Question Cooling problem maybe the HDD -help?

[chris1234*]

Hi all,

New poster. I have a cooling problem with my setup and I'm not sure if it's the hd or something else. I have always built my own PC but never had a problem with cooling. I don't overclock. Only standard components. A while back I upgraded my graphics card as well as my storage hd. Everything seemed fine until I noticed the case getting really hot next to my leg recently while gaming. The reason I didn't notice at first is that I didn't have much time to game. This is my setup:

ASUS GeForce TUF RTX 3060 O12G-V2-GAMING LHR
Seagate IronWolf Pro 10 TB
2 X Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB

All inside a fractal design case with standard vents. It has one in the back and two in the front all spinning. The vents on the GeForce all spin as well.

What really heats up is the Iron Wolf going up to above 60 degrees. The strange this is it happens while gaming and the game isn't even installed on that HD. I use one of the EVOs as my C drive for Windows and the programs I use. The Iron Wolf is mostly for media storage - audio and video. The secon EVO I use for the games for better performance.

I only play via Steam and mostly just to check out new things to see where things are heading (it's a bit nostalgic for me. I used to game a lot but with a family it's hard to find the time. Still have fun to see where it's all headed). Prior I had an 8TB Iron Wolf and a comparable graphics card Asus 1070.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[Paperdoc]

Among hard drives, it used to be that a drive is ALWAYS spinning whether or not is is "in use" just in case the user actually requests data from it, so it can respond quickly. More recently many HDD's have a feature that they will do that for only a limited time and then, if NO request for use, will stop spinning until a request arrives. They spin up again when requested, and that takes a couple seconds before the request can be filled. It appears your unit is just doing it the "always spin" way.

How is the air flow in the immediate vicinity of that HDD? In some cases the air drawn in at the front by a fan travels over the HDD in its mounting cage before passing into the rest of the case. Does your do that?

 

[chris1234*]

The case is an R6 from Fractal Design:

Define R6

Designed from the ground up, the Define R6 goes beyond iteration with a profound stride of innovation – a sizeable step forward from preceding models of the world-renowned Define Series.

www.fractal-design.com

Standard setup as on the page. Unfortunaetly I don't seem to be able to upload photos here but here are some DB links:

20230818_175603.jpg

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

20230818_175206.jpg

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

The hd is right next to one of the frontal facing fans. There is an airglow, not a massive one. But this was alway enough. Again, the weird part is it happens during gaming. So even if the hd is spinning when not in use it only heats up to above 60 when I play.

 

[Paperdoc]

One factor MAY be how much RAM is used during those games. The Windows OS NORMALLY swaps things from RAM into a storage area on an HDD when it gets short of RAM, and keeps on swapping so that what data in current use is in real RAM. So if your game uses a lot of storage space while playing, that swapping MAY be going on using that large HDD as the swap space, even though the game files themselves are not installed there.

 

[chris1234*]

You might be right about the swapping, then again it would have done that before as well, right? So you don't think it might be a faulty hd?

If not it might be time to get some additional cooling. Above 60 on the hd can't be good for long, right?

 

[SkyNetRising]

The case is an R6 from Fractal Design:

The hd is right next to one of the frontal facing fans. There is an airglow, not a massive one. But this was alway enough. Again, the weird part is it happens during gaming. So even if the hd is spinning when not in use it only heats up to above 60 when I play.

Graphics card is in wrong slot. It should be in top PCIE x16 slot.
Ram modules are in wrong slots. Ram modules should be placed in slots A2 and B2.
CPU cooler fan might be in wrong orientation.

Your pc case is not meant for gaming components. Closed front suffocates air flow.
Try removing front panel and see differences in temperatures.

What is motherboard model name?

 

[Bearmann]

Is the metal case itself getting hot to the touch? If so, you probably have a short somewhere. You'll need to remove the motherboard and see if there is a screw or piece of metal lodged under it touching the case. Make sure that your MB screws are in their correct positions. Also check for any loose wires, exposed power cables, etc. touching the case. It's probably a good idea to re-seat all of your power cables too.

 

[Paperdoc]

A couple more thoughts.
I presume you have checked the dust filters inside the front cover to ensure they are clean.

Specs for that HDD say its normal max temperature is 65C, so you are close to that but not over.

 

[SkyNetRising]

It's really not recommended to run mechanical HDDs past 40C-45C.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Looks like your video card is blowing hot air on it.
Can you place the hard drive lower in the case and move the video card to the top x16 slot?
My video card blows on my top m.2. it was always 59-60 with a 3060ti FE, after changing to a Dual 4070 it now runs 50-51c.
The difference is where the video card exhausts its hot air.

 

[Paperdoc]

I'm not clear about the position of the video card. The photos OP posted are not his / hers - they are stock photos from another source. So they may or may not depict OP's actual layout.

Another thought, though. OP has 2 intake fans at front and one exhaust at rear. OP "upgraded" to a new higher-performance video card which we can presume does much more and this generates a lot more heat, although the card design does try to exhaust its warm air out of rear slots. This is in a case with modest cooling overall. I suspect that case cooling is now inadequate for the air flow needed for that new video card. Consider adding TWO new fans - one more intake at the front, and a new exhaust at the top rear. This would increase total air flow though the case and improve heat removal.

 

[chris1234*]

Hi all, thx for the advice.

Couple of things:

-I have moved the graphics card up
-I have moved the hd down
-Dustfilters checked and were clean (i clean them regularily) as well as inside of case
-RAM is now in A2 B2

Here are two current pics from the case:

20230827_115928.jpg

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

20230827_120456.jpg

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

-The mb is an ASRock B450 Pro4
-The case is getting hot but only next to the Hd, no short, checked it all

-Again, the weird part is not that it's getting hot. The weird part is that the HD that should not even be involved in any of this heats up massively. The game is installed on another drive and C drive is seperate as well.

I still have to check the new set-up and will report back, on the results of the adjustments.

 

[SkyNetRising]

-I have moved the graphics card up
-I have moved the hd down
-Dustfilters checked and were clean (i clean them regularily) as well as inside of case
-RAM is now in A2 B2

CPU cooler fan is in wrong orientation (as already suspected in post #6).
It is currently fighting rear case fan.
Move cpu cooler fan to opposite side of cpu cooler.

Place HDD in second HDD tray from top - right in front of top case fan.