Is it normal for a hard drive to be too hot to touch with your hand?

[biggiesmallz]

Is it normal for a hard drive to be too hot to touch with your hand?

My hard drives are hot as heck to the touch! Is that normal.

Case temp is 48 degress Celius

 

[John]

IMHO your drives should never get that hot. I have a quiet 80mm Panaflo L1a that blows air over my 74GB Raptor & 250GB Seagate sata drives. There is just a minute amount of heat that can be felt if you touch them.

 

[biggiesmallz]

Originally posted by: John
IMHO your drives should never get that hot. I have a quiet 80mm Panaflo L1a that blows air over my 74GB Raptor & 250GB Seagate sata drives. There is just a minute amount of heat that can be felt if you touch them.

got a link to picutes of what your fan set up is like?

 

[mechBgon]

If your case temp is really 48C, then you have problems. Put a real actual thermometer in there, somewhere in the upper-rear quarter of the case, close the case, do some gaming, then open the case and check the temperature.

 

[biggiesmallz]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
If your case temp is really 48C, then you have problems. Put a real actual thermometer in there, somewhere in the upper-rear quarter of the case, close the case, do some gaming, then open the case and check the temperature.

48C is too high for case temp?

Cpu temp is 42C AMD64. Is that too high too?

 

[John]

Originally posted by: biggiesmallz
48C is too high for case temp?

Yes. The ambient temperature inside your case should typically be 5?10 degrees higher than the air-conditioned room outside it.

48C = 118.4F

Cpu temp is 42C AMD64. Is that too high too?

No, that is a good temp for an idle cpu.

got a link to picutes of what your fan set up is like?

I have one of the infamous Chieftec Dragon cases (it's a little over 5 years old) with the removable 3.5" bay with room for an 80mm fan.

 

[pkme2]

My AMD CPUs run 45C at load. 35C at idle and 24C ambient. My Hdds are warm to the touch since I have front intake fans blowing over, around and thru them. Nice feature of my 3 LLs. This is one of the primary reasons why I have Lian Li's.

 

[dBTelos]

"No, that is a good temp for an idle cpu."

It really isn't that bad. If you have a stock cooler with crappy or no thermal compound, then I would expect it, especially with the high ambient temps.

 

[corkyg]

The CPU should be the hottest thing in your computer. Case temps usually run below CPU temp. What is the ambient air temp in your room?

Example - my room is at 79 F (26.11 C). The CPU is at 51 C, and the mobo is at 31 C. The HDDs are somewhere in between.

Hard drives are hot, but not so you can't touch or hold them.

 

[mechBgon]

If the case temperature really is 48°C then make sure your computer isn't crammed into a cupboard or something, where it just recirculates hot air.

If it's hitting those temps in open air, then I'd suggest plunking your stuffs into an Antec SLK-3000B. It has a 3-speed 120mm exhaust fan included, plus a vacancy for a 120mm intake fan that will blow directly through the 5-drive HDD rack. I use a very quiet Nexus 120mm x 25mm up front in mine, and it has no problem keeping a 15000rpm SCSI drive just barely above body temperature.

 

[biggiesmallz]

Originally posted by: biggiesmallz

Originally posted by: mechBgon
If your case temp is really 48C, then you have problems. Put a real actual thermometer in there, somewhere in the upper-rear quarter of the case, close the case, do some gaming, then open the case and check the temperature.

48C is too high for case temp?

Cpu temp is 42C AMD64. Is that too high too?

I probably had these 2 backwards. 42C case and 48C cpu.

I have 5 internal harddrives in my case basically stacked on one another like cases with muliple bays.
When I had all powered on I couldn't even touch the sides for more than 5 seconds because they were so hot.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: biggiesmallz

Originally posted by: biggiesmallz

Originally posted by: mechBgon
If your case temp is really 48C, then you have problems. Put a real actual thermometer in there, somewhere in the upper-rear quarter of the case, close the case, do some gaming, then open the case and check the temperature.

48C is too high for case temp?

Cpu temp is 42C AMD64. Is that too high too?

I probably had these 2 backwards. 42C case and 48C cpu.

I have 5 internal harddrives in my case basically stacked on one another like cases with muliple bays.
When I had all powered on I couldn't even touch the sides for more than 5 seconds because they were so hot.

Sounds like you'd be a good customer for the SLK-3000B with an added 120mm intake fan, all right. I use one of these in the rear: Nexus low-noise 120mm and transferred the stock 3-speed Antec 120mm case fan to the front, set on Low speed.

edit: I see they're also selling surplus 120x25 Antec TriCool (three-speed) fans for $7.50 too, if you wanted more airflow options.