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Home Server: Drives seem hot

S

StarsFan4Life

Golden Member
I just recently put together a file server for my home. It is going to be on all the time. Today, I decided to stop by Microcenter to get a couple of 80mm fans.

When I opened up my case (Generic mid atx) to install the fans, I put my fingers on the hard drives and they were warm to extra warm. Almost hot I guess. I put my fingers on the heatsink of the cpu and I could barely feel anything.

What gives? Do hard drives run rather warm or do I need better cooling?

Now, the hard drives (2 x 500gb WD SATA) are installed in the case half way between the top and the bottom of the case. I installed an 80mm fan at the bottom front of the case tonight, but it doesn't blow directly on the drives themselves.

Do I need to get a better case?
 
Hard drives do produce quite a bit of heat and can get pretty toasty if you don't run at least a bit of air over them. I run low RPM 120mm fans over my hard drives to keep them cool and provide air to the rest of the system. You might want to try using hard drive cages with 120mm fans in the front.
 
Originally posted by: StarsFan4Life
What is a good cheap case for this? I will be putting in another 500gb drive in a few days.
Click to expand...

Want some bling? The Thermaltake M9 is on sale - $40 AR + shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811133059

Look at the included drive cage. It's similar to the Thermaltake iCage, which you can get separately. Coolermaster has a similar cage which hold 4 drives.

Both Thermaltake and Coolermaster make other cases which include and take such cages, although most of them are pretty big server towers.

You can add such cages (at least the Thermaltake ones) to most cases with 3 or more front 5.25" slots. Getting a case designed for them is better in that they have an air filter in front of the font fan intake. Back-lighting dust build-up in a black facing however isn't the greatest idea in practice.

Antec and some others make a few cases with fan slots in front of the drive cage, although you often have to add the fan yourself.
 
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