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is hard-drive cooling worth it?
- Thread starter eightywpm
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2003
- Location
- Minnetonka, MN
Not sure yet. I bought a 7200 80GB westerdigital (not the special edition) last year and it ran really hot in my case (it's a dell). so I made an angled bracket and added a 80mm fan to the front of the case. It blows on the hd and really brought the temps down. Not sure how this will effect the life of the drive though. I can't imagine that running them hot is good for them. Like most electric/mechanical things running cooler (to a point) is better for the equipment.
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2003
Ravsitar said:
I agree. But buying an expensive HD cooler is a little too much IMHO. Does your case have a fan near the hard drive cage? My Chieftec case has fan brackets in the drive cages, and I put a Panaflo L1A rated at only 21cfm and even that keeps the HD nice and frosty
The other thing you could do is buy one of those 5.35" bay fan setups, that way you get intake across the HD as well as into the system.- Joined
- Jun 13, 2003
- Location
- Raleigh, NC
Hard drive cooling also depends on the way you use your system. Cooling a drive that is up and running 24/7 will have more benefit in terms of extending the life of the drive than cooling one which just runs for a couple of hours a day.
It also depends on what the rest of your case cooling looks like. If your box is always warm, go ahead and add the hard drive cooling.
It also depends on what the rest of your case cooling looks like. If your box is always warm, go ahead and add the hard drive cooling.
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2003
FTP and WEB Server
I run a 24/7 broadband web/FTP server and i have 4 drives in there that are being used continuously. I have a regular fan in the drive cage in my chieftec case and I hope that just that will help the life of my hard drives. Better with it than without it. Getting expensive hard drive coolers is ridiculous thogh. I see no reason in wasting that much space.
I run a 24/7 broadband web/FTP server and i have 4 drives in there that are being used continuously. I have a regular fan in the drive cage in my chieftec case and I hope that just that will help the life of my hard drives. Better with it than without it. Getting expensive hard drive coolers is ridiculous thogh. I see no reason in wasting that much space.
- Joined
- May 11, 2003
- Location
- Vernon, CT
I just have an intake case fan blowing right over my hdd's. It keeps them cooler with no expense of airflow. The cooler they are, the longer they'll last.
Cooling your hard drives will improve their longevity. However, you don't need to buy a $30 hard drive cooler. If your case has an intake fan spot, put in a fan there blowing over them. That will cool them just fine. If your case has really good airflow (i.e. your case temps are low), but none over the disk drives, that will probably be fine.
It is not necessary, but it can help.
It is not necessary, but it can help.
- Joined
- May 20, 2003
- Location
- Colleyville, TX
The main people that should be concerned with HDD cooling are the name-brand-pc consumers. Dell, HP/Compaq, IBM typically build PCs with only a single fan in the whole system... a shrouded 80-92mm fan for the CPU. The shroud acts to pull air through the heatsink from the rest of the system... but this is so innefficient it's sad.
Also... your HDDs really *can* heat up your case temp... especially people with tightly packed RAID configurations... it gets even worse if you are going with 10k+ rpm drives... If you have more than 2 or 3 HDDs in your system, you should be concerned with their cooling. Like the above posters said, simple airflow can really make a difference in the cooling and extended life of your disks.
Also... your HDDs really *can* heat up your case temp... especially people with tightly packed RAID configurations... it gets even worse if you are going with 10k+ rpm drives... If you have more than 2 or 3 HDDs in your system, you should be concerned with their cooling. Like the above posters said, simple airflow can really make a difference in the cooling and extended life of your disks.
Apparently a HDD can withstand a huge amount of heat, more than I thought possible, so if it is getting hot I would not worry too much.
But having said that I did by an akasa HDD cooler that is like a heatsink that screws onto the bottom of the drive and covers all of it with two 60mm fans in it. I am not sure how much it is helping but it must be doing something. It was a nice orange metal colour though lol.
