Is WC the hard drive necessary?

Sneakytermite · Nov 13, 2003

I'm planning to build a comp system with WC. I'm thinking whether to cool the Western Digital Raptor 36GB SATA and the 80GB when it comes out.

I want to know is WC a hard drive necessary?

For those who wc their hard drives, what's the effect it has on your systems? Describe your system in detail for everybody to understand and to make their own conclusion.

Thank you in advance for the response.

I.M.O.G. · Nov 13, 2003

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

http://forum.oc-forums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=241747

If you are removing all of your fans after you go watercooling, then you need to watercool your harddrive because they will get too hot without any air movement.

If there is decent airflow in your case still which circulates air around your HDD's then that is fine.

WC'ing your hard drive is by no means necessary - unless you are going for completely silent with no fans.

Ven0m · Nov 13, 2003

It may be considered necesarry if you have zero air flow in its area - for example external water box and fanless case.

//edit//
what a timing IMOG

felinusz · Nov 13, 2003

Otherwise I personally feel that it simply adds unnessacary heat to your circuit.

If you are willing to still have a few near-silent fans in you system than a Watercooled Harddrive is pointless.

You won't see any performance gains or anything like that - just a higher oveall water temperature

wannaoc · Nov 13, 2003

The problem I see wit watercooling your hdd is there really aren't any good blocks out there for it. They all either add some awfull 90 degree cuts or just look pointless. I would avoid it unless you just want to do it for fun but there is no neccessity to doing it.

RockerII · Nov 13, 2003

I watercooled my hd so that I could sound insulate it. Also, my blocks are huge and the flow restriction would be about the same as tubing because the diameter of all the barbs and the inside of the blocks are bigger than my 1/2" tubing. Blocks are manifolds for compressed air.
Also, they are used for converting the 5/8" tubing from the external water box to the 1/2" tubing inside the computer. Water flows into computer on one side and out of the computer on the other side.

shiyan · Nov 13, 2003

I personally prefer air cooling hard drives, as there are manu little chips on that back pcb that get very hot, and there's no way to cool them using watercooling.

ILikeMy240sx · Nov 13, 2003

Ehh... WCing a HDD is just a waste of cooling capability of your whole entier system. Im cooling my raptor with this cheap heatsink/fan combo that I got which works really well. The fan is really quiet (27 DBA) so i'm very happy with it.

http://www.svc.com/80hardiscool.html

here is the link for it.

Yuriman · Nov 13, 2003

Doesnt 90% of the heat go out the sides? Why cool the top?

ILikeMy240sx · Nov 13, 2003

Yuriman said:
Doesnt 90% of the heat go out the sides? Why cool the top?

Not necessarily, its actually the bootom of the hard drive that its cooling. I actually felt my raptor and the bottom was ALOT more hot than the sides...

I.M.O.G. · Nov 13, 2003

I was under the same impression... Doesn't the majority of HDD heat dissipation occur from the sides?

EDIT: Ahh, just saw your post. I wish someone had a link explaining why the heat from a HDD dissipates wherever it does.

ConquereR · Nov 13, 2003

I think you should just get some HD coolers like THIS one.

Sneakytermite · Nov 13, 2003

You guys are right. WC'ing the hard drive is trivial unless I want a completely silent system, which I don't. I rather put all the cooling power for the back of the voltage regulator, cpu, northridge, and gpu. Much obliged everybody.

Thank you ILikeMy240sx especially for the link (http://www.svc.com/80hardiscool.html) to the hard drive cooler. It's very cheap and looks good too.

Anybody has a link for how a hard drive dissipates its heat?

Soja · Nov 13, 2003

Ouu, that 80mm hd cooler is nice. I have a similar one that mounts via 5.5 (long way) or 3.5 bay (short). Is it copper for dissapation or for looks? I can't tell if it makes significant contact on the HD.

Eh, did not know svc sells the one I have

ILikeMy240sx · Nov 13, 2003

Ok i looked at it again tonight... The copper touches the SIDES of the HD (so that takes care of heat dissipation through side) and the fan blows right over the hot bottom side so its almost like two in one.

With mine the screw didn't fir correctly so i just ziptied that sucker to the HDD and it worked

Sneakytermite · Nov 14, 2003

Hey ILikeMy240sx, how do you mount your hard drive with the cooler on? Can you mount it on a5.5 bay using another configuration? Just asking because I probably will take out all the 3.5 bays for the Black Ice Xtreme II radiator. Thanks man.

Ven0m · Nov 14, 2003

It may seem that it's bottom of HDD to be cooled as it's the hottest place, but in fasct sides are places to mount water block.
Usually the are cooler than bottom, because case takes some heat.

K1ll1nT1m3 · Nov 14, 2003

I agree with 240sx. I also think the heat comes from the bottom. This is where the chipset and the spindle are. ( usually the arms are based on the bottom too ) By feel alone, the top doesnt even get warm.

By just sticking an AGP memory heatsink on my hdds chipset, I deceased my hdds SMART temp by 15c.

Unfortunataly, some drives ( like my WD ) do not have the chipset exposed. In that case I would think a fan would work just as well.

unreal · Nov 14, 2003

also the problem with wc blocks for it is that the fitting is 3/8s never really saw any 1/2 fittings so ur cooling would be bottlenecked there.

K1ll1nT1m3 · Nov 14, 2003

I just opened a Maxtor. The arms for the read/write heads are based on the bottom. This would be a big source of heat due to the speed of the magnetic controlers. Plus, the bottom platter is very close to the bottom of the drive. So you could also cool the air in the drive that was heated due to the platters spinning.

I have to think the biggest source of heat is from the chipset and the spindle bearings.

Is WC the hard drive necessary?

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