Something I've come across recently so thought I'd share this little nugget.

The expensive "quiet" pc cases often use rubber grommits (like washers) to stop any hard drive vibration from being passed on to the case itself (which tends to act like an amplifier)...

However, there is a problem with this in that normally the hard drive heat would be disappated through the frame into the case but because of the insulation effect from the rubber you can find that this doesn't happen.

Net result hard drives that can overheat which doesn't do them any good at all.

To counter this you should consider placing a fan to blow over the hard drives and thus cool them that way...



Hope that helps someone who's scratching their head over regular crashes and disk corruptions.

Originally posted by Martin_s
To counter this you should consider placing a fan to blow over the hard drives and thus cool them that way...


However, this will increase the "in-case" noise.

Originally posted by sccsux
However, this will increase the "in-case" noise.
Yep... although there are ways to reduce this using grommits on the fan mounting... carefully selecting the fan brand (there are some known for low noise output) .. and using fan controllers either via the motherboard (if it has that functionality or via a switch).

Given the potential problem though, if your hard drive is overheating then noise is the last of your issues...

What sort of temperature should a HD run at?

I know the operating limit is quite high but I guess over a certain level you are doing harm. At the minute all I have is my CPU fan and PSU fan and while I (touches wood) haven't had any crashes the temps of CPU and HDD all reach just under 50 under heavy load.

If you have adequate airflow the HD should be within a couple of degrees of the ambient system temperature.

EG mine is at sys temp 29°C, HD 33°C after 2 1/2 hours of shooting people.

If you're wondering how to monitor temperatures through Windoze, try this http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Originally posted by march
What sort of temperature should a HD run at?
Most components will have a range at which they can operate and for hard drives that's usually way under 50 degree C..

Always best to check the actual limits on the hardware site itself though.

Thats what I was thinking. It is a bit hot. Used speedfan for months and monitored what is going on. The CPU fan gets slowed down (I assume by the MB as there is no way to control it manually) untill the CPU temp is 49c at idle then adjusts, keeping it about that level even under load. If I put another fan in then it stays that temp but CPU fan works less. The HDD temp sits about 35c at idle and gets to about 45c under heavy load.

I think i might need to make some changes. It is a fair bit under max quoted for the components but may be having long term effects.