Hot Hard Drives

[fishstickz]

I have a thermometer that measures my HD temperatures (Sunbeam Chromatic Windmill), and they get HOT, especially when playing graphic intersive games, like GTA:SA, or MVP Baseball 05.

The temperatures tend to get in the 45-55 Celcius range. It is an Athenatech A301 case with 2 hard drives in a cage away from any fans.

It is not good that they are that hot, right? And what can I do about it?

I have a big 120mm exhaust fan, but its far away from the HDs. Don't know what to do here. Help is appreciated!

 

[Vegito]

it really doesn't matter.. but if the front fan is an option.. drop one in... as long as theres ventilation

is this what it looks like inside ?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Showimage...mputer+Case+300W+Power+Supply+-+Retail

if so, you might not have many options..

 

[fishstickz]

Yeah, that's it.

Complete with no real space for a fan.

It just seems too hot, and I read that heat causes the MTBF to shorten considerably.

Not really sure what I'm gonna do that this point.

 

[Varun]

Heat is the one thing that kills hard drives (other than power surges of course). Your temps are a bit high.

I found a picture of your case, and you are right, the fan cage is nowhere near the hard drives.

Obviously the best and most expensive thing to do would be get a different case. You could also suspend your hard drives from the cage (this reduces noise as well) and put a fan in the front. Short of purchasing a hard drive cooler that is all I can think of with the situation you are in.

 

[birdpup]

purchase a case cooling fan and rig it so it blows air on the hard drives from behind. I tend to wrap the power cables around the fan to hold it in place. A sturdier option could be easily figured out I would think.

 

[Crescent13]

I had hot hard drive problems too, I bought this fan and my temps are WAAYY down now. It has worked great for me so far but you have to take it off and use compressed air or something to dust it and the hard drive about once a month.

 

[Unkno]

if you don't have room for a front intake, get the harddrive cooler, here's another site with reviews Link

 

[fishstickz]

Originally posted by: Unkno
if you don't have room for a front intake, get the harddrive cooler, here's another site with reviews Link

Here's a real newb question for ya:

Those require an open HD slot, right? I dont have any open ones, unless I discard my floppy. I might do that, however, cause I never use it and the heat is really scaring me.

 

[mOeeOm]

I highly recommend that vantec HD cooler, I have two now, in my two computers and it dropped the temperatures so much, from 45-47C to 28C-35C, I love them, and my bro in law went out and bought 3 for his HDs. You should get rid of that floppy and put one on your HD's temps will drop so fast .