hdd watercooling

Hello, im having a bit of trouble finding a decently priced water cooling 'block' for my hdd. I found some, but they range from 65-130$ Which is a bit much for me. Does anybody know of some that are more 40-45$ish range? Thanks!

There are a few of 55-60$ at frozencpu.

http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/fr...oling/se=HDD Water Blocks/mp=menu_search.html

I would say it's REALLY unecessary. I have never heard of a HD getting hot enough to warrent water-cooling. If you're really worried about it, get one of the HD coolers off Newegg for $10, or chop up some old PII-era heatsinks and thermal tape/epoxy them on.

I haven't found any great links for watercooling the HDD... And you posted in the regular cooling section anyways, so here are a couple options which might help cool off your drives:

http://www.overclockers.com/tips454/
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1184/

This isn't watercooling either, but its quiet, drops temps well, and can be had for around $20 (can't find anyone selling this anymore though):

http://www.overclockers.com/articles404/

Here are some cooling options from jab-tech:

http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/product.php?productid=2343&cat=0&page=1
http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/product.php?productid=2051&cat=0&page=1
http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/product.php?productid=1985&cat=0&page=1
http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/product.php?productid=1525&cat=0&page=2

If you don't want any fan noise, and there is no airflow in your case, you are going to need some kind of active cooling on the drive, and thats probably why he is looking to watercool his HDD. In a case with any airflow, watercooling is overkill. Like if you have a PSU with two fans in it, I would say it isn't worthwhile watercooling the HDD and you might as well just drop $20 on a decent quiet HDD aircooler if you are concerned.

As said frozencpu has some blocks for the hdd. Although its not really worth watercooling your hdd's it would be cool to have I guess. If youre doing it because youre looking for performance or just to drop the temps alittle id reccomend just buying a hdd cooler ($10) or mounting the hdd(s) in the case to where the front fan is an intake and blows air across the hdd(s). In my opinion its not worth the $50.

Why on earth would anyone bother with this? I've got a HDD cooler which I don't even use anymore as it just doesn't make a difference with my Samsung SpinPoint, it just made more whining fan noise.

My old Quantum Fireball on the other hand, well, thats another story entirely.......

Maybe people are noise nazis? The way it seems before you know it someone will cry if they hear a 20dba fan. I mean hell today I seen a fanless powersupply...The point of it? No idea other than noise nazis.

Hey, when my computer is on I don't want to hear it. Replacing my heatsink with a Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu to cut down on noise.

If you can hear the computer when you've got a fridge in the next room, it's too loud! The fridge noise should over it up entirely!

You can overclock without turning your system into a wind tunnel you know.

I think you missed my point on the hard drive cooler entirely. The little fan on it created no airflow noise, but had the typical high pitched whine that small fans often have. Quite unacceptable really. And when this makes more noise than my Samsung SpinPoint which already runs quite cool, it's just not worth it.

Can some one PLEASE explain to my why on earth would you even "cool" espically water cool a hdd ?? u dont overclock it and it jus dosent get hot .... maybe im lost or missed about 5 stickies on ocin the hdd

Heres why I cool mine....Just about everything you have in your case will create heat correct? Put a hdd in a box with NO airflow and what happens it keeps getting hotter and hotter. Now add airflow and what happens its cooler because the air is taken away from it and expelled from the box. I simply cool mine by mounting them behind the 80mm intake to blow the hot air off and get it out of my case.

So long as you have some exhaust fans and the grille at the front of the case, there will always be some airflow across the HDD's anyway...

Lol, koss20100, your Avatar..... So, are you inside or outside?

koss20100 said:

Can some one PLEASE explain to my why on earth would you even "cool" espically water cool a hdd ?? u dont overclock it and it jus dosent get hot .... maybe im lost or missed about 5 stickies on ocin the hdd

Click to expand...

