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Post by the other mark williams on Dec 30, 2020 14:41:15 GMT -6
I'm wondering what you guys who work with external drives do for silent (or close to it) enclosures. I've been using an old classic Mac Pro for years now, so I've got like 5 drives stuffed into it and have it in a "machine room" of sorts (AKA a high shelf in Søren's bedroom). It's easy to run USB and FireWire through the wall.
But now I'm seriously considering a Mac Mini, and I would have to get all my drives out of the CPU enclosure. Are there any fanless 4-drive bay enclosures out there? With Thunderbolt? All the OWC larger units have fans, and IME, they're loud. It would be a very good thing if I could pull everything out of the "machine room" [chortle] and have it in the bedroom studio where I currently work.
We're hoping to convert an outbuilding in our backyard into a studio space in 2021, but even in designing that, it would be great if I didn't have to have a separate machine room space and deal with circulating air through it.
What are y'all using out there?
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Dec 30, 2020 15:03:41 GMT -6
Good luck with that, seriously I don’t know of anybody who builds one. The multi drive enclosure biz is all about server farms and price.
The simple solution? Transfer from spinner to SSD shut down spinner while working.
Before Bill and Nobtwiddler chime in, you want that machine room!!!
Even if it’s a closet ! You want somewhere you can put the loud gear, lock up stuff you don’t want around or secure valuables! Hell a work bench that’s out of the way is one of the most under rated assets. Knowing that you also do video the value triples, you will do shoots in the live room and some place to put stuff will be a goldmine!
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Post by superwack on Dec 30, 2020 16:08:09 GMT -6
I was looking for a solution a while back but ultimately went in a different direction (someone was giving away an ISO box!) take a look at the black magic multidock - it holds 4 drives and I have read it has no fans (I have not actually seen one in the wild)
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Post by the other mark williams on Dec 30, 2020 16:08:57 GMT -6
Good luck with that, seriously I don’t know of anybody who builds one. The multi drive enclosure biz is all about server farms and price. The simple solution? Transfer from spinner to SSD shut down spinner while working. Before Bill and Nobtwiddler chime in, you want that machine room!!! Even if it’s a closet ! You want somewhere you can put the loud gear, lock up stuff you don’t want around or secure valuables! Hell a work bench that’s out of the way is one of the most under rated assets. Knowing that you also do video the value triples, you will do shoots in the live room and some place to put stuff will be a goldmine! I always love the idea of a machine room--it feels like a nonnegotiable--but the cooling of said room is a real issue. |
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Dec 30, 2020 16:36:26 GMT -6
Good luck with that, seriously I don’t know of anybody who builds one. The multi drive enclosure biz is all about server farms and price. The simple solution? Transfer from spinner to SSD shut down spinner while working. Before Bill and Nobtwiddler chime in, you want that machine room!!! Even if it’s a closet ! You want somewhere you can put the loud gear, lock up stuff you don’t want around or secure valuables! Hell a work bench that’s out of the way is one of the most under rated assets. Knowing that you also do video the value triples, you will do shoots in the live room and some place to put stuff will be a goldmine! I always love the idea of a machine room--it feels like a nonnegotiable--but the cooling of said room is a real issue. This is where the Off Brand version of those Mitsubishi AC units fit in |
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Dec 30, 2020 16:38:50 GMT -6
I was looking for a solution a while back but ultimately went in a different direction (someone was giving away an ISO box!) take a look at the black magic multidock - it holds 4 drives and I have read it has no fans (I have not actually seen one in the wild) The thing about the fan less systems is if you mount a spinner they always seam like they are tuned to amplify the sound of the drive. |
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Post by wiz on Dec 30, 2020 17:08:36 GMT -6
I have been using the same FireWire with thunderbolt adapter HD for about 10 years 8) for audio......I have never heard it......
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Post by stormymondays on Dec 30, 2020 17:17:48 GMT -6
Just get USB-3 SSD drives. Silent and fast!
