Normal Hard drive Temperatures

Greenlizard0

Greenlizard0

Greenlizard0

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Being that they're next to each other I measured the temp of my 2 non raided hard drives and they came out at 40 degrees centigrade each.

The one on my laptop is rated at 42 degrees. I think that this is normal - though could be cooler?

Cheers for any info offered.:)
 
Not sure what temps you should expect, but if it helps:
I have a 36gb Raptor in a 5.25 bay mounted in one of these:
SY-006-ZA_200.jpg

With one of these attached to the bottom of it:
SY-002-AK_200.jpg


And at idle, just browsing the forums and whatnot, it's at 30 degrees.
 
I have the Zalman heatpipe cooler on all my drives (not the laptop obviously). I think they help with noise - but I'm really starting to doubt the extent of their cooling capacity. It's a pity because they're the cheapest silent cooling solution I could find (little fans are noisy in my opinion).
 
Perhaps consider buying a cooler to bolt to the hard drive(s) then? The Akasa one I have really is very quiet.
 
Silence is a key factor when I chose the Zalman one - which is why I went for a passive heat pipe cooler rather than one with a fan.

Atm, the only fans I have in my case is a Zalman flower cooler - the PSU (Corsair Modular 620W) and a 25cm side case fan. I'm going for positive pressure within the case to expel air out naturally (if that makes any sense). There are plenty of holes in the back and top for ventilation

It's a pity that there's not much in the way of a range of hard drive coolers - they're only about 4 on OcUK's page.
 
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Wow your pc must be quiet!

The smart drive 2002c is probably the next best option as far as passive cooling goes, however I seem to remember one review stating that it could in fact increase temps compared to regular conditions.

Have you ran any tests to see what the load temps are for the HD?
 
ryder said:
Wow your pc must be quiet!

The smart drive 2002c is probably the next best option as far as passive cooling goes, however I seem to remember one review stating that it could in fact increase temps compared to regular conditions.

Have you ran any tests to see what the load temps are for the HD?
Click to expand...

Doing it now :)

Edit - Hmm..51 degrees - and that's with the case open (don't ask). These coolers really aren't that good :/
 
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Yeah I definitely wouldn't have run my Raptor in one without any kind of airflow going over it.

It's the price to pay for silence though.
 
I've ran hard disks at high temps in a shuttle for a year and one died. Definitely is worth keeping them cool, but in most applications theres no point losing sleep over it. Modern desktops usually cool fine even with a couple of fans. I have no intakes on mine and they are fine.
 
I'm thinking of getting three/four of the Antec Hard Drive coolers. Has anybody got one of these?

I'm thinking of getting one of those Japanese hard drive cases, though for nearly fifty pounds (GBP's, sorry I'm on a US keyboard), I'm tempted to make back ups and just RMA the drive if it dies...or buy a new one lol?
 
What about getting a scythe kama bay (£12) to fill 3x 5.25" bays, with 3x scythe "Stabiliser", which are 3.5" - 5.25" convertors (and have rubber mounts). I think that would be a cool and quiet option?

Those antec coolers have 2 tiny fans in them and with 4 that would be very loud I would think? The kama bay fan is completly silent being only rated at 800rpm - although you could replace it with a faster one which is still quiet.
 
That's what I had thought (tiny fans = loud), though antec's blurb does state that they're adjustable (to what extent I don't know).

I have thought about your first idea too - though I am using a Thermaltake Armour case which has filters on the front of all it's 5.25" bays. The hard drive cage which isn't installed at the moment allows a 120mm fan to be mounted on the front. I am tempted to run this and see what changes in temperature come about, though I'd like to find a 120mm fan that can run quiet first, (less than 19db preferably, or one that can be be adjusted such that it can run that quiet).
 
Yeah I recommend CM 4 in 3 module, or others like it. Can't get much quieter than a 12cm fan for 4 hard drives. Compare that to 4x Akasa things on top which are loud..and still lousy airflow - doesn't act as a intake nor push air to the back of the case.
 
You could probably hash up something using bungie cord across a couple of 5.25" bays and a 92mm or 120mm fan at the front, create a mesh guard or similar and it will be about the cheapest way to do things.

For the little it matters I had three hard drives running at a reported 50-60C for about 3 years with no issues, now two of them appear to be dead or dying but they were Maxtors anyway so I can't put it entirely down to the heat I don't think. Also I'd normally have replaced before this point if I had the cash spare so I wouldn't even have noticed.
 
That's the thing I'm quite warey about losing my information, I lost 200GB or so of very personal data in the summer so since then I've got a RAID 1 array (pointless?) and an external back up.

I've just also found that my three pin fan is easily adjustable using Speed fan. Hmm...I already have a 3 cage hard drive that came with my case where a 120mm fan sits on the front...
 
Raid1 arrays are largely pointless for a home environment in my view given that they don't protect against user error (which is by far the most common) unlike a proper backup, they are just an availability solution. However they are better than nothing I suppose and as long as you take regular backups there is no harm to having that extra layer.
 
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