necessity of HDD cooling; advice/opinion on this matter

[silon]

i was wondering about the necessity of hdd cooling.
i know apple ship their powermac G4 ibm hdds with no cooling, they juz plug 'em hdds in there, im quite certain dell doesnt actively cool the hdds of systems the ship.

these companies [im pretty sure] hav done much research into matters like these, and if they can ship literally millions of hdds/systems out without cooling, do we need it?


im looking at a data sheet from hitachi stating that the hdd can operate at a drive surface temp of not more than 60C, which [i can safely conclude] even in the hottest of afternoons [31C, the tropics ], will never be reached by my hdds without cooling. im still interested to know wheter we really need cooling for hdds

[noah]

i'd say its like anything, keep it cooler = lasts longer

........but i'll admit ive never seen a test on it

[StormPC]

Unless you're running SCSI drives or have a case with virtually no air movement HDD cooling is not necessary. If you do require it get something good as most of the cheap units do next to nothing.

[rajagra]

I've put heatsink/fans on HDs before, because they're cheap enough, and "it seemed like a good idea."
But read any HD HS test and you'll see the difference they make is only 2C to 5C. And that's on the part that's being cooled, overall change will be less.
Right now I have 2 systems that've been on for 2 days:
A) Coolermaster CMStacker case; 2 IDE drives + 2 SCSI 15K RPM drives, all between 24C-27C (CMStacker has 120mm fans in front of drives)
B) Antec P160 case; 1 IDE drive at 28C (no fan at front)
Room temp 17C. Temps from Motherboard Monitor.
Now, neither system is under load (except Norton Antivirus is full-scanning the top system), but I think this shows that hd cooling is unneeded in a decent case like the P160.
The CMStacker just laughs at the 15K drives' attempts to heat up.

My advice:
DO ensure there is some airflow above and below each HD.
DON'T bother with heatsinks on hard drives.
DON'T rely on tacky HD "coolers" with 40mm fans. They are loud, have pitiful airflow, and the fans eventually die, possibly leaving you worse off than if you hadn't bothered doing anything. Put the money towards a decent case instead!

[Hans Voralberg]

As long as there are decent airflow pass the HDDs, i don't think why we should bother with additional cooling, I run 5 HDs in my Wavemaster and they're as cool as 18-25C in Speedfan. Even underload it's only ~30C

[silon]

the exact reason i switched cooling off [2 80mm fans blowing] its that they make noise.
ive got a CM Praetorian, and the noise coming from the 2intake fans on the front is just awful. perhaps im just too senstive, but anyway, i switched them off.

2 fans pulling air out from the rear and top are making negative pressure inside the case, so i guess air should be sucked in through the front and pass the hdds?

[rajagra]

2 fans pulling air out from the rear and top are making negative pressure inside the case, so i guess air should be sucked in through the front and pass the hdds?

Should be OK. Run it for a while, then open up the case and touch the drive. If it hurts it's too hot! 60C is the max for most drives.

EDIT> Or get quieter fans!

[SilentDeath]

Dtemp - for getting HDD temps from SMART enabled drives.

As for cooling, recent HDDs produce about ~15w. THe best place to disipate this isfromthesides of the HDD, so any heatsink needs to beattached there.. not top or bottom..(althoguh that will still work..)

I have 2 maxtors:
DMP9 160GB SATA
DMP10 200GB SATA

In a LianLi pc70, with no case airflow, they idle at 40-45°c. Underload they could probably hit 55°c.

As my pc is usually watercooled, there are no case fans.. (just cpu/nb/gfx/psu fan untill my water cooling is running again).

I usually have my 160gb watercooled..but the 200gb is new, I want to adapt the watercooling to fit that also.

Watertemp used to be around 28°c and under load my 160gb was getting ~32°c.

Watercooling hdds is only a good idea if you already have watercooling, or you have about 50 hdds in a small space that get very hot with just a fan..
Waterblocks for hdd cost about £5 to make.. and dont really affect flow..

[Steve]

Trust me - air flowing over a drive helps stop it keeling over. That's why my IBM Deathstar outlasted its warranty.

[badass]

The only cooling needed is airflow past the drives. I had a problem with corruption in PC that had no airflow across the drives and they were too hot to touch!
Bit of blue tak and some metalwork bodging later and they have been fine for over a year and only just get warm.
My current PC case has a 120 MM fan blowing across my disks and they only get slightly warm.

[silon]

rajagra, the stock fans ARE very silent, other factors are making them noisy...

|SilentDeath|, the sides u say?
hmmm in the case of my casing [as with many others], the hdds are secured to the casing by the sides, so i guess naturally, alot of heat will dissipated through contact with the casing alone?

too hot to touch?
hmmm... from speedfan, im seeing temps of 43C on load and the high 30s on idle...

[Thorsson]

im seeing temps of 43C on load and the high 30s on idle

That seems quite hot. Mine is 30 on idle at 21 ambient and never reaches over mid 30s.

[megah0]

I have a set of noiseblocker hdd isolation mounts, keeps the drives silent and there is also a large passive heatsink mounted on the side, the hdd never goes over 25ish, i do however have 2 120mm fans in the ceiling of my case pulling through my radiator.

[silon]

well Thorsson, room temp here in the tropics are hovering around 30C...


do u guys think i should get the zalman passive cooler? the one with the heatpipes and stuff... or should i just leave the hdds alone?

[Hans Voralberg]

Nah, just leave it alone, put a 120mm fan in front is cool enough, 7v it to keep it quiet.

[dorky]

I have watercooled 6 of my my hard drives.



Please refer to here for benchmarks and details:

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.p...d=1#post490373