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HD coolers - are they worth it?

S

Shagger

Golden Member
I recently upgraded to a 120GB WD and a 160GB WD drive and in ghosting the images across (I usually have them sitting outside the case on a static bag) I noticed the drives got SUPER hot. I can mount a 80MM case fan and blow cool air across the drives to cool them - is everybody doing this?
 
i think case fans in the front will suffice
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i totally agree with that.
if your drives are too hot, that means your case has crappy cooling.
save the money on separate drive fans/cooling, and get yourself a case with decent airflow in the front.

it's possible that the reason your drives are hot is because you've put them in the 5 1/4 slots. if you ABSOLUTELY have to put the drives there, then yes, use hard drive fans.
otherwise, putting them in the bottom hard drive rack, right behind the front intake will be plenty.
 
I dont use any exclusive HD coolers, but my case has spaces for 80mm fans in the same removable HD racks. They pull in the cool air, that blows across the HD, then to the rest of the system. I didnt plan to have HD cooling.
Even on a hot day, with loads of HD usage, it never rises above 35*c for both drives. Most ofthe time, it hovers between 18-24*c.
 
I don't believe cooling your HDDs are necessary. Even outside the case the HDDs do get fairly hot to the touch, but I personally think it's ok.

If you're running 3-4 drives on top of each other, maybe you should have some cooling. But 1-2 drives, not necessary under normal conditions.

But yes, I do agree that a cooler drive will last longer... but I think they last long enough (6+ years)
 
I agree with 2xWobble. I do my best to never stack drives, beyond that, as long as you case temp doesn't get out of hand, you gonna be okay without a dedicted harddrive cooler. But harddrives are a heat source in your case. And, if you've done everything else to cool your case and you still want it cooler, than they may be might be a good bet. Then again, there are a few SCSI drives out there that just seem to run so hot you could fry an egg on it. If you got one of those, cool it...
 
Operating temperature of a harddrive is 60C or 140F. Unless the drive burns you when you touch it, I'd say you're within its specs. I have 4 (soon to be 5) harddrives in my server. None of them are actively cooled. Even a properly cooled drive can fail, so it's always a good idea to back your data up regardless of the environment the drive is in.
 
Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
If HDDs needed to be cooled, you'd think the HDD manufacturers would start recommending or including them 🙂
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Not necessarily. If HDs last only a year and then consumers have to buy a new one, manufacturers will get more business. It might be in there best interest to not tell consumers to use fans then.

Think of it this way...What could it hurt?

 
Originally posted by: BG4533

Not necessarily. If HDs last only a year and then consumers have to buy a new one, manufacturers will get more business. It might be in there best interest to not tell consumers to use fans then.

Think of it this way...What could it hurt?
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If a person used brand x's hard drive and it failed after a year, that person probably wouldn't buy brand x's hard drive again but would buy brand y's.

I find general consumers already have a tough time swallowing how fast computers in general get out of date. I think the market get hit badly if people's data wouldn't last more than a year.
 
I am running a Antec 1080 knockoff (Chieftec I think) but the only fan I have going is the HSF fan. I have added on upfront of the HDD's and they are cool as the proverbial cucumber! Thanks peeps!
 
Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
Originally posted by: BG4533

Not necessarily. If HDs last only a year and then consumers have to buy a new one, manufacturers will get more business. It might be in there best interest to not tell consumers to use fans then.

Think of it this way...What could it hurt?
Click to expand...

If a person used brand x's hard drive and it failed after a year, that person probably wouldn't buy brand x's hard drive again but would buy brand y's.

I find general consumers already have a tough time swallowing how fast computers in general get out of date. I think the market get hit badly if people's data wouldn't last more than a year.
Click to expand...

A year was used as just a generic length of time, I think HDs probably last on average 3 years. However, HDs seem to have gone down in reliability in the last couple years (neglecting IBMs crap). This decrease in quality seems to have affected every major manufacturer and therefore consumers cant really pinpoint one manufacturer that is more reliable than others.

Also, if a single manufacturer came out advising the use of fans on their HDs people may perceive them as having an inferior product as no other HDs would require fans.

 
Originally posted by: BG4533


A year was used as just a generic length of time, I think HDs probably last on average 3 years. However, HDs seem to have gone down in reliability in the last couple years (neglecting IBMs crap). This decrease in quality seems to have affected every major manufacturer and therefore consumers cant really pinpoint one manufacturer that is more reliable than others.

Also, if a single manufacturer came out advising the use of fans on their HDs people may perceive them as having an inferior product as no other HDs would require fans.
Click to expand...

I personally disagree that HDs have gone down in reliability (save for IBM). While manufacturers generally reduced their warranties, I believe they did that as a way to sell their higher-end/larger drives many which still have 3 year warranties.

When CPUs started requiring fans, manufacturers didn't try and hide that fact.

I would rather have to replace my drive because I need more space and speed as opposed to thinking my drive may die anytime soon. In all, I'd personally think it would be a bad business model to have products fail for the purposes of selling new ones, especially in a market where data is critical. For consumables, this model is fine.
 
Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
Originally posted by: BG4533
I believe they did that as a way to sell their higher-end/larger drives many which still have 3 year warranties.
Click to expand...

Last I head all major manufacturers offering 3 year warrantys on their IDE HDs dropped them to 1 year again.
Click to expand...
 
I believe it depends on the HD. I've got my OS on a 15,000 RPM SCSI HD. I've got a cooler on it. I ghost to a 5400 RPM IDE drive; no cooler on that one.
 
I've got a HDD cooler with me now,
feels better to touch the drive now without that extreme heat.

I guess if you got a good set up for your HDDs, like spaces in between them,
shouldn't require a cooler unless it runs like 10K rpm.
The cooler itself further cramp the casing if yours is a mid-tower case.
 
Thermal cycling will effect your drive's lifetime more than operating temp. If your rig is on all the time feel free to let your drives run warmer (don't worry about cooling as much). If you turn your rig on and off a lot you want your drives to run cooler. Overall cooler is better, but I've seen servers running hot for years without a glitch.
 
Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
I don't believe cooling your HDDs are necessary. Even outside the case the HDDs do get fairly hot to the touch, but I personally think it's ok.

If you're running 3-4 drives on top of each other, maybe you should have some cooling. But 1-2 drives, not necessary under normal conditions.

But yes, I do agree that a cooler drive will last longer... but I think they last long enough (6+ years)
Click to expand...

Hard drives shouldn't be too hot to touch, i dont got any cooling on my dual seagate barracuda 120gb setup, and they stay rather cool to touch, although my chieftec case gets really good airflow as well.
 
A good 80mm case fan will cost you $8.00 USD at the most... why the hell not spend the money and just grab one to mount in front of your HDs???

I spend more on lunch for Christ's sake. Just get a fan and cool the HDs whether they need it or not... that's what I say.
 
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