Hard Disk and fans

lamocuk

lamocuk

lamocuk

Associate
Joined
25 May 2007
Posts
64
Hey,

I have purchased a HD from here that arrived today, which was very prompt.

I opened up my PC just now and have noticed that I will not be able to fit the HD into the same area as my other two despite there being a slot for it.

The reason for this is that some of the cables that link to the front ports run through this area and the cables are not long enough to go around the HD zone.

I can fit the drive into the area where the Floppy disk should go. It will stick out a little but thats not much of a concern. My major worry is that there is no fan on this part of the computer.

The other two HD's get a fan from the front intake, but the floppy area will not. Will this be a problem for the new HD?

Regards

Lee
 
Most HDDs don't get warm enough that they need an active airflow - aslong as there is some airflow in the case and space around them it will be fine.

I regularly plug in drives in eSATA sitting on the case while doing backups and stuff and they never have a problem with heat.
 
Hmm.. not sure about that actually. I recently filled up all the HDD bays on my p182, including the 5.25" bays, so moved to using the floppy bay (tight fit). 20 minutes later, took it out and swapped it with a 2.5" drive that was taking up a drive bay, because it was almost too hot to touch. The 2.5" is fine in it though, sitting at a warm but very reasonable 36°C, given my room temperature is currently just over 27°C :(

Agreed, if you have any airflow around it, it should be fine - but not if it's like my floppy bay, which had absolutely no airflow, it was like covering the HDD with a layer of cardboard apart from the ends, and turning it on.
 
Bear in mind the cables don't have to go 'around the HDD zone'. They can feed between two of the HDDs, if that helps at all.
 
I have 2 hdd's in my akasa eclipse, a 320gb samsung f1 and a western digital caviar 250gb, both drives are in the low 20's temp wise, 2000 rpm fan in front of them helps, though its normally run at 1000 rpm via a fan controller.
 
Hey guys,

thanks for the great response.

I bought this one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-211-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000528AS)

It seemed a decent deal and I only need it to store my Movies on, so worse case scenario, if it fails, I can add them on again.

Will this one be okay with no fan?

Also, miniyazz, I'll check out to see if they can go between. It looks a little tight to me, but it may work.

Regards

Lee
 
Hey,

I think I might have a larger problem.

I do not have a spare power cable for this thing.

I have a 'gaming' power supply, one with interchangable leads. My local coputer shop is telling me that these leads are not sold seperately and are only come with the power supply when purchased. Is this correct?

I have a way around this though. I have an extension that comes out of my DVD drive which is at the top of the machine. This means however that the HD would have to sit free (no screws) and at an angle to use the extension as it does not stretch that far.

So.

1. Can I get another of these cables as I do not have spares (how many should I have gotten?)
2. Would the HD be okay as described above?

*EDIT*

These are the two products that i have to connect together with power:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084 (Corsair HX 520W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-520HXUK))

and

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...14&subcat=1279

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000528AS)


Regards

Lee
 
Last edited:
You can get Y-splitter cables that give you an extra power lead, both of the SATA and molex variety - I presume you need a SATA one. Should only be a couple of quid tops, check the bay.
 
With regards to hard drive cooling, i highly recommend this ;)

Been taking hard drives in and out of my pc all day setting up my NAS and one thing ive noticed is that when i take it out the Icy Box thing, i dont burn my fingers!
 
Last edited:
£60 just hurts though, for something which brings very little functionality to the table. I sellotaped me a 120mm fan in front of three 5.25" bays, each with a 3.5" 7200.11 HDD in (being used fairly continuously at the moment as I am shifting some files around). The middle one is sitting at 5.5°C above ambient. I'm happy with that, the fan (Antec Tri-cool) is practically inaudible over the rest of the system. Surely there are far cheaper 3x3.5" --> 2x5.25" adaptors? At that price I'd want to get an external enclosure for 3 drives that connect to the PC via single eSATA!

HDDs too hot to touch are bad! That's one of the reasons many external HDDs die an early death, they're cooled entirely passively and if they're on for long periods of time temperatures climb through the roof, and bits start melting*.

*Joking. But bad. :D
 
lamocuk said:
sellotape!!!!!!!!!! now thats something that is talking the right side of a pound coin 8O)
Click to expand...

Heh, I'd've used superglue but I like having the option of taking out my HDDs at some point in the future :D. Anyway, it's perfectly secure, the door to my case locks so when I move it there's zero chance of it falling off anywhere.
Sellotape rocks!
 
I know this is all a bit of a mish mash of soloutions, but would a HD be okay at an angel of say 45% (back end high, front end low) with the front end resting on some cardboard with a fan infront of it?

Man..... does that sounds as bad as I think it does?

Lee
 
Corsair sent me a load of extra SATA connectors after I asked for some more. I think the PSU only came with 4, which is a bit rubbish considering its a 520w PSU.
 
lamocuk said:
I know this is all a bit of a mish mash of soloutions, but would a HD be okay at an angel of say 45% (back end high, front end low) with the front end resting on some cardboard with a fan infront of it?
Click to expand...

It should really be either horizontal or vertical. Have you considered using a 5.25" bay? You can get adaptors to turn one of them into a 3.5" bay for a HDD (cheap ones, not the one posted above ;)) there would probably be sufficient airflow there for you to not worry about actively cooling it, but check temps if you do that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom