How do you keep your Super Lanboy cool?

[feek]

Hey everyone. Now that it's summer my case has been getting hotter than ever. And lately it's been occasionally bluescreening during gaming. I'm thinking that it has to do with heat, and I think the main culprit are the hard drives. Running diagnostics shows that they are over the safe zone, particularly the Raptor.

So I'm curious... how do you guys keep your hard drives cool?? I guess there isn't enough stock airflow, but the biggest problem is that there are only two 5.25 inch bays. So both of mine are occcupied.

Any suggestions, or recommendations for cooling in a 3.5 inch bay?

 

[mavalpha]

Antec 120mm in through the front, variable-speed 120mm at half-speed out the back. Creates a decent amount of airflow, while still silent. For more airflow, turn up the back.

It's funny, though- turn it up too high, and the Antec True480 starts sucking air in through the back rather than expelling it, because the variable fan is so much more powerful than the intake can feed.

 

[Stuey83]

There are three 5.25" drive bays, not two.

How many HDs do you have? I have three, and up until last month, I've been using the stock intake fan without any problems. Recently the case has been kind of naked, so there's no fan at the intake but I still don't have any issues.

If your third 5.25" bay is free, you can mount the HD in a cooler and pop it in. I'm not quite sure what else to sugest. The only other way of increasing airflow in that area that I can think of, is to add a slim fan at either side of the case. I'd recommend adding a slim fan to the windowed side, blowing inwards, but how effective could it possibly be.

If you're not using all 4 of your HD trays, remove the unused trays. OR move your less frequently used drive(s) to your front-facing 3.5" mounts and remove the trays from their previous slots. But then again, this will increase airflow through the case, but there might not be any difference in airflow with regard to the HDs.

It's a gamble imo.

 

[feek]

Haha, I don't know how I thought there were two 5.25 inch bays. I hardly ever look at it with the door open, I gues that's why. The questions still stand, though.

You guys don't have trouble keeping the case cool? I guess I could put one of the two HDs in the 5.25 inch bay with a cooler. Any recommendations on 5.25 or preferably 3.5 inch coolers?

I also have the Antec Neopower2 480watt, and the case fans are being controlled by it, could that be part of the problem? Maybe it's not doing something right and the fans aren't spinning fast enough? They're dead quiet that's for sure.
I also don't have a blowhole on the top of it, which the Neopower seems designed for. Is that a problem? I've been meaning to cut one into the case just to be safe.

 

[Stuey83]

If I'm not mistaken, the Neopower has a 12cm fan which should be facing the inside of the case.

With two HDs, you shouldn't be having issues. What I would do is put the raptor in the topmost or 2nd topmost slot, and the other HD two slots below it. Remove the unused trays as I suggested.

Unless you have a lot of wires blocking the airflow between the intake and the HDs, you shouldn't have heat issues. Also, is the PSU controlling the intake and exhaust fans, or are the fans connected to the "fan only" connector. Try hooking the fans up to the motherboard or a regular molex and see if there's any difference. If the system is too cool, and the PSU is controlling fan speed, it might be underpowering the intake, which could lead to overheating HDs.

Are you *SURE* that the heat issues are with your HDs and not other components? If it's possible, take a photo of your system with the side panel removed, and list all the major components of your system. At the very least, this might be a good time to de-dust the system as perhaps dust accumulation might be the culprit.

Hold off a little bit on the blowhole until you know exactly where greater airflow is needed.