Harddrive Temps?

T

terminalbmx55

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 26, 2005
Messages
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Do harddrive temps really make a difference? If so how much of a noticable difference? Speed wise?

I have a Western Digital 250GB External and was woundering if any of you guys know of a good temp. monitor that I could use to monitor my externals temps?
 
terminalbmx55 said:
Do harddrive temps really make a difference? If so how much of a noticable difference? Speed wise?

I have a Western Digital 250GB External and was woundering if any of you guys know of a good temp. monitor that I could use to monitor my externals temps?
Click to expand...

I don't think you can monitor an external drive's temperature...

Also, you can't make something go faster by reducing it's temperature... Not even the CPU benefits from lower temperatures, unless they let you OC higher*.

A Temp below 55c is fine, any higher and you risk ruining the drive over time.


* To a certain degree. Temps far below 0c will speed up the charge/discharge time of a transistor, but it's gotta get really, really cold for that.
 
Yes, you can monitor an external drive's temp. Mine shows up fine through speedfan. Look to stay in the 30's or low 40's. Anything above that, and I'd look for a little more airflow to add to the life of your drive.
 
w1retap said:
Yes, you can monitor an external drive's temp. Mine shows up fine through speedfan. Look to stay in the 30's or low 40's. Anything above that, and I'd look for a little more airflow to add to the life of your drive.
Click to expand...

Really?!

Speedfan won't recognize either my External SATA drives or my USB drives...

huh.
 
Speedfan uses S.M.A.R.T monitoring to get temperatures from the hard drives. If your hard drive supports SMART, you can usually get the temperatures from them.

40C seems very high for a hard drive. I don't believe they are designed to run that hot. I would recommend high 20's or low 30's.
 
high 20s is room temp, any hard drive will be hotter then room temp after a few min. i would say anything in the 40s or below is fine, if its warm to the touch thats ok, if you cant hold it for more then a few seconds its too hot.
 
redbull555i said:
Speedfan uses S.M.A.R.T monitoring to get temperatures from the hard drives. If your hard drive supports SMART, you can usually get the temperatures from them.

40C seems very high for a hard drive. I don't believe they are designed to run that hot. I would recommend high 20's or low 30's.
Click to expand...
My Maxtor 200GB, which sits in front of my intake fan, has only seen a low of 34C. My 250GB WD, in a CoolDrive6 normally sees a highs in the mid-40Cs.

-bZj
 
Ok, im ganan try out speedfan and see if it recognizes my external. Do any of you know if the Western Digital Externals support S.M.A.R.T.?
 
Neither of my hdds are external, but I do have a WTF for ya. My ATA 250Gb WD is currently at 32ºC without a fan blowing on it, yet my SATA claims through speedfan (and all other monitoring programs, I've checked) that it's in the 60s. I've laid the problem to rest, as I've checked multiple times, even having other people check with both the palms (and the backs) of their hands to see the difference between the feeling of the two drives, and neither get really warm. I do have a 120mm fan blowing across the SATA to be safe, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it besides a screwy sensor. I've had it for nearly 9 months without trouble, but I was considering getting ahold of WD to see if there's anything they'd do about it. I think I might make my next drive a Seagate or Hitachi.
 
The maximum operating temperature for the IDE WD2500 right beside me is 56'c.

Anything under 50 is fine.

My drives, with good airflow (inside my case) are around 35c.
 
No they don't (so please don't by a cooler for one .lol ) all BS .
I have (over the years ) and now drives inverted all the time ,
and pretty much the worst scenario since 1993 and never
had a from 2mb to 8 at one time 300GB H/D never fail . Maybe
I am lucky ? I invert my H/D upside down (freaks people out)
Whats the thoughts on that ? they get installed always upside down.
Never had a failure ,and I think the run much cooler inverted with a 120mm
fan across them .Smartfan shows my 3 at 32c +- 3 .
 
My Seagate 7200.10 hard drive is running at 25C right now while I am running Orthos

I have the Speedfan thermostat for CPU set at 55C which is higher than I usually do usually I set it at 50. I am testing with a brand new set of memory and letting it get a little hotter to see if it works. and working my overclock back up, this set does better at 4-4-4-12 than the one I had to send back

That is typical for my drives about 25C +/- 2C

8372947_1024.ts1171032177000.jpg
 
My internal HD is running at 34c so I'm fine with that, but I'm very concerned about my external because it is what hold all my files.
 
