Pump Magnetism? Harmful to Parts?

[j813]

Pumps have Magnetism outside its casing?

I use a no-name generic pump(s), I usually have an external pump, rad.
I noticed when I put a pump near the Monitor it discolored for a while.
Will it be dangerous to put such a pump inside the case near PC parts especially HDDs?
Magnets can erase HDD data?

Does it mean that this pump is not like Eheims, etc, or all have magnetism outside its casing?

Thanks

[Cyco-Dude]

it depends on the pump. my pump, a Danner Mag-Drive 3, throws out a good deal of EMI. makes my monitor flicker at 60hz, even with the motherboard tray and side panel (both made of 1mm thick steal) in between. didn't seem to hurt anything after a year+ of use, although my hard drives are at the top rear of my tower; the furthest distance possible from my pump. so...take that for whatever it's worth.

[Marci]

All 12v dc pumps seem ok - CSP750, CSP-MAG, MCP600 > 655 (AQ50Z, D4 / D5), MCP350 / DDC... no flicker experienced and I run them frequently on the desk in front of the monitor at a point where a 1048 has it bouncing round like mad.

Eheim 1046 & 1048 are unshielded and will cause flicker. Eheim 1250 & 1260 are shielded and don't.

IIRC, both Hydor L20 and L30 are unshielded. Never had the chance to try any of the other pumps such as Danner and Iwaki... I can only dream...

[j813]

Thanks guyz!

Any DIY shielding we can try to install? Hopefully not metal so that its not heavy.

[Susquehannock]

Have read where people mount their pump in an old soup can.

BTW ... a small hand-held compass (not the drawing kind) makes a great mag field detector.

[phextwin]

Pumps will not harm hard drives.
Make a faraday cage with a bit of chicken wire to help the monitor situation.

[resago]

I posted a long time ago about this. not only will it mess with your monitor, it also affects the rest of your system including HDs, it also can limit the amount of OC due to the additional instability and bit corruption

[TerraMex]

Er, no, it's safe for hard drives,
it would take a very large magnetic (and powerful) field to harm a hard drive,
or jump a bit on it, or even interfere considerably with the operation of any pc equipment (mobo , graphics card). And hard drives have some shielding to them.

In that, two things, to make things clear.
It interferes with CRT monitors, specially badly shielded ones. Can cause damage over time (months).
It interferes with pc hardware, but does not hinder their function,
as it does so in a very very small way, negligible

if it was that harmful (and, let me be clear, it is not),
we'd be seeing hardware drop like flyes with the WC gang.
personally i had two 1048's, a maxijet and a sicce, now MCP600,
and still no "bzzt" effect, even on my super old seagates 40Gb,
after considerable pounding. Monitor yes, rest no.

A cage is a good ideia, but,
remember, not possible (by our standards) to block a field, only conduct it.
you will need a good material to do so (permeable to magnetic fields), aluminium is not that good.
any metal that mas magnetic properties (magnets get stuck on it) is good.
usually , something luike MuMetal, uses nickel/iron, or steel sheet,
and of course, should be connected to the metal atx case.

else, distance the pump from monitor (field reduces considerably by distance) if you get into any problems there.

[resago]

since you didn't list a danner mag in your previosly own pump list I will be nice and just say I HAVE owned one and yes it screws with everything. My pump was directly under my HD cage and it screwd up every HD i used.
I tried sheilding it with the top off of a PS, it help a little, but not enough.

the eheim WAS much better though, just a little monitor flicker at 60hz.
this is experience, not here-say.

[TerraMex]

a mag, no, friends who had them yes.

http://www.dansdata.com/gz009.htm
and http://www.dansdata.com/magnets.htm
a decent exposure.

to this I add a few things,
i have a few rare earth magnets, most from hard drives,
and they do generate a great deal of magnetic force at close range, considerably larger than your average pump.
If you have an old monitor you can do the test, the distortion of the picture caused by any of both is different, and aparent. Or murk about with them on an old hard drive, nothing really happens, and nothing should. I can state this for a fact.
Also to the potpourrie , a MAG driven pump has a smaller EMI than a brush motor pump. It can't even interfere with a floppy drive, let alone a Hard Drive.
side note: eheims have some EMI shield AFAIK.

From my (very limited, i admit) experience, again, let me restate,
as i think you misdiagnosted your problems, very common
no pump i know generates a EM field so powerful that could actually harm a HD in that way.

not calling anyone a liar, just find that very hard to believe.
just for the record, which hard drives?

IBM Deathstar?
Seagate "narwhal, barracuda my ass" ?

PS: the maxijet does her fair share of EMI. Mussed my monitor even at a good lenght from it ... and killed no hard drive.
PPS: this is Procooling, being nice is not normal policy .

[stev]

j813,

The EMI testing for the DDC-1 pump results can be found here:

http://www.systemcooling.com/swiftech_mcp350-09.html

Also, the Electrical Noise on DC Rails can be found here:

http://www.systemcooling.com/swiftech_mcp350-10.html

Lee's review is excellent with test methods, setup and true calibrated equipment.

The DDC-1 pump is engineered to meet OEM applications for both Workstation and U style servers.

Stev

[resago]

maybe I had a bad pump, but the emi problem is usually worse when coupled with the 60HZ of an AC pump.

seems to me DC pumps would be universally safer to equipment.

as to the rare earth magnet mention. a stational field with constant pole orientation is usually fine, it is when the field alternates or moves that will pull the bits out of thier alignment.

[bigben2k]

Originally Posted by resago

...as to the rare earth magnet mention. a stational field with constant pole orientation is usually fine, it is when the field alternates or moves that will pull the bits out of thier alignment.

...or something revolves or spins around it, like an HDD platter...

[resago]

ah, but the platter doesn't spin over it. least not in the HD's I've disected.

the platter is to the side where the field of the magnet in that particular orientation is the weakest.

[metarinka]

Hdd's a pretty well insulated from their own rare earth magnets and I've never seen or been given proof to magnets damaging HDD's (well any magnets that people put close to computers) Furthermore computers already throw off a fair bit of EMI. especially if your case is open aired or acrylic, the added emi of a pump at most would make make your sound card or speakers buzz a little louder, thats about it. Even then most decent mobo's and cases have adequate shielding and most enthusiasts use an add on soundcard which generally are better shielded than the on board kind. To my knowledge the type of EMI and magnetic interference needed to whack out comp parts, you probably wouldn't be putting close to computers anyways.

[JamesAvery22]

I'm pretty sure it was Cathar that posted a nice little write up on the magnetic power it would take to harm a hard-drive. Something along the lines of one of those crane magnets that pick up cars in a junkyard.