How hot should a HDD be?

[HighwayAssassins]

I have 2x Maxtor 120GB SATA drives in Raid 0. I noticed today that they are warm-to-hot to touch when idle in bios...and hot after a few min of gaming they were hot. Is that abuot normal? They werent too hot to keep my hand on them.

 

[Dark Ember]

Yes, that sounds normal. Drives warm up pretty good after working for a while. I've had a few older SCSI drives that I could barely touch after they had been working for a while.

You should be able to check the SMART thresholds and see how hot the drive is running. If its getting near 60C, then you might want to consider some method of cooling it.

after a quick google search, this looks like it might fit the bill:

http://www.santools.com/smartmon.html

There were a ton of google entries that came up when searching for "SMART Monitor," so you should have a plethora of options.

 

[scottatwittenberg]

i use everest and speedfan to see how hot my drives are.. both programs are free and easy to fnid in a google search

 

[unhappy_mage]

I've had a few older SCSI drives that I could barely touch after they had been working for a while.

That brings back memories... I had a raid 5 array of 4gb disks and an external power supply sitting on the floor in the basement of my house. Even touching the cold ground, those things got hot enough to fry the proverbial egg.

As long as they're at or under 50C, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Move the disks so there's space between them, and get a fan blowing over them, if they're hotter than that.

 

[DougLite]

While a human's senses are a good judge of heat, they are a poor judge of temperature. The drive's metal top conducts heat rapidly into your hand, giving the appearance of it being very 'hot.' Obviously, if it is warm to the touch, then it is hotter than your body temp, but I would use a program that monitors the SMART temperature sensor (such as the aforementioned Speedfan and Everest Home) to get an idea of how hot they really get. Ideally, you will keep them under 40C, although the drives should be ok up to 50C. Anything over 50 is risking failure, and they will probably not work at all at 60 or above.

 

[BossNoodleKaboodle]

my hard drive has been running slower than usual it seems and it's been since ive been using it in a small form factor case. its at 45C and the worst temp its been up to is 52C. its got to be mounted upside down in this particular case and i'm wondering why it seems to crunch away so much and takes so long to defrag now.

 

[Eagle_Eye]

heat is bad for drives the coller they can run the longuer they will last..


yet you cannot expect HDD to last for ever.

i myslef use ultimate HD Coolers
with a little bit of cpu past between heatsynch and alluminum top side of drive.


so far soo good with my setup..

lookup on google hard drive coolers.

 

[Ice Czar]

as a very broad rule of thumb
Each 10°C (18°F) temperature rise reduces component life by 50%
Conversely, each 10°C (18°F) temperature reduction increases component life by 100%.
thats the jist of the Arrhenius Equation and applies to mechanical devices as well a semiconductors, of course there is a minimum temperature mechanical devices need inorder to function too low and its contracted so much clearences are too tight.

there are of course other variables involved, thermal stress is one that comes to mind with HDDs, ideally the smaller the rate of change from being up and running to being down and "cold"

thats also one of the reasons SCSI HDDs have a reputation for higher reliability
they are better made (generally and certainly in the past) but they where also typically always spun up and had a very consistent thermal environment

so basically avoid extremes as well as "peak" temperatures if you can



http://www.odyseus.nildram.co.uk/Systems_And_Devices_Files/Component Reliability Tutorial.pdf

 

[dano1122]

you use a heatsink for your hard drive?

 

[dandragonrage]

All my drives stay well under 40C, often under 30C, including my SCSI drives. I have active cooling on them but it's nothing amazing, maybe 30CFM.

 

[Ice Czar]

you use a heatsink for your hard drive?

you have three possible components to any thermal solution

increase the heat transfer interface
decrease the ambient
increase the transfer medium to time

cut and paste
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
here are three basic components to any thermal solution:
the heat transfer interface
(in this case the heatsinks total area)

the heat transfer medium's volume\pressure to time
(in this case airflow, with additional variables like airflow resistance)

and the temperature differential
(where using cooler air has a huge impact)
while the efficiency\bearing friction of a given HDD will determine the high side of a temperature differential, by employing a cooler airstream you have the option to lower the lower side of the differential

a real good computer oriented guide to thermodynamics
General Heat Transfer Guide

Heat transfer is all about temperature differentials. Conduction through materials and convection away from surfaces is proportional to the temperature differential that exists. Basically the thermal resistance of a given solution changes with the temperature differential, which is why thermal solutions are rated in °C/W which leaves that variable ambient open but gives you a formula

The heat transfer through the wall follows a simple equation:
Q=k/L(T1-T2)

We can draw some interesting conclusions from this equation. First, heat transfer is proportional to the temperature difference on the object. If the temperature differential doubles, the heat transferred doubles. Second, the conduction coefficient "k" is proportional to heat transfer. If the conduction coefficient doubles, the heat transfer doubles Alternatively, for the same differential temperature, twice as much heat may be transferred. The final observation is "L". As thickness increases, heat transfer decreases. Alternatively, to maintain the same heat transfer through a material twice as thick requires twice the temperature differential.

while that addresses conductance, there is a corrallary for convection (transfer from the heatsink to a fluid (air\water\ect)
its known as Newton's Law of Cooling

and some fan linkage

Air Flow Vs. Pressure Characteristics
Parallel & Series Operation
Stall of Axial Flow Fans

Basic Fan Laws
How to measure Airflow vs Pressure
How to Achieve Low Noise
Accoustic Noise
EMI
Introduction: Forced Convection Cooling
How to select the right fan or blower
Step 1: The Total Cooling Requirements
Step 2: Total System Resistance / System Characteristic Curve
Step 3: System Operating Point[/QUOTE]

 

[draksia]

Most typical hard drives a designed to kept under 50 degrees for the stated MTBF and under 60 degrees always.

Basically though you want to keep the drive as cool as possible for the best life.

 

[dandragonrage]

leave it to Ice to give us more info than we ever wanted to know (or read, anyway)

 

[Ice Czar]

well....some questions have been asked before

and I did start out here in OC&C

of course air isnt the only solution

http://www.themodfathers.jolt.co.uk/?page=&action=show&id=9490

Now let's start by looking at the objects that we are cooling here, hard drives. Now not all coolers for hard drives are actually that well designed, nor do they cool the parts that need it. Some hard drive coolers operate by clamping to the top lid of your hard drive to remove the heat from the disk and spindle area.

In reality this is totally wrong and really does more harm than good. The top of your hard drive has a small breather hole that allows the expanding gasses out of your hard drives when it gets hot, and back in when it cools. Blocking this hole really is a major no no and should be avoided.

In fact hard drives are made with their own heat spreader and that is the heavy black base. This also is the area of those controllers that used to fry on the IBMs causing many a tale of woe. Therefore the area of greatest contact on the base is the area that you want to target. This surprisingly is the sides.