What is the coolest configuration for drives to be positioned?

[Caveman]

Floppy, CD-RW, DVD, HDrive... What's the best way to mount these in a computer case for maximum cooling? Any theories on keeping cool?

 

[Jublian]

Screw the computer case.. you wanna get one of those bar fridges, just seal those babies up and run the cables through the rubber gasket around the door frame.

Uh.. yeah.

 

[Jiggz]

There's actually no one special way to located or mount this devices to ensure the best cooling. The only right way is to follow the case orientation. Floppy, CD, CD-RW or DVD do not require a lot of cooling and can survice mounted on top of each other. On the otherhand, the HDD will benefit by being mounted with a little space on both top and bottom for cooling. But the best way is to use a HDD cooler. You will still need good case cooling to achieve this though.

 

[corkyg]

Fridges will work . . . but for regular use, I like my HDDs in mobile racks (now with triple cooling fans) in a full tower. That puts them up in the 5.25 bays away from the mobo and CPU heat. They are individually cooled that way and also give you the bonus of having on/off power switches for them so you can select a drive.

That gives you many choices for different OS's on different drives, or system backups that are just a un-lock, swap and lock away. (Takes about 2 minutes to shut down, swap drives and reboot.)