How warm would you have your HDD at

[pc-guy]

just finished my tiny plex server in a NUC form factor (slightly taller than a NUC but about the same footprint)

I managed to get an ironwolf drive and a 2.5 SSD squeezed in the case with all the associated cabling.

Now the HDD gets pretty warm. like mid 50C after some usage - plex server syncing data.

I googled and seagate recommends 5-50c operating range. so I am getting a couple of 50mm fans to blow some cool air in to cool the drive a bit.

but question is what do people generally happy with? is there any data showing high temps cause higher failure rate

 

[Cyber-Mav]

Happy with around 40c for mechanical drives

 

[postmanfw]

Happy with mid 30s.

Got 14 8tb usb seagate drives that sit at about 45c with active cooling otherwise they hit 60c...had them running 24/7 for over 3 years now and only one has failed so far

Hotter drives are statistically more likely to fail...even a small amount of airflow will reduce your temps as you will see

 

[pc-guy]

Ya I have a 120mm fan blowing at 20% over the case it seems to have brought the temps well down sitting at high 30 now.

anyway that’s an experiment. I got 2 50mm fans coming in which can be inside the case. So should be ok now.

 

[HEADRAT]

I thought the general consensus was

25°C to 40°C: Ideal
41°C to 50°C: Acceptable
More than 50°C: Too hot

 

[t31os]

Pretty much same here, anything upto 40C would be fine for me. Once i start seeing mid 40s upto 50 i'd start worrying about why it's running so hot. I'd give more leeway in a more compact and restricted system (natural consequence of such a build).

 

[pc-guy]

Ok cool. Got a couple of small 50mm fans in the case now. Temps don’t go above 40c now. It is amazing how little air flow sorts all that out.