MOC said:
No they don't (so please don't by a cooler for one .lol ) all BS .
I have (over the years ) and now drives inverted all the time ,
and pretty much the worst scenario since 1993 and never
had a from 2mb to 8 at one time 300GB H/D never fail . Maybe
I am lucky ? I invert my H/D upside down (freaks people out)
Whats the thoughts on that ? they get installed always upside down.
Never had a failure ,and I think the run much cooler inverted with a 120mm
fan across them .Smartfan shows my 3 at 32c +- 3 .
Click to expand...

The PCB is facing up, which allows for better convection cooling of the controller on the bottom.

Upside down is fine.
 
Arcygenical said:
The PCB is facing up, which allows for better convection cooling of the controller on the bottom.

Upside down is fine.
Click to expand...
So, is the PCB what we should be paying attention to for cooling?

MOC said:
No they don't (so please don't by a cooler for one .lol ) all BS .
I have (over the years ) and now drives inverted all the time ,
and pretty much the worst scenario since 1993 and never
had a from 2mb to 8 at one time 300GB H/D never fail . Maybe
I am lucky ? I invert my H/D upside down (freaks people out)
Whats the thoughts on that ? they get installed always upside down.
Never had a failure ,and I think the run much cooler inverted with a 120mm
fan across them .Smartfan shows my 3 at 32c +- 3 .
Click to expand...

Were there any special steps you had to take to mount the drive upside down? How was the spacing in the drive bays with them inverted? One of mine is mounted sideways (see: Silverstone TJ06 hdd cage), so it's not real easy to invert the mounting, unless I mount them in the 5.25 bays (I have 5 total, 3 free).
 
MOC said:
No they don't (so please don't by a cooler for one .lol ) all BS .
I have (over the years ) and now drives inverted all the time ,
and pretty much the worst scenario since 1993 and never
had a from 2mb to 8 at one time 300GB H/D never fail . Maybe
I am lucky ? I invert my H/D upside down (freaks people out)
Whats the thoughts on that ? they get installed always upside down.
Never had a failure ,and I think the run much cooler inverted with a 120mm
fan across them .Smartfan shows my 3 at 32c +- 3 .
Click to expand...

Seriously, one of the hardest posts to read, ever.

-bZj
 
I can read it fine .lol
Newer cases have drive bay inserts that attach to the sides of the drives ,you just invert them before you insert them .
I have 3- 120 mm fans ( 1 in front of the drive bay , 1 in the back of the drive bay ,and 1 in the back (exit) of the case. ) 1- 92 mm on the cpu ,and a slow speed 80mm fan on the ram. All are silent. I have a thermal probe that reads internal air (it's winter ) and it goes back and forth from 84 to 86 Fahrenheit or 28 to 30 C. I just fired up Everest (pc has been on for 18hrs.) and it shows all H/D @ 26C .or 78 Fahrenheit ..not bad
But I still think they can get very hot and have nothing bad happen to them .
The problem I think with most H/D's is a jolt or a drop to the ground something along those lines will shorten it's life .
 
MOC said:
The problem I think with most H/D's is a jolt or a drop to the ground something along those lines will shorten it's life .
Click to expand...

Uh, ya think? :rolleyes: And I have a "newer" case, but the inserts can't simply be inverted. Many cases are different. Many cases have used the same basic chassis (from the NZXT Guardian to the CoolerMaster Centurion 5 where the drive can't simply be inverted, you would have to use 3.5-5.25 adapter rails to a)flip it over so you could b)slide it into an open 5.25 bay. My TJ06 has the hard drives oriented vertically instead of horizontally, so it's not possible, even if i could flip the drive rails to the opposite side of the drive.
 
That's one thing I love about the Eureka, HDD management is simple. I just can't believe it took them that long to figure out there was a problem in the first place.
 
Thanks for the posts guys, I inverted my HD (turned it upsidedown) and it looked like a mess showing the "computer chip", so I ran out to radio shack and got myself an HD cooler! =) works great. My HD now runs at 26c rather then the 29 it was running before.
 
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