Hard Drive Position/Temp

[Yakbak]

I have a Maxtor D-740X 40GB HD, and I was wondering, without a HD cooler kit (fans, etc), what is the best position to mount a hard drive? I have a ATX tower case, and the HD is mounted so the flat chipset side is facing DOWN towards the bottom of case, and the flat shiny side with labels is facing the top if the case.
Would there be better heat dissipation if the chipset side was to face up towards the top of my case or what? My HD gets up to 49 degrees C when barely being used.

Also, what is the normal temperature range for a HD being accessed frequently?

[nikhsub1]

Do not flip it upside down, the shinny part is the top. The best place for it is the lowest part of the case. I really don't think you need to worry about it overheating.

[CrystalMethod]

Originally posted by nikhsub1
Do not flip it upside down, the shinny part is the top. The best place for it is the lowest part of the case. I really don't think you need to worry about it overheating.

True but it's hard to get them placed low in the case. Mine are up top towards the rear of my case. But I also have two 80mm fans exausting right behind them, so they stay nice and cool. Not everyone has this option on their case, so you may need to get inventive and mod a little to keep them cool.

[ButcherUK]

Dunno about normal temps, varies a lot, but you should aim to keep HDDs below 50C (case temp) or they can cause problems. I had one zap my partition table (total data loss) once. Not fun.

[Yakbak]

The temp I gave, 50 C, that's for the hard drive itself. My Maxtorhas a built in temp. sensor, and I use Speedfan 4.02 on Win2k, and it reads it fine.