My hard drives are much hotter after upgrading to a better chasis?

[Lunatique]

(EDIT: Problem solved)

Hi everyone. I've got a problem that's driving me up the wall.

I recently got a Silverstone Raven RV02-E (Evolution version) for one of my computers, and I was very pleased with how cool everything ran (idling at average 33 for CPU, and 35 for hard drives). In fact, I was so pleased that I bought another RV02-E, except this time I got a black one (the first one was the limited edition white version).

Now, this is where things went very wrong.

The second machine (the black one), actually have one less hard drive than the white machine (the white has 7, while the black has 6), but the hard drives in the black run much hotter for no apparent reason. They are averaging about 45-50 idle, and at one point, they even reached 60 for no reason at all--the computer was just idling.

Needless to say, that really freaked me out. How it that even possible? Are the readings wrong somehow? When I take a couple of the hard drives from the black machine and put them into the white machine, they run perfectly normal, but put them back, they get hot again.

The two cases more or less identical--one is white and one is black--that's the only difference. So what's going on?

The hard drives are more or less similar brand/models too.

I even swapped the location of the two machines just to be sure it's not a airflow/location problem, since I put them under the desk, and the white is closer to the opening o the desk than the black, but that didn't change anything for the better; the black machine still runs hot, while the white machine runs a bit hotter, but still quite normal. So even though the location seems to make some difference, placing the black machine in the "better" spot doesn't cool it down any at all though.

I checked the fans on the black machine and they are operating normally--in fact, I set them all to high speed, while on the white machine, only the front fan is set to high, with the middle and rear are set to low (I tried that setting too on the black machine and no difference).

Although the guts of the two machines are different generations of technology, I don't think it should make any dramatic difference. The white machine is a Core i5 2500K running Win7 64-bit, while the second machine is a Core 2 Quad Q6600, also running Win7 64-bit. Both machines have the latest bios and drivers.

So, is my black machine cursed or what? I can't for the life of me figure out why this is happening. The previous case I was using for the black machine was a Thermaltake Armor Jr., and it wasn't very good either, with the CPU idling at around 46 or so. The new case drops the CPU down to around 38-40 while idling, so at least that's improved, but the hard drives are actually much worse inside the black RV02-E than the Armor Jr., which makes no sense whatsoever since the hard drive airflow of the RV02-E is far superior than the Armor Jr., and the white RV02-E case I got is performing beautifully. (In the Armor Jr., the hard drives were idling average of 46 or so, which is not good at all, but at least they didn't jump up to 50 or even 60 for no reason like in the Black RV02-E).

Please, can someone shed some light on what might be happening?

 

[PhilFrisbie]

Part of the heat your hard drives produce is dissipated directly into the air moving past their cases, and the rest is indirectly dissipated by conduction into the metal of you PC case and then into the air.

I don't know if this applies to you, but if the cage the drives mount into has more metal it will draw away more heat from the drives.

 

[megamanx00]

If the hard drive cage in the black case has a heavy coat of paint while the cage in the white case is exposed metal then the black case may be absorbing heat slower than the white case as far as the drive cages go. Paint doesn't always work as well as metal to transfer heat ^_^

 

[Lunatique]

No, that's not it--the cage is the same black plastic in both versions of the case. Also, the interior color of the case doesn't make any real difference, since black absorbs light, which translates to heat, but it doesn't actually absorb heat. Inside the case it's quite dark in general so it's not an issue--it would take a very bright flood light (or direct sunlight) of some kind pointed straight at the inside of the case for the interior color to make any difference.

I'm going to do some experiments now--swapping hard drives between two machines and also try spacing them apart via the 5.25 drive bays so the vertical hard drive cage has better air flow.

 

[bovodo]

the drives are not on a raid array are they?

omg... i just realized you have the raven case that is "side ways" I/O shield points upwards. make sure fans are mounted so air is pulled from hard drives. i.e. fans push air out of case via bottom vent.

 

[Lunatique]

the drives are not on a raid array are they?

omg... i just realized you have the raven case that is "side ways" I/O shield points upwards. make sure fans are mounted so air is pulled from hard drives. i.e. fans push air out of case via bottom vent.

Nope, they are not in RAID--they are just individual drives.

