SB86i cooking hard drives...

sprognak

sprognak

sprognak

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Joined
27 Jan 2006
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481
I've had to return two Maxtor 200Gb DiamondMax 10 drives which were both cooked in an SB86i shuttle case. The whole rig is around 8 months old and the drives failed after three months.

Never been overclocked, runs a P4 LGA775 3.0Ghz at stock with 1Gb RAM running at stock.

Any suggestions? To be honest, the thermal design of the case is absolute cack with the drives above the CPU and PSU respectively and no ventilation. Think I could RMA the chassis for something that is actually fit for purpose?
 
as you've already noticed the design of the SB86i is poor in comparison to other shuttles, my advice is to put a single hd in there and utilise an external hd enclosure, not ideal I know but ..............

maybe there is a cooler running drive from another manufacturer worth considering, unfortunately I use Maxtors myself so cannot comment on alternatives
 
Tried a single drive, that cooked also... =(

Only way I've had them to last is to force the fan onto max, but then it sounds like a banshee and the drive still hits 50C...
 
is there any space to mount in a 80mm fan to cool the hd?

that could be an option for u
 
I used to have an 80GB Maxtor Plus 9 drive that ran considerably warmer than my current Samsung 160GB PATA.

Samsung mightn't perform as good as the competition, but are far quieter and cooler running.

As you're getting nearer the end of your warranty, maybe a different machine would be more suitable. As it would be a pain if a cooler running HD also failed, but in five months instead of three.
 
Guess just really I want to confirm that I am my rights as a consumer. A product should be fit for purpose and if it isn't, I am entitled to money-back.

Honestly, this chassis has to have the absolute worst cooling design I have ever seen. It was bought as a component of a Media Centre to sit in the living room, it's loud, staying on 24/7 is absolutely out of the question and if it's on for more than a few hours, the hard drives start cooking. Prolonged use has led to two RMA's and I'm scared to keep throwing more hard drives at it.
 
i can't really offer any solution but it looks to be one of the most efficient cooling shuttles i've seen apart from the lack of airflow around the hard disks, the P series shuttles have used the same design but have 2x 60mm fans at the back to pull air over the drives.

i've only ever used g2/g5 chassis shuttles, where the hard drives are sandwiched between themselves (no gap!), the psu, motherboard components a graphics/pci slot and the dvdrw above, running for 3 years now with samsungs and the drives are still fine, sitting in a heatspot in the G series.

the I series uses a push/pull system through the case and there is obviously a heat buildup in the middle, either run the fans on max (or the front one to create positive pressure in the case, forcing the hot air out, or see what happens when you turn the cpu fan round to extract air, like the G series do, i have no idea how this will affect the cooling or if the "ducts" it uses will allow this.

i have seen hard disks in worse places and still survive, so whilst you're on the topic of "not fit for purpose" might the drives be at fault? and where did you get the idea that shuttles were quiet? ;)
 
There is only one controllable fan on this model, the front intake fan. There is no fan at the back to expel the hot air except for the PSU fan which is not user-controllable and rarely comes on.

This is part of the problem, cool air is sucked in at the back but then heats and rises to the hard drive area.

As for silent? It's written all over the box!
 
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