around £3.40 on Ebay as they are softer.
 
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image0.jpg
image2.jpg


Hopefully these images help show it. Didn't realise the level of dust that has built up in here. Time to get the air duster out me thinks: ;p
 
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Holy crap!! Shed loads of dust which could have led to the fan's demise. Now that I have seen a proper picture that does indeed look like a standard 80mm fan so no drilling will be required as a new fan should just slot into that shroud. When you remove that fan from the shroud it should have a sticker on the rear of the hub giving you the specs. Hopefully it's a 12v fan so you just need to solder the black and red wires of the new fan to the relevant posts in the shroud. The yellow wire is just for rpm so is not needed in this case so you could either snip it off at the fans centre hub or desolder it from the fan's pcb if you can get to it.
 
Well i haven't had to touch these for over 10 years so i am not surprised they are a "little" dusty. ;p. Thanks for the ideas. I'll take a look and see if I can get the fan out without cracking the shroud. it is very snug in there so it should come out but may require a little encouragement to shift.
 
I guess I could always replace the fans with some nice quiet 80mm fans and then use a couple of these https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...-to-4-pin-molex-adapter-rb-523-cb-113-ok.html to hook them up via the molex connectors on the back of the icy box. (obviously then plugging the actual molex connectors into the psu. then that way I can swap them out with whatever fans I want in the future.

Now just need to decide what 80mm fans to put in there. I want something that is high cfm but low noise. I usually would go with Noctua as a brand or would something a little cheaper be better? The advantage of the Noctua's seem to be they come with the 3 --> 4 pin adapter in the kit.
 
You might `possibly`have to use the wire connection
I have a UPS that needs a fan connected to the circuit board even though it is in off mode most of the time(i attached a quiet fan externally for 24 h cooling)butt it still needed a fan on the board
 
well for the sake of what £20 or so I don't see it as too much of a problem as an experiment. If I need to have the fans soldered on then so be it. I guess I'll order a couple today and see what happens.
 
not yet. I need to take the system completely offline and also do some cable management, which I don't have the time to do right now. So I am putting up with the whine for now. The cage I took out was a spare one I had in the case.
 
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