Quiet thunderbolt *3* chassis with room for TWO cards?

[TNM]

The time has finally come where I have to make a decision like I did with getting the imac pro.. and now it's time to move on from UAD and their issues with PT...

It's going to be HD or HDX, that simple.

IF HD, will get an orion HD to start, 32 line ins, dsp effects that can be monitored at much lower latency than HDX fx, but then audio goes into the timeline sample accurate, some antelope avid/HD wizardry thing.

I presume, on an imac, the apple TB3 to TB2 converter would work with the HDN TB2 interface?

OR, HDX.. my preferred option...if i can scrape up all the moolah.
What I plan to do is sell everything UAD and just use my analog mixer going into my old C600 for now, and then by years's end i should have enough for a chassis, one HDX card, and 32 A/D.

Next year, I will add a second card and second lot of 32 A/D and do away with my analog mixer completely.

Right now I focus on 4 things.. a 12 channel line mixer, a 32 channel desk mixer, apollo console 32 ins, and PT mixer.
With HDX i can literally streamline all that into PT mixer and the days of sore eyes will be behind me.

However, i can't STAND noise.. and do not have a machine room. My studio is a nice one but it's a HOME studio and always will be.. There are no more spare rooms..
SO, even if the chassis is not quiet, i am 100% ok with getting one that others have used and know 100% that the fan can easily be user changed (no soldering, must be just standard screws and a 3 or 4 pin fan connector). If any of you can recommend a good chassis where I can replace the fan, I will put in a noctua as I can tolerate those use the LNA cable (not the ultra low, the middle one, perfect balance of quiet and cooling).

Also, i know this would void warranty, which is why i will get a secpnd hand HDX card to start.. but has anyone ever tinkered with the idea of modifying the HDX card fan? I hear they are noisy and always on, which will drive me batty. The loudest thing in my studio right now is some very minor coil whine that comes in now and then. That's it.. and i mean, minor.. Most wouldn't notice.. The imac pro is dead silent, truly, when not doing graphics intensive work.

So i need to not create any new obnoxious noises..

The only other thing I can think of, is if i put the HDX chassis right in the corner of the room, or simply in the wardrobe on the shelves.. I mean, theoretically, that could work and should drown it out enough and it's pretty empty so there's ok airflow.

But yeah, preferably a quiet chassis, or, one that can have it's fan replaced, AND, it must be able to hold 2 cards so i can add the second one next year.

Thanks so much for reading, Look forward to your insight!

Cheers

[Pete Gates]

Possible issue for you is that whilst getting a quiet enough chassis is one problem the other problem is that the fans on the HDX cards themselves are noisy little buggers, especially if you’re running an HDX2. Some brave souls have removed those fans entirely or swapped them but it’s more involved than quickly changing a chassis fan. I’ve got an HDX2 in a Sonnet Echo Express IIID and it’s good but Not silent.

Pete

[TNM]

Originally Posted by Pete Gates

Possible issue for you is that whilst getting a quiet enough chassis is one problem the other problem is that the fans on the HDX cards themselves are noisy little buggers, especially if you’re running an HDX2. Some brave souls have removed those fans entirely or swapped them but it’s more involved than quickly changing a chassis fan. I’ve got an HDX2 in a Sonnet Echo Express IIID and it’s good but Not silent.

Pete

Thanks Pete, yeah, i've been researching that very issue after i wrote the OP, and it indeed seems the HDX fans can come on and blast for hours...
But it seems they have a standard fan connector so i wonder if i can just buy a nice noctua 80mm fan and custom mount it somehow,that's like 4x the size of the included fan and will keep the entire card cool...i found the sonnet 3 slot chassis, my idea is have a card in slot 1 and 3 and mount 2 noctua fans in slot 2, each plugged into a card instead of the on board fan.. I just can't afford an iso box, the cheapest 12U one here is 4.5K...
I tallied the costs last night, 2 second hand HDX cards will be like 5K here, then an antelope goliath HD is 10K but covers ALL my i/o in one interface and is entirely fanless, then the digilink software upgrade is 249 or whatever, then HD software itself.. so we are looking at about 20 grand AUD.. i will get 10 for my entire UAD eco system, 3 apollos, 3 satellites, almost every plugin... i'm taking an unsecured loan for the rest for 10K, 230 a month for 5 years, which is fine by me, but i can not spend more than that.. This is it, along with the imac pro i bought, for my upgrades till 2023.. I want to do it right.. Oh yeah, i should get a few hundred for my yamaha 32 channel console and maybe like 80 bucks for my eurorack 12 channel line mixer but for the latter it's probably worth just keeping (it's a 1202 FX).. not worth selling for that cash.

OWC says their warranty is voided if fans are replaced on any of their thunderbolt chassis, so i am contacting sonnet to ask them how they are about it.. damn expensive chassis, 900 USD.. oh yeah, that cost has to be added as well!