HDD cooling - without fans

shadowscotland · 13 May 2008 at 17:32

Hi all

With the rise in temps and my wife's hayfever the house's ambient temps are nudging 30 so my passive
cooled pc is have a few issues.

The water cooling loop is fine (cpu and NB) as is the 8500gt with it's oversided passive cooler. But my
hard drives are sitting at 50-51

I've a 36mb Raptor and a 300mb Seagate both hang in a bungee cradle an have no active cooling
(either direct or via case fans) The one fan in my setup (900rmp in psu) vents to and from outside
the case.

I've droped the OC but no surprise it makes no differance as that all water cooled.

I can think of four solutions:

1) remove side of case (increase air flow)
2) add fan under HHD - this is part of the silverstone CW01 design (could 7v it)
3) add larger Heatsinks to HDD - improve heat dispersal (aka HHD caddy)
4) rotate PSU/block case inlet - so air its pulled through case and out psu.*

Your thoughts and ideas please.

*the case that the psu in a standard atx orintation but at bottom of the case (when wall mounted) so air is pulled up into the psu and out the back

EVILCOSMOS · 13 May 2008 at 17:45

You can get passive hdd coolers with heatpipes. Have a look at the Zalman ZM-2HC2 and the Xilence Icebox Passive Hard Disk Cooler.

But I've found that using a decent 120mm fan at 5-7v is best. Something like a yate loon or Noctua NF-S12 would be my choice.

NozzaC · 13 May 2008 at 17:46

I'm no expert but I found putting a 80mm case fan just pushing air past my HDD made a surprisingly large difference.

Cyber-Mav · 13 May 2008 at 17:47

the 12cm 800rpm scythe sflex is as quiet as they come. a fan will always make a big difference to temps than running passive.

Trifid · 13 May 2008 at 18:07

Cyber-Mav said:
the 12cm 800rpm scythe sflex is as quiet as they come. a fan will always make a big difference to temps than running passive.

agreed. HDD just need a little bit of air flowing over them and the 800rpm Noctua is as quiet as fans come. It will not be heard above the PSU.

helmutcheese · 13 May 2008 at 18:11

Nor will their old 1200rpm or newer 1200rpm, infact I think they give you a Speed Limiter you can fit with both the 1200rpm's anyhow.

shadowscotland · 13 May 2008 at 21:05

Didn't really want to add a fan, but I guess in this weather I'll need to.

Thanks for the comments - off to install a spare 120mm amber untill some better arrives in the post.

Maybe even swap out the liberty for a fanless psu..Hummm something to think about

Ben M · 13 May 2008 at 21:26

shadowscotland said:
I've a 36mb Raptor and a 300mb Seagate

hehe

shadowscotland · 13 May 2008 at 23:44

Oops gb not mb - raptors now at 46c and seagate at 38c. (F@H load)

couldn't get a 120mm to fit without cutting cage, so used a 92mm - way to noisey for me but needs must