Who cools their Hard Drives

[Zak33]

Hi people,

Many months on from out popular "Which Hard Drives do you LEAST trust" thread I have been reviewing all the MaxtorSeagate drives I've installed....and the severe shortage of them dying.

To an install, I've had some form of cooling on all the drive's I've installed.

So, irrespective of which brand you use:

DO YOU COOL YOUR HARD DRIVES SOMEHOW?

Either a fan you rigged up, or a case fan designed-in by the case manufactuer, or a little clip-on hard drive cooler....do you cool your hard drives in any way other than the normal airflow through your case?

Vote away

[staffsMike]

My case has a fan infront of the hard drive cage..so yes I cool them that way.

I do believe in giving them some fresh air but it only seems to makes a big difference on very hot days.

[mike_w]

My case has a fan infront of the hard drive cage..so yes I cool them that way.

Same as me - two sucking in the front, and one (or is it two?) blowing out the back.

[Zak33]

vote away...poll added!

[Mithrandir]

Yup I have a front case intake fan. It cools the 3 hard drives and I noticed they peaked 40oC (with room temp 30-32oC) It's sure is a hot day today with no breeze!

[staffsMike]

I've voted no..but i dont think i'd by a case that didnt have a fan to cool the HDD's lol

The one problem with the antec P182 is that you cant get a normal size (depth) 120mm fan in front of the HDD's and you can only fit two in the middle cage (one if you have a long gfx card)

They do have an extractor fan on the bottom though which is something..at least they dont sit in thier own heat.

[Clunk]

Yes, I always cool mine with some kind of low speed fan.

I did put my raptor in one of those scythe quiet drive things for a while, and it ran at the same temp as with a fan on it, so make of that what you will

[rox0r]

Nope, in fact quite the opposite I have a pair of Raptor x 150s in silent enclosures so if anything they get the opposite of cooling. Temps stay within acceptable limits though so I'm not going to get my knickers in a twist.

[kidzer]

Yes, it sits right in the middle of a fan, so it has air coming over the top and bottom of it, Speedfan reports it at about 28C at all times.

[Agent]

Yup, always

I find the difference in heat between having a low RPM fan over it and without huge (to the touch),
How this translates into life longevity, im not sure. I remember reading an article ages ago saying that heat didn't really have much in the way of effecting its life span. No idea how true that is, but I just stick with the rule of cooler=better
Certainly wont do it any harm

[hibby]

Having had a shuttle for a couple of years, yes I've taken to active hdd cooling. In the case of the shuttle, I removed the floppy blanking plate from the front to allow the one and only fan to draw air over the top of the drive. And in my current tower I have a spare 80mm fan forcing air between two of my drives. Drops the temps massively, especially under load.

[aidanjt]

If the case provides active cooling for HDDs I'll obviously use that, but I'm not bothered either way, HDDs should be safe around 40-50C

[chuckskull]

I have a Raptor sitting in the middle of the of 2 other drives so a fan is needed. 120mm panaflo, Nice and quiet, knocks the temps down nicely.

[finlay666]

yes

had 3 spinpoints in my CM stacker module, fan died, 2 hours later they were very hot and not make a slight grinding sound when opening files

Never making that mistake again

[Zak33]

I'm sure that heat increases friction (it doers in most other engineering circumstances), and the spindle and the head/reader thingy's are gonna benefit massively from cooling. It's why I always do it. I know the readers don't touch the platters, but that's not what dies. It's the mechanism that makes the head readers move....its that that makes all the noise as they start to fail.

Plus, electronically, long long ago, in a far far away Physics lab, I remember being told that every time you increase a capacitors temp, even once, you lower it's life time. I just cant remember the ratio!

[Blitzen]

I use a 120mm fan in each of the drive bays to keep the temps down.
I dunno if it helps but it certainly doesnt hurt.