Hard disk cooling.

zhensem · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:52 am Post subject: Hard disk cooling.

What would be a normal temperature for HDDs to operate at? Mine are at around 40C at idle (haven't done under load tests).

If these are too high could you recommend any hard disk coolers that are effective and preferable fit into the xaserIII super tower case.

Thx

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JayDubya · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:58 am Post subject:

If you put an 80mm fan right in front of the hdd, that should be all the cooling you ever need. I would feel the HDD itself and tell us how warm or cool it feels.
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[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:07 am Post subject:

Josh · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 12:37 pm Post subject:

Admitedly (JW, dont say a word if thats spelt wrong

) you do have about 4 HDD's, but as stated, intake fans should do the job, and if the situation is bad, then just get a few HDD copper coolers for about £8 each, do the job and give you piece of mind

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Hoedizzy · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 2:00 pm Post subject:

Rule of thumb: If it burns your hand, to hot.
If it is cozy warm, it's just right.

zhensem · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:07 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the input.

The HDD don't normally burn my hand but they do get very warm at load tho and occasionally I couldn't keep my hand on them for long (on the side of the case near where the cables plug in, not the metal plates that cover the top of the HDD). At load the reach about 48C (ran PCmark04 HDD tests) and they have 2 80mm in front of them.
It seems they're OK, then.

cheerz

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JayDubya · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:21 pm Post subject:

If its still too hot to keep your hand on for a short period of time (10 seconds) then they may be too warm. I'm surprised those fans aren't cooling them better. Most 80mm fans are enough to get the hdd's to feel like room temp.

Any body else have some more input?

Maybe your fans aren't getting good airflow to them. What is in front of the fans?
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Hoedizzy · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:32 pm Post subject:

Did some reasearch and your not to far off from what maxtor considers "normal" operating temps. (38-50)C. But JW is right, 2 80mm should be penty to keep those temps down!!

zhensem · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:49 pm Post subject:

In front of the fans are just two standard fan filters and then the doors of the case after that. It's a stock Thermaltake xaser3 super tower case, not changed or moded in any way.

Thanks for the info.! I had a look at their data sheets as well and found that my drives (diamonmax plus 9 and maxline plus 2) have a max operating temperature of 55C. I think I'm within that, but I do get very close to the border line when the room is warm and the HDD is under load (saw it reach 50C!).

Those hard disk coolers, will they fit together with the HDD into a standard hdd bay? Especially the thermaltake xaser3 hdd bays?

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Josh · Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 7:15 pm Post subject:

Taz · TweakNOOB Joined: 09 Nov 2004 Posts: 14 Location: Israel

I have a 36GB Raptor and a 45GB 7200RPM IBM. They have a slow 120mm intake fan blowing on them (@1500RPM). You can hardly feel the air moved by the fan yet it keeps them both cold to the touch (even at the center).

If you can't fit a 3.5" cooler in your case, you might wanna consider a 5.25" cooler. My friend had two 60GB 7200RPM WDs and they were both heating to the point where you can't touch them (prolly above 60C). There were no fans blowing there, and there wasn't a place to put one. They were also on adjacent bays as he only had two internal 3.5" bays. I told him the life expectancy of his drives will drop at these temps, so he agreed to buy something I suggest.

I saw a cheap front-panel 5.25" USB2 hub which could also hold a 3.5" HDD. It was about $15. It had no fans or heatsink, but it put some distance between the drives, which led to a dramatic drop in temps (to the point where you can comfortably rest your hand on the drive).

Your problem might require more then just a plastic 5.25" --> 3.5" converter, but a 5.25" solution might just do the trick.

zhensem · Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 9:09 am Post subject:

Taz,

I only have 1 5.25" bay to play with. However, my hard disks report to be no more than 45C and to the touch they are very warm and you can keep your hand on them. They are situated one above the other. In fact the hard disk rack can hold up to 6 hard disks, 3 of the bays are in use but only 2 of those drives are on (3rd drive is used for backup and holds a fresh, clean Win XP installation for when you need to get to your NTFS partitions on your botched up/defunct XP installation).

I'll work something out.

Thanks for the info.
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Taz · TweakNOOB Joined: 09 Nov 2004 Posts: 14 Location: Israel

Well then you might just wanna put some distance between them. You said you have six 3.5" bays so:

zhensem · Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 12:03 pm Post subject:

That is one way I thought of doing that but all three take up the bottom 3 bays while the top 3 are where i've stuffed all my power cords into.

I will end up doing it like that. However, I'm planning on getting more HDDs so that won't be like that for long.
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