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Post by Blackdawg on Dec 30, 2020 17:48:09 GMT -6
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Post by bentley on Dec 30, 2020 20:02:55 GMT -6
Using a Blackmagic MultiDock here. Rock solid. Zero noise.
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Post by subspace on Dec 31, 2020 8:35:08 GMT -6
I use a Thunderbolt dock with eSATA and USB3 ports for my MacBook Pro external drive connections. Still use 2.5" spinners in external enclosures from NewerMax for the redundant audio drives and Glyph for the samples drive, they're both very quiet. I stopped using 3.5" drives due to noise, no bus power, I like to be able to directly connect any drive to the MBP when mobile.
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Post by mattbroiler on Dec 31, 2020 11:11:35 GMT -6
+1 for usb 3.0 ssd adapters or enclosures. They are fast cheap and totally silent just make sure you get one with UASP for better hard drive data transfer (most have it these days) Data transfer speed for usb3.0 is 5Gbps compared to 6Gbps for sata3 these Startech adapters work very well I have several of them -
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Post by the other mark williams on Dec 31, 2020 15:32:06 GMT -6
Using a Blackmagic MultiDock here. Rock solid. Zero noise. Those are badass - I love those things. A bit pricey, but great form factor. |
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Post by the other mark williams on Dec 31, 2020 15:58:17 GMT -6
Thanks so much for everybody's responses. I have to say I'm a tiny bit surprised - I used to run my studio off of a MacBook Pro years ago, and I used a lot of these same kinds of solutions. I had assumed that with the rise of the Mac Mini and increased penetration of MBPs in the intervening years that there would be some more elegant solutions nowadays. I have loved having all my drives in my CPU tower for the past 5-6 yrs. Much cleaner and more organized (to me).
I have many, many external SSDs (at least 8 1TB Samsung SSDs) for video work, and multiple huge archive drives. I was hoping to avoid all that tomfoolery with music drives if I go with a Mac Mini. Oh well.
I would've actually purchased an M1 Mini sometime over the past couple days if there were any 16GB RAM models in stock anywhere.
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Post by Blackdawg on Dec 31, 2020 20:04:47 GMT -6
Thanks so much for everybody's responses. I have to say I'm a tiny bit surprised - I used to run my studio off of a MacBook Pro years ago, and I used a lot of these same kinds of solutions. I had assumed that with the rise of the Mac Mini and increased penetration of MBPs in the intervening years that there would be some more elegant solutions nowadays. I have loved having all my drives in my CPU tower for the past 5-6 yrs. Much cleaner and more organized (to me). I have many, many external SSDs (at least 8 1TB Samsung SSDs) for video work, and multiple huge archive drives. I was hoping to avoid all that tomfoolery with music drives if I go with a Mac Mini. Oh well. I would've actually purchased an M1 Mini sometime over the past couple days if there were any 16GB RAM models in stock anywhere. I mean...if you have the budget... Get one of these: www.sonnettech.com/product/echo-3-rackmount/overview.htmlEspecially if you need for an external GPU(when it's supported) or you could use a PCI mounted SSD with M2 drives(4) Then add this: www.sonnettech.com/product/mobile-rack-device-kits/overview.htmlwith the 8 SSD mounts. rack it up(far way it's loud trust me) then run your thunderbolt cable to it. Done. |
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Post by mjheck on Jan 3, 2021 22:16:28 GMT -6
I’ve been slowly building out a new Mac Mini (16GB) and man, it is as quiet as advertised. Been cramming a decade of software updates on it and uploading backups to Google drive and not a peep in three weeks. I’ve not tracked anything - just demoing all stuff as it’s uploaded - but most of my reverbs and delay busses are Nubula and/or Acqua Lemon, so I haven’t been terribly gentle. I’ve also used those OWC SSD portables - dead quiet, but not sure of longevity as it’s only been a little over two years.
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