2.5" 7200 for storage?

[Valk]

I really dont see any reason this isnt just a-ok for a storage dump drive but curious what people think might be the best ones.

i have a c300 64gb now that will come out and be replaced with a samsung 840evo likely in 250gb. im just not doing a lot of stuff that requires space. my desktop only had the 64gb and a 120gb pata in it until this upgrade so im sure th e250gb ssd is just fine, i just want a reliable place to put documents.

I dont download much from the webs with the new streaming services so i was looking at a 1tb wd nas 7200RPM drive.

the main reasoning for this is is that i can then mount the drives behind the motherboard and stealth them. airflow in my case is kinda limited and i wanna stuff as much as possible back there.
I would have a big empty lian li hard drive cage but who knows, if there is nothing there anymore, i might delete it and have unrestricted airflow. or another rad.

been out of the game for a while so opinions are kind of valued. i used to be a seagate person but seeing their newer drives have a higher rma rate has me in the market again.

 

[petteyg359]

Sounds like a bad idea to me. You're just asking for the drive to get seriously overheated if it has no airflow at all.

 

[Valk]

well the motherboard tray is aluminum and has quite a lot of airflow around it. ive never had a 2.5 drive that got hot at all. in laptops even that have ZERO airflow for the drive.

just somthing im playing with though. tired of the sata mess.

 

[petteyg359]

well the motherboard tray is aluminum and has quite a lot of airflow around it. ive never had a 2.5 drive that got hot at all. in laptops even that have ZERO airflow for the drive.

just somthing im playing with though. tired of the sata mess.

The heat from a laptop CPU isn't directed towards the laptop's drive, though. Not sure where behind the motherboard tray you plan on mounting it, but if it's behind the CPU, then you've got the socket using it as a heatsink. If you can get it behind the PCI slots, though, it'd probably be fine, but in every case I've had with cutouts for cable management, all the cables go right through that area and it'd be hard to fit a drive there.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

My notebook's drive is right over the intake grill; it gets almost as much air as the CPU cooler.

 

[deathman20]

Yeah not so sure about sticking a drive behind the tray. If it is back there how do you plan on securing it? SSD obviously doesn't have an issue it can go anywhere but the HDD itself could be the issue.

As for heat concerns... well they aren't the coolest of drives, but for long term use, I would at least recommened it have some airflow over it. Even sticking it in the bottom front of the case (down low so it shouldn't affect any airflow to the remainder of the case) should have better air circulation then the backside of the motherboard.

Even in my case the back side can get warm, and all I have back there is a BUNCH of cables. Even if I wanted to I don't think I could fit a SSD behind there without to much issue dealing with the SATA cable and power cable for it.

 

[Mjolnir]

The cubitek Mini ITX case has mounting points ONLY for the back of the motherboard tray for hdds and ssds. So surely it can't be a horrible idea? Though I would stick to a 5400rpm 2.5 inch drive...

I currently have an old 160gb laptop drive in my brothers computer at the top next to an ssd. In the Silverstone tj08-e. It's stuck right up the top with an adapter. And would have no airflow. I haven't seen its temp break 40 unless the weather is hot. Generally sits around 30?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The cubitek Mini ITX case has mounting points ONLY for the back of the motherboard tray for hdds and ssds. So surely it can't be a horrible idea? Though I would stick to a 5400rpm 2.5 inch drive...

The cases I've seen with the MOBO tray mounting points specify they are for SSDs, which don't get hot on their own.

 

[Mjolnir]

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/cubitek_mini_cube_review,8.html

^^

 

[Valk]

my case mounts the mobo upside down on the opposite side. was planning to drill new counter sunk holes under the tray which would place the hdd/ssd either under the ram which would get direct stream air from the front case fan, or under the sata section of the board which wouldnt get any direct airflow but air is being drawn through all the case perforations up through the rad in the top.

all 2.5" drives have holes on the bottom for direct plate mounting to notebook systems. its probably not a SUPER ideal place to put it but it keeps all the power cables and sata cables nicely tucked away and stealthed. the storage drive will never get large batch transfers through it, just storing media files for occasional use and personal files. the ssd of course, almost never gets even warm and the motherboard tray acts as a heatsink in this effect.

fractal design uses this in their r4 case which is why im asking for application in my case. of course, there is nothing wrong with using the standard lian li toolless hard drive cage.
the ssds for sure will go behind the board as there is no reason to mount them in the clunky cages to fit 3.5".

i have a 320gb sata 2 ill mount back there and take a few temp readings at random. my entire machine is liquid cooled with 4x 120mm fans, im not expecting heat to be a great issue.