External hard drive getting very hot

Harbz · 19 Feb 2009 at 16:33

Hello,

I recently purchased a Cooler master X-craft 360 external hard drive enclosure.

I've got a WD 320gig hard drive in it at the moment. Everything is working great, but the problem is the drive gets very very hot after about 1 hour of use. Hot I mean if I touch the drive my fingers hurt after about 1 second

Should I be worried?

Prophet · 19 Feb 2009 at 16:35

This is quite usual IMO. I personally don't like my drives getting that hot but quite a few people run them 'hot' with no problems.

What's the cooling like on the Cooler master caddy?

StephenLawUK · 19 Feb 2009 at 16:38

My icybox external enclosure only gets warm even after a whole days use and its fine to touch, infact in winter its a nice hand warmer

Harbz · 19 Feb 2009 at 16:39

Well its fanless and made of aluminium which should help with heat transfer, but its not doing a good job of it!

Here it is:

Harbz · 19 Feb 2009 at 16:40

StephenLawUK said:
My icybox external enclosure only gets warm even after a whole days use and its fine to touch, infact in winter its a nice hand warmer

this only gets warm, but the drive inside is mega hot.

StephenLawUK · 19 Feb 2009 at 16:43

harddrive thermal sensor says its core temp is about 45c. so its not megahot imo.

Harbz · 19 Feb 2009 at 16:43

what are you using to read the thermal temp of drive please?

Prophet · 19 Feb 2009 at 16:45

Harbz said:
Well its fanless and made of aluminium which should help with heat transfer, but its not doing a good job of it!

Here it is:

The problem with those is they don't allow any airflow and rely on the case carrying the heat away. The case can only radiate so much heat before it gets saturated. Great for short term use but sucks when the saturation point is reached.

StephenLawUK · 19 Feb 2009 at 16:46

my motherboard bios detects it, but i can also read it in windows with speedfan or everest.

ChrisLX200 · 19 Feb 2009 at 18:32

Fanless cases depend on convection to cool the case, stand it upright, or lift it off the desk with something so there's a gap underneath. I use a piece of black alloy plate I had lying around and it makes a big difference to the temp of mine. (I know, would be better not stacked on top of each other, but they're cool enough like this with a 1" gap underneath.)