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.
 
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.
 
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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
 
Last edited:
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.
 
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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