[Ham-Computers] RE: hard drive cooling

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

Actually, additional cooling may not be necessary.  Today's 7200 RPM drives
run much quieter and cooler than drives from a couple years ago.  The
Western Digital 7200 RPM IDE drives I have run "warm" compared to the
Western Digital SCSI drives I used before (they were "hot").  The WD SCSI
drives were also "screamers".

The best bet is to make sure they're not "stacked" on top of each other.  If
there's enough room, seperate the drives by one drive "slot" to provide
additional ventilation.  In a properly designed case (and with proper cable
routing), air should flow naturally "through" the front grilles and out the
exhaust fans.  If done properly, the drives should be fine though additional
cooling can be helpful.

My main PC is in my bedroom and low noise is a more motivating factor -
small, high-RPM cooling fans are LOUD.  Better solution is to use a larger,
lower-RPM fan - in other words, high-volume in CFM vs high-volume in dBA!
Some PC cases have room for an 80mm fan either below or in "front" of the HD
mounting area - this is a good place to put a low RPM drive in.  If you
can't find a low RPM drive, use a standard 80mm fan and splice in a 2-watt
50-ohm resistor in the +12v lead (I used a 50-ohm metal-film resistor as I
had a ton of them at the time).  Another option without cutting is to move
the negative lead on the fan power harness to the +5 lead - this will reduce
the operating voltage of the fan to +7v - enough to start the fan and run it
at a lower RPM.  I like the resistor method as it keeps noise off the +5v
lead.

So, before spending $$$ on a drive cooling "solution", make sure that you
need it.  Seperate the drives and leave the system on for a few hours (turn
"off" any power management).  Then, while the system is still running, open
the case and "feel" the drives and drive cage.  If they're only "warm", then
no additional cooling is necessary.  If they're "hot", then it might be
worth it.  BTW, "HOT" is when you can't keep the backside of your
fingers/hand on the drive for more than a few seconds.

Oh, another solution is to use an ACPI temperature monitor.  Most all hard
drives now include internal temperature monitoring.  Using temperature
monitoring software will easily tell you exactly what temperature the drive
is running at.  It should be at, or, a couple degrees Celcius above, the
"ambient" temperature inside your case.  Try "SpeedFan" - it's a popular
freeware app that monitors temperatures (on supported management chips) and
adjusts fan speeds, if the motherboards supports it.  You can find SpeedFan
here:
  http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Note, SpeedFan might take a bit of tweaking to get working properly...it
doesn't know exactly what all the sensors in your system are...you need to
find out.  Once you get it working, it will report all the temperatures your
system reports (including HD temps) and allows you to tweak fan speeds, if
your motherboard is capable of such.  The HD temp sensors usually work
"out-of-the-box" as they are on a different bus than the motherboard
sensors.

73,

  - Aaron, NN6O


-----Original Message-----
From: ham-computers-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:ham-computers-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Philip Atchley
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 11:46 AM
To: Computers
Subject: [Ham-Computers] hard drive cooling


Hi all,

Later this week my new "built to order" PC should arrive.  My first 
TOTALLY new PC in years, I usually build from recycled scrap and update 
as needed ;-)

Anyway, the machine was ordered with two 80GB 7200 RPM SATA hard drives 
(one will be a 'backup' drive).  I suspect that they will run much 
warmer than the older, slower drives I've been using and would like to 
'cool' them a little.

In checking around on what's available I see that there are a LOT of HD 
coolers that have a couple fans and mount to the large surface of the 
drive, often with a heat sink.  Does going "that far" pay off in the 
long term, or would the simpler ones that mount in the front of the 
drive bay and blow cool air from outside the machine over the drives 
suffice?  I'm sure the larger units would be more efficient?


******************************************************
73 de Phil,  KO6BB
If it's over 1dB above the Noise Floor, "IT AIN'T DX"!

THE BEACONEER'S LAIR:  http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/
QSL GALLERY: http://photobucket.com/albums/y123/KO6BB/
Merced, Central California,    37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh

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