My "Mac guru" recommended this (http://www.stardom.com.tw/sohoraid%20sr6600.htm) hardware raid system for backup and doing projects, which we have set up in RAID5. However it's way noisy thanks to the fans, kind of depressing because I have been enjoying the quiet in my office since migrating from a G4 to MacPro. Have considered building an enclosure for this but I'm wondering if there are any similarly spec'd units out there that might place an accent on quiet operation. If anyone has any thoughts (or have made their own baffled enclosures for this sort of thing) I'd love to hear them.

Haven't built an enclosure for one of those things, but have done so for other devices, an hour or so's beavering in the workshop with some woodworking gear, 3/4" plywood and a shed load of rubber backed carpet undelay can work wonders in silenceing noisy gear, if not all that visually exciting.

Was wondering if you'd thought of going the other route and swapping your eSata connect for a 1394b link using optical fibre, good for 3200 mbps with the correct adapters etc at each end - up to 100 metres.

Stick "THE THING" in the workshop/ basement!

Just a thought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FireWire


CS

Yeah, it seems a shame as it is a pretty looking unit in its own way, but ultimately it's going to be out of sight, out of mind so I'm not adverse to building a box for it, the biggest concern is making sure it is properly ventilated. Was thinking about running tubing to keep the noise further away, but not sure if this will require an additional fan.

Go to firmtek.com

Great enclosures and cards.. Been using the 4 bay and 2 bay for almost 4 years now... no problems..(knock on wood)

Scott

maybe the answer is to disable/ remove the fans in the unit entirely and run a fan forced duct from somewhere else completely - the problem being, of course, you're now dealing with a 4" or 6" "cable" as opposed to 1/4".

However, it may well keep the "fan" sound out of the room, which is the desired effect.

Let us know how it goes.


CS

If you're gonna go the route of building and acoustically insulating an enclosure, for God's sake, don't use carpetting. There's a product called "dynamat" that's specifically designed for automobiles to deaden sound and vibration.

http://www.dynamat.com/products_computers_and_more_introduction.html