How Hot do HD's Get

[Linkin Park]

Hi, i was just looking around in my case today and i touched the Metal top part of my Western digital 120gig SATA HD and it was hot. I cant even touch it for more then 5 seconds. Is it normal or do i need to get some sort of HD cooling. BTW this is in a room thats 74 degrees with the side of my case off

 

[Visable-assassin]

MBM reported one time my seagate 160gb drive hit 174f which I highly doubt...but ill go ahead and assume the average drive depending on use and cooling will run 95-100f all day long...i may be wrong tho

 

[arDAWG]

I have cooling on all of mine, but the WD 120JB in my wife's computer (w/ a Vantec cooler) shows ~25C w/ SpeedFan. The Vantec unit is nice w/ a 1 drive/ non-RAID setup. I have been an hd cooler advocate since the 7.2K drives arrived on the scene. I always felt they ran hot & needed, @ least, a fan blowing on them (the slimline Zalman 80mm fan would be ideal for this). I have yet to encounter any of the 10K Raptor drives, but I would be willing to bet they would toast bread...

 

[AgentQ]

The operating temperature of hard drives varies greatly. The hard drive reviews on www.storagereview.com have temperature measurements at the end, you may want to check that out.

 

[Sanitarium]

They get HOT if not cooled properly. Get a fan on there if you want it to last.