hard drive cooling

[Guest]

I'm installing a 15K rpm Seagate drive, which Tom's recommends to be cooled. I've also read people's (perhaps unfounded) concerns that having the rotating magnetic field of a fan motor next to your magnetically stored data is not a good thing. Any ideas?

In any case I purchased a cheap ($15 US) triple-fan that sits in the front of the hard drive bay, instead of on top of the drive. It seems that this should provide minimal interference. Anyone have hard experience with the temps on this drive? Is cooling overkill? Or am I doing the Right Thing?


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[Guest]

Update:

It seems the 15K rpm drive is fairly cool; what gets hot is the 72GB 10K rpm drive. Anyone have experience with this drive in particular? Did you have/need a cooling solution?

Thanks.
--dv

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[Guest]

I wouldn't be concerned with the magnetic field of the fans. Too many people are actively cooling their hard drives with fans and having no problems. Cooling the X15 is a good idea, but if you have good airflow in the case it may not be necessary. The drive has an unparalleled 1,200,000 hour MTBF but you would be safe making sure it doesn't overheat, and it can if it is left in a cramped case with stagnant air and is working hard.

 

[Tempus]

Have you considerd putting a heatsink on it?

- Tempus fugit donec vestrum relictus tripudium. Autem amor praeterea magis pretium.

 

[Spdy_Gonzales]

How cool! Could you describe the process!

<b> "doo-doo" HAPPENS </b>

 

[Tempus]

Grab soem aluminum from an old Power supply heatsink, get some Artic Silver II thermal adheisive and slap that puppy on top of the HD.

- Tempus fugit donec vestrum relictus tripudium. Autem amor praeterea magis pretium.

 

[ejsmith2]

My thoughts precisely. It won't win any appearance awards, but you'll cool the metal down a couple of notches. I have never thrown away any of my heatsinks, even from old gfx cards.

And to top it off, I'd grab a 1/8inch (or less) drill bit, and punch a bunch of holes on the sink, just to increase the surface area 2x.

 

[Guest]

I wound up buying another bay cooler, similar to the one for the 15K rpm drive. It works fairly well, so that the drive is warm to the touch (~95F?) but no longer hot as before (~115F?).

I finally got in touch with my custom builder and his suggestion probably would have been better. PC Power and Cooling has a 2-bay cooling solution which holds three drives; exactly my current configuration. Too bad he was unavailable for the past four weeks. Maybe I'll switch to that someday; the fans I have now are not really noisy, but they are noticeable.

--dv

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[Guest]

As for the heatsink solution, that's more work than I was wanting to put in. Even with a passive solution like that, I'd still want more positive air flow.

I did find a solution that works for now (see other post).

--dv

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