Modding HDD racks for better ventilation

We all know that Gateway FX series are excellent laptops except for very few things.

One of the things is the HDD rack.

They have not even a hole where air can get in and out to cool it. All the heated air will stay inside and the only way for the heat to get out is by using the surface that is covering it.
Ok. So the HDD heats up. The air inside get hot so does the HDD, no holes to move that hot air outside or getting some cold air inside to cool it. The plastic that covers the top and the bottom heats up from the hot air and then the heat from the air is transferred from air to plastic that covers the laptop to get outside. This is very inefficient and very long and slow process. Our job will be to mod it, fix it and enjoy our work.

I will try to collect some ideas to mod HDD racks to have better cooling and better ventilation without losing the beauty of the laptop.

Later on we will discus to mod the speakers, keyboard and something else that might come up to our minds.

Support as much as possible to get this done ASAP

 

I'm currently working on a mod for this...if it works I'll post some pics and a worklog........if not, I'll post back from my desktop.......

 

Can you post the Idea.

Collecting ideas will be good cause later on we can combine then a do a better mod.

I think i will post an idea later on.

 

I drilled a bunch of holes in good order to help dissipate some of the heat from the metal HD racks as you were talking about.... I might even just cut out a rectangle and cover it with comb mesh to give it a nice look, protect the bottom, and dissipate more heat than the solid bottom..... it works

 

Can you post the temps? before, and after?

 

I will be using some of the photos that azrickster posted at P-7805U Complete Tear Down, Break Down, Disassembly, Taking Apart, etc, and from AndandTech because all Gateway's Fx series have the same case cause I dont have much time right now.

My idea is to use the air flow that is created from the heated air. we know that hot air will move upwards, using this we can make some air movements to suck some cold air from bottom and move it upwards as it gets hot.

 

I actually would not suggest you cut the HD covers.... as they act as a thermal conductor for the HDs.... it will not really help the problem.... you should look into just modding the plastic bezel on the outside and maybe inside as you were suggesting to help with the heat dissipation.... I was gonna mod in a small fan but have not had the time lately.... use honeycomb mesh.... and even mod in a led thermometer display that would check the temps of my RAID-0 config.....

 

If you are intending to cut into the hard drive covers i recommend very small holes at the very ends of the cover. It wont mess with the heat transfer, but will improve passive air flow.

I would also recommend adapting the bezel of the hard drive bay to have an air opening near to the "top" so again passive air flow will be improved through that bay.

But as always mod carefully... its very easy to go one step to far and ruin a laptop.

 

Adding a fan? I thought about it, but i think adding a fan and not opening a hole where the hot or cold air will move it just a waist.

I thing the best solution here is passive air flow.

I'm thinking about placing holes at good position to have better air flow and having about 4 holes for a HDD rack. i don't want to ruin the top cover, i thing no one want's it.

 

I was thinking about doing the same thing. I am going to wait until the warranty runs out before doing so, or maybe ordering an extra plastic bezel somewhere to do it. The only problem I can think of is doing it so that the laptop still looks "stock".

 

That's what I'm thinking too. this is making things a bit difficult

 

The smallest fan i can find is 17x17x10. but i also found a 25x25x10 in 6k rpm and 13k rpm. IT MIGHT fit if your only using one HDD. and it can be molded to the plastic cover and mesh put infront of it. but the problem is finding power. IM not that educated when it comes to LT internals. but adding a fan would help all around not just the HDD.

 

yes it would help a lot but having a fan that small with 13k rpm it will sound like a jet plane sitting on your desk. It will work but i will be noisy.

still looking and thinking where to open some holes for a good passive air flow

 

actually i bought the 25x25x10 for a project and it was really quiet. could barely hear it.

And ESS uses i believe a 17x17x10 in there Military issue Turbo Fan Goggles that spin at 13k RPM and those are realllly quiet.

 

quiet? yeah... it depends on the fan and the RPM of the fan itself..... but now 80mm fans with high RPM sounds like a jet about to take off

 

The problem as I see it so far is the mountign brackets. My system runs about 38c normally but only goes to 36c running with the plastic bezzel off. If you feel the mounts with it running they are at ambient temp.

The heat does not seem to efficiently transfer to the mount and since this is what would get cooled it does not cool the drives off much. Maybe two large heat transfer pads between the drives and the drive mounting case would do the trick.............

 

that could help but the air inside will heat up that the biggest problem.

Try doing this to your desktop HDD putting it in a box with no air ventilation, the same thing will happend.

I'm having a bit of a hard time finding some tiny holes at top cover. if i will do the mod I'm not going to destroy the top cover. i will try to keep the hidden so that the cover will look the same.

 

Mine sits on a Zalman 2000. With the bezzel off air gets into the drive bay pretty good. The mounting metal case acts as the "BOX" to seal it from high air circulation. So the next option is to either transfer the heaat to the box and cool it or open the metal casing so it gets some direct cool air.

The simpler of those two options is to just get the heat to the metal case and cool it. The air holes will help that a bit but if you don't get the heat to the metal shrouding the holes are a waste.....