Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Hard drive cooler: I need one (badly) - recommendations?

(1/6) > >>

wreckedcarzz:
I have a small home file storage/backup/µTorrent/BOINC server that runs pretty much 24/7 on a dresser in my room. It is a great little machine from 2001 with 1.6Ghz P4, 768MB DDR RAM and an ATi Radeon X1300 AGP card; however, the two IDE hard drives get EXTREMELY hot ("burning" hot) during intense file movements, defrags, things of that nature. I used to have a small hard drive cooler that sat on the bottom of the drive (via screws, or in my case, jury-rigged in) sporting 2x 80mm fans - it met its demise when the power plug ... melted. Both drives work great (both from 2002 now, aftermarket drives), so there isn't anything wrong except for the heat output (no grinding, data loss, etc).

So now I am looking for a new hard drive cooling system - air or water, but it has to be reasonably cheap (anything over $50 is pushing it unless it is water-cooling). If anyone had a recommendation for a good freeware HD Temperature (F/C compatible) monitor, that would be great as well :)

4wd:
If they're getting that hot then the case is poorly ventilated and/or poorly designed and/or the HDDs are poorly positioned.

A cheap solution:
Move the HDDs towards the back as far as they'll go, (drill a couple more holes in the mount if you have to), and position an 80mm fan in front of them so that it blows air back over them.  Mount it with double-sided foam tape.

But your problem is still poor case ventilation, you'll now have a load more hot air to get rid of.

Software: SpeedFan

BTW, if the HDDs are that old and running that hot NOW is the time to backup all the data on them and replace them.

EDIT: Alternative software available for free: O&O DriveLED2

Deozaan:
BTW, if the HDDs are that old and running that hot NOW is the time to backup all the data on them and replace them.
-4wd (April 28, 2009, 12:46 AM)
--- End quote ---

Isn't having a hot hard drive causing data loss kind of a misnomer?

I read somewhere that Google did a test on their zillions of hard drives and found that the drives that were running on the cool side were more likely to fail than the drives running hot.

wreckedcarzz:
BTW, if the HDDs are that old and running that hot NOW is the time to backup all the data on them and replace them.
-4wd (April 28, 2009, 12:46 AM)
--- End quote ---

Isn't having a hot hard drive causing data loss kind of a misnomer?

I read somewhere that Google did a test on their zillions of hard drives and found that the drives that were running on the cool side were more likely to fail than the drives running hot.
-Deozaan (April 28, 2009, 01:45 PM)
--- End quote ---

That's interesting, never heard of that before. Kind of how a CPU that says at a constant temperature has a longer lifespan and better performance than those with variable temps.

The only thing I notice is that when the drives get hot, speed decreases slightly (up to 50% slower during the really extreme high temps, as seen during Analyze/Defragging with Defraggler). Right now I have a temporary 120mm fan on the front of the case, blowing air between the 2 drives (below C, above D). The case design is not very good (it was made to be a high-end office PC back when it was new, so "Home Server" kind of pushes that, especially with its age). Images attached.

Computer as-is normally (faceplate removed):
Hard drive cooler: I need one (badly) - recommendations?

Up close (both drives visible):
Hard drive cooler: I need one (badly) - recommendations?

Up close 2 (both visible):
Hard drive cooler: I need one (badly) - recommendations?

Up close (length of case visible):
Hard drive cooler: I need one (badly) - recommendations?

Full case:
Hard drive cooler: I need one (badly) - recommendations?

BTW: The IDE ribbons are *not* in the way of airflow, as the images lead to believe. The computer is also ON (and that fan is spinning) in the pictures, too (camera captured it otherwise).

Based on those pictures, any suggestions what I could do to get more air flowing? My temporary solution won't last long (sister/friend comes over, "What's this? OW MY FINGER" is imminent... :-\)

Deozaan:
Having the sides off the case actually decreases airflow.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page