It's well known that a cooler hard drive is a happier hard drive. A happier hard drive is less likely to commit hari-kari... And higher speed drives create a considerable amount of heat, enough that there needs to be active airflow around it - if you are watercooling with very little case airflow, some cooling on the HDD might extend its life.

This becomes more important with drives that have higher spindle speeds - many people know how hot raptors get. But even slower drives that don't get any/some airflow will be subject to a lower MTBF.

koss20100 said:

Can some one PLEASE explain to my why on earth would you even "cool" espically water cool a hdd ?? u dont overclock it and it jus dosent get hot .... maybe im lost or missed about 5 stickies on ocin the hdd

Click to expand...

http://storagereview.com/php/benchmark/bench_sort.php

select "Net Drive Temperature" in the drop downlist and hit sort.

Yeah if have anything above (when sorted lowest to highest starting at the top) the 7200.7 20c above ambient is fine.

Anything below the Atlas 10k III you better cool it else it will die.

And even then, you have to be careful how you cool it. Some IDE drives Ive had (some crappy IBM drive and a few maxtors) the actual PCB gets VERY hot. Some of the ICs on there must move a lot of current because they get very hot. None of the water cooling blocks for HDDs address this. They either cool the top or the sides.
None of the SCSI drives Ive had (every 15k drive seagate has ever made, 10k II, III, and IV) ever have though. The sides and the top are always what gets hot. Maybe whatever transistor that powers the motor is soldered to the HDD case much like the mosfets on a mobo are soldered to the PCB to disappate heat that way...

Just run your HDD outside of your case with no fan and finger it see if there are any hot spots on the PCB. If not Im sure you'd be fine.


As for a reason? Why do you need a reason to get rid of another fan if your pump and radiator can more than handle the additional restriction and heat? Only reason I can think not to is being lazy. This is assuming your hd needs cooling one way or another though...

I have a 92mm led fan 7 volted over my Raptor in my Sonata case. I modded a hd slot so my fan slides in like a hd. It sits 2 slots up from my Raptor. The Raptor was getting hot. I have a WD 120gb sata right under my Raptor. I have a 120mm fan up front and a 120mm led fan on the rear. Both 120's are Antecs and they are also 7volted. My case is super quiet as I have my external w/c setup in the closet with a window open - excellent as winter is coming on! I definitely do believe in cooling your hd - especially if it's a Raptor. They definitely get hot. My case temps stay at 30c.

Another slightly pricey but easy solution to cooling hard drives is the following -
Bay-Cool 3

The fan that actually does the cooling is an 80mm fan so it allows you to replace or change it easily when in pursuit of performance or silence. Yep, its kinda expensive but for cooling up to 3 drives it breaks down to only a little more than some of the cheesy hd coolers per drive.

It would require some form of air movement through the case however and does take up 2 5-1/4" drive bays.

Im sorry guys, i didnt explain it really.

Im water cooling my hd because its going to be mounted like this.



This is not mine, but look exactly like it.

I also found a block i really like and i think would look awsome on there!



With Blue LED's of course.


I guess i should of specified more on the hard drive, its a 10K RPM Raptor. And with the hard drive mounted how it is, it doesnt get any air from the front fans beleive it or not. And i feel much safer knowing a 180$ hd will run much cooler with that block. Not to mention i love the way it looks. And i figure if i already have watercooling, why not?

I think it would look cool. and I think your right to cool it somehow. my 36gb gets real hot..or should I say used to get real hot.

Well nobody mentioned you were using 10K RPM drives..... 7200RPM drives don't need it.....

That doesn't quite imply the right thing mjw.... Look at the net drive temperatures available in the SR performance database. The very popular maxtor 7200/8MB diamondmax 9 drives run at the same temperature as 36GB raptors, and some deskstar GXP's run even hotter.

I always stick with Samsung due to low drive temps and noise levels. It's been some time since I looked at anything else so I'm not really up-to-date with the other brands.

Sorry about that.