Hard drive heat tolerance?

[JudgeDredd]

I recently made the switch from a full tower to a SFF Shuttle, and although I like the little thing, I've been having to battle temps to make things work.

Anyway, what would be the maximum safe temperature for a 36 GB Raptor? Right now it idles at 38C, and on load, during a defrag, it got up to about 48C, and I got worried so I stopped the defrag. What's the max is should handle?

[tom10167]

Do you have a thermal sensor on your hard drive? If you're reading the settings in MBM5, or some Windows temperature monitoring program, that's just monitoring the case and cpu temperature, not the hard drive.

If your hard drive is actually running at 110 degrees farenheit you're still fine, Western Digital recommends the drives don't exceed a temperature of 131 farenheit, which is 59.5Celsius.

[JudgeDredd]

I'm using MBM5, are you saying the temperature it's getting from the sensor for the HD is an external temperature? I'm also reading the temperature from a AeroGate II sensor that's thermally taped to the top of the drive, and it never read over 40C the whole time.

[rkk]

And AMD says that procesror shouldn't get above 90C, anywhay then he gets above 60C strange things start to happen. And he works best below 60C.
So what is the best temp for HDD? Not that one the manufacturer gave...

I have 40 all the time and I think that even this could be too warm for it.

[tom10167]

Originally posted by JudgeDredd
I'm using MBM5, are you saying the temperature it's getting from the sensor for the HD is an external temperature? I'm also reading the temperature from a AeroGate II sensor that's thermally taped to the top of the drive, and it never read over 40C the whole time.


Forget about your hard drive completely. The temperature you are reading is for your processor. That's it.

[sangram]

MBM allows to read the Temp of IDE and SATA drives connected to the Motherboard, using the SMART monitoring system. It requires a check box to be checked in the configuration screen - 'Read temperature of IDE/SCSI (2 boxes)' or something like that. He could be getting the dive temp that way. I know I do, I can read the temp off all of my 4 internal drives just fine.

I have seen drives upo 52 C and survive. I don't think it's very good for them at that temp - but it's kind of unavoidable in non air-conditioned environments and a 40+ ambient. About now they run at 46-47 C all the time.

[germanjulian]

Originally posted by tom10167
Do you have a thermal sensor on your hard drive? If you're reading the settings in MBM5, or some Windows temperature monitoring program, that's just monitoring the case and cpu temperature, not the hard drive.

If your hard drive is actually running at 110 degrees farenheit you're still fine, Western Digital recommends the drives don't exceed a temperature of 131 farenheit, which is 59.5Celsius.


I have been reading my hard drives temps with speedfan for over 2 years. HD0, HD1, HD2... and 1 sata drive.... they all show their smart hd temps. and I know mbm can do the same

and I ran my old ibm hd's for over a year between 43C and 51C (summer).... they still work.... just really old and lound now...

[hafa]

Originally posted by sangram
...it's kind of unavoidable in non air-conditioned environments and a 40+ ambient...

Man, and I though my system had it tough at 28 ambient and no air con!

One thing that I'd wager has not been accounted for in this heat equation is the RPM of the Raptor and the resulting rise in heat output. The thermal gradient of the Raptor is 30C/Hour VS 20C/Hour for a WD2000JB. (30% increase in thermal output) It seems to me that cooling may be a bit more important for the Raptor than for an average drive.

While the drive may be OK in a high temperature, you're likely to see improved performance and longevity if you keep the temps down. Even a 60mm fan blowing on the drive can make a world of difference, as the thermal output is pretty low.

PS: FWIW, 131F= 55C ;)

[tom10167]

Whoa, this is amazing. Only certain HDDs have this?

[hafa]

Originally posted by tom10167
Whoa, this is amazing. Only certain HDDs have this?

I assume that you are refering to the SMART diagnostic feature? All modern ATA drives have it. You just need to enable it in the bios and use a utility designed to view the data sent from the drive.

[JigPu]

I'd say what WD says for their HD (the 55C) is about right. I've never had a problem with any drive that's been in a descently ventalated case (read: nearly any case you'd buy). If you somehow do get it above that for some amount of time though, you should notice a (loud for the drive) high pitched while it's on. Both my drives that were in systems where the PSU fan (the only fan) died did that.

JigPu

[tekOC]

My HDD's have sensors via SMART on them... even after I disabled SMART on both drives in the BIOS they still give me temps in Speedfan, I had to put them really close next to each other due to space in my case so they run a lot hotter now, before with dual-fan HDD coolers on each HDD I had around 25C for each, now with only ONE dual-fan cooler on one hard-drive one reads 35C, the other 38C during just regular windows activity, one has reached like 55C though...

I'm OK with it...
Maxtor drives....

[JudgeDredd]

Yeah, what I'm reading in MBM is coming from the SMART sensor.

Also, on a related note, just to make sure, which part of the hard drive gets the hottest, the top or the bottom? I've always thought the top, but you think the bottom would get just as hot...

[jlin453]

I remember reading something on mbm that they dont support harddrives in raid right?