WD Black 4TB Temperature Discussion

[vivant]

Hello!

I just purchasesd 2x HDD Desktop Western Digital Caviar Black Advanced Format, 4TB, SATA III 600, 64MB Buffer.

I have chosen to place both of them in HDD Rack Enclosures in order to protect them from shock and vibrations (and also because I don't have any other way to connect them to my PC).
The problem I'm facing is that the drives with normal temp 45-49) heat up to about 51-53 degrees when in continuous use.

My friend has been using them without enclosures in open air and he got temperature of 47 degrees in idle (but that's not really so different from what I'm getting in this case).

Now the WD Website says that the 4TB drives should have a maximum of 55 degrees, and there's even a warning every time that happens to me when temperatures reach between 50 and 55 degrees.

I want the opinion of experienced HDD users that understand this better than I do:
- will keeping my WD Black drives in an enclosure at the temperature of 51-53 degrees in full load, decrease the life of my drives ?
- should I remove the enclosure case all together and keep them in open air ?
- does the enclosure provide any sort of protection whatsoever ?
- do the WD Black drives (that cost so much) require supplementary cooling and if so what do you recommend ?

The enclosure model is Inter-Tech Veloce GD-35612

* My friend also mentioned that the software getting the data from the sensor might be wrong, and that the real temperature inside the HDD might be 55 or over 55 degrees.
- can this be correct?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is your PC laptop?
Why can't you put those disks inside of your computer next to frontal cooler?

 

[vivant]

Is your PC laptop?
Why can't you put those disks inside of your computer next to frontal cooler?

1. Why does that matter?

2. No, it's not a laptop, it's an old PC:
Socket 775 Dual Core 3Ghz Extreme
2GB RAM DDR2
1x240 Intel SSD
2x500GB Hdd SATA 2
MSI P43 Neo motherboard
400W Enermax
USB 2.0 only (of course)

My friend told me to get a HP gen 8 NAS, however a NAS does not have all the features of a proper PC, and I'm afraid on wasting my money on a new cheap NAS that will have the same performance.
P.S. I will buy a new PC soon. Right now I'm only using that and my laptop.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Problem is - your intertec drive enclosure doesn't provide enough cooling for high performance hard drives.
You would need something with active cooling.

Since your motherboard has 6 ports for attaching sata drives, you could attach all drives internally.
Large frontal cooler would do the trick with keeping drives cool.
If your current case doesn't support 5 internal drives and frontal cooling, you can get one that does.
(If you're buying a new computer soon, you you will need a new case anyway)

Or you can get another drive enclosure with active cooling.

 

[jsmithepa]

Yes it will shorten life.

Put a fan on it, simple. It sounds like open air/convection not good enough.

 

[Airbus580]

I just bought a 4TB WD Black to add extra space in my 3TB Seagate that is now becoming full. Now what I noticed is that the temps for the 3TB Seagate got a 2 degrees Celsius increase (37>39) at idle when I installed the WD Black.
The temp for WD Black at idle is 42 degrees Celsius reaching as high as 44 still at idle without A/C.
I have two front intake fans blowing right through them, I have GT-A Aerocool casing.
My ambient temp even with A/C on is 30 degrees Celsius (Samsung S4 app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sensirion.ambientsensing) WD Black temps go down to 40 at idle, 39 being the lowest temp
is 30 degrees ambient temp too hot? It's summer here right now...