I read somewhere the part of a HDD that gets hottest is the controller part where the cables plug in so you should aim your cooling there.
By the way, this post is made up of things im struggling to remember reading so I may have remembered wrong. Plus I just got home from 10 hours of work and I am tired
But having said that I did by an akasa HDD cooler that is like a heatsink that screws onto the bottom of the drive and covers all of it with two 60mm fans in it. I am not sure how much it is helping but it must be doing something. It was a nice orange metal colour though lol.
I read somewhere the part of a HDD that gets hottest is the controller part where the cables plug in so you should aim your cooling there.
By the way, this post is made up of things im struggling to remember reading so I may have remembered wrong. Plus I just got home from 10 hours of work and I am tired
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2003
- Location
- Minnetonka, MN
7h3r4py said:
There's a difference between withstand for a little bit and withstand for the life of the product. You can run a 4 cyclinder engine with no cooling for 15 miles (i've had to do it) but it will shorten the life of the car (again it happened). Like most people have said. If possible mount the HD infront of the intake fan in your case. Or if you can't like my Dell either get a 5.5" bay mounting kit with fan or put a fan in at and angle like I did.
Yeah, I think HD cooling is smart and useful.
But.. no need to overdo it, I have just an 80mm fan blowing on my 3pcs of 15Krpm SCSI drives. That helps them stay at 30C or so.
I'd really consider cooling for IBM IDE drives especially the GXP (mainly 60 and 75) series which has low tolerance with heat.
The biggest benefit is for the bearings in general, but cooling will also help the electronics for IBM drives.
But.. no need to overdo it, I have just an 80mm fan blowing on my 3pcs of 15Krpm SCSI drives. That helps them stay at 30C or so.
I'd really consider cooling for IBM IDE drives especially the GXP (mainly 60 and 75) series which has low tolerance with heat.
The biggest benefit is for the bearings in general, but cooling will also help the electronics for IBM drives.
Ravsitar said:
Just how hot can the HDD get without the room becoming too unbearable for you to be in it?
I find it funny when people say things like 'this cooler will help prolong the life of my PC!' or 'overclocking will shorten the life of my PC so I will not do it!'. In 99% of these cases the person gets rid of the thing they are cooling before its life comes anywhere near the end lol
I am not trying to argue with you though since I have a HDD cooler too
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2002
- Location
- Dunstable, uk
i put my 80gb maxtor in one of thoe hdd caddys with the fans in it.....damn! it makes on hell of a difference. theres about 5 really small fans (40's i think) but they are silent. they brought the drive temps right down to ambient which is quite amazing really.
When I built my "case", I built a box to mount the harddrives out of copper flashing, and mounted it to the front of the powersupply, so the psu's only fan sucks it's air through the harddrive assembly.
The copper stays nice and cool, as do the harddrives, without any added noise from extra fans.
I have the fluid bearing Maxtors in a striped raid. Cooling it too much might thicken the viscosity of the fluid (bad) and letting it heat up too much might just make the fluid too thin (also bad).
I'm settling for room temp (or rather slightly above-air cooling ya know).
Constant heat is a problem with magnetic media, as heat destroys magnetism faster than my wife destroys a paycheck.
I should think some cooling is in order, especially if your drives have a history of bad sectors. Trying it is nearly free, and can only benefit.
Just a thought.
The copper stays nice and cool, as do the harddrives, without any added noise from extra fans.
I have the fluid bearing Maxtors in a striped raid. Cooling it too much might thicken the viscosity of the fluid (bad) and letting it heat up too much might just make the fluid too thin (also bad).
I'm settling for room temp (or rather slightly above-air cooling ya know).
Constant heat is a problem with magnetic media, as heat destroys magnetism faster than my wife destroys a paycheck.
I should think some cooling is in order, especially if your drives have a history of bad sectors. Trying it is nearly free, and can only benefit.
Just a thought.