And there's no way to mess up the fan orientation since the case comes with the fans already installed, and I checked the airflow--it has no problems.

 

[DelroyMonjo]

You might try unplugging all of the drives except for the boot drive(s) and checking the temp. Then plug the remaining drives in one at a time and check for a temp spike. 60C seems pretty hot for hard drives.
If no resolution is found you can always use that black computer as a toaster.

 

[Lunatique]

You might try unplugging all of the drives except for the boot drive(s) and checking the temp. Then plug the remaining drives in one at a time and check for a temp spike. 60C seems pretty hot for hard drives.
If no resolution is found you can always use that black computer as a toaster.

The OS drive is placed in the 5.24 bay and it doesn't have a problem with temperature.

I just tried the test, where I swapped 4 hard drives from the black case and the white case, and as expected, the 4 hard drives that were cool in the white case becomes hot in the black case, and vice versa.

So obviously the problem is with the case itself, and not the hard drives. I scrutinized the hard drive cage, the spacing between the drives, the fan, and everything looks fine to me, and identical between the white and black cases, so I can't figure out what is happening.

 

[DelroyMonjo]

I just looked at a review of this case, It has bottom mounted cooling fans and 1" clearance provided by the legs. Is the black case setting on a carpet or is something possibly blocking the intake fans? Try tilting the front of the case a bit with a book or something and see if that helps the airflow a bit.

This is odd, very odd indeed.

 

[Lunatique]

I just looked at a review of this case, It has bottom mounted cooling fans and 1" clearance provided by the legs. Is the black case setting on a carpet or is something possibly blocking the intake fans? Try tilting the front of the case a bit with a book or something and see if that helps the airflow a bit.

This is odd, very odd indeed.

Both cases are on hardwood floor, right next to each other, so no, that's not the problem.

 

[Lunatique]

Ok, I think I might have found the problem. The fan under the hard drive cage of the black case appears to stop spinning for no reason. If the switch is on low speed, it stops completely, and on high, it's spinning at what's the equivalent of low speed, and will cut out without warning. I'm going experiment with plugging the fan into another spot on the MOBO and see if another fan plugged into the same spot will also do this (which hints at problem with the MOBO, not supplying adequate power to the fan). If another fan plugged into the same spot is normal, then the fault must be the fan itself.

 

[Lunatique]

Problem solved. Turned out that specific fan connector on the MOBO for some reason isn't capable of supplying enough power to the fan under the hard drive cage. I connected the fan to another power source and everything's ok now.

*Whew*

Times like this, I'm glad I'm a tenacious #$%^.

 

[DelroyMonjo]

Glad you found the problem. It was keeping me awake. I was thinking maybe you could have trapped a Snickers wrapper or something under one of those fans.

 

[Lunatique]

Glad you found the problem. It was keeping me awake. I was thinking maybe you could have trapped a Snickers wrapper or something under one of those fans.

Thanks for the concern, and thanks to everyone who offered suggestions.

I'm so happy, because now all the drives in the black case are idling at around 33~37, which is just fine. The CPU is idling at around 37, which is also perfectly normal.

YAY!

 

[drwho1]

I had a similar situation, I just set the hard drives to "sleep" when they are not in use.
I have 8 hard drives and the heat was too much. Now I still feel a little bit of heat but with most of the drives "sleep" they are now cool at the touch.

(the only drive that is now generating a lot heat is my boot drive)
So I might change that drive as soon as I can.

(I recently changed my computer from one side of the room to another and notice a temperature increase. )

 

[Lunatique]

I had a similar situation, I just set the hard drives to "sleep" when they are not in use.
I have 8 hard drives and the heat was too much. Now I still feel a little bit of heat but with most of the drives "sleep" they are now cool at the touch.

(the only drive that is now generating a lot heat is my boot drive)
So I might change that drive as soon as I can.

(I recently changed my computer from one side of the room to another and notice a temperature increase. )

There's no reason why you should have to keep your drives sleeping all the time just to keep the heat down. Just upgrade your chassis. I'm extremely happy with the Silverstone Raven RV2-e Evolution--all the drives are idling cooler than I've ever seen in all the computers I've ever built since 1998, and that's damn impressive.