Temps in mid 40s. Recommend cooling?

D

DeadlyAura

CoalWagen
2FA
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
5,073
Disks:
WD WD900JD 80Gb SATA
Maxtor 200Gb
Maxtor 82Gb

Temps are respectively:
44*C
41*C
43*C

Now, I normally don't like anything in my case touching 40*C, but how will the drives fair?

They are pretty close together and have NO fans near them. Do you guys recommend cooling? If so, what do you recommend? I don't want to shorten my drive life if at all possible.
 
I imagine your PSU and chipset get over 40*C.... I feel like those temps are accesible...
 
I don't know about the PSU, but I'm sure you are right, but all my other temps are at 30*C. I read something in another thread that said though that 20's were great, 30's were good, and anything above 40 is not so good, as far as HDDs go. I don't know how true this is, that is why I was wondering and wondering if there were any ill effects of running at the mid 40's.
 
Dont know about the Western Digital drive but my Maxtors (7200rpm), all 5 (in a asus matx case) running 24/7 sit in the low 30s so I think those may be slightly too high.

Not too serious though so I wouldnt worry to much
 
Does your case have provision for a fan? If so, I'd install one. Doesn't have to be anywhere near full speed, 7V or on a fan controller w/ an 80 or 92mm fan is plenty of air flow to cool drives down, 120mm is almost overkill for three HDDs, but probably a good idea if your case has provision for it.

Every 10C increase in the temperature of your drives doubles the chance of failing. Temps in the low 40s wouldn't make me want to go out and buy a new case, but fans are cheap. Cheaper than the return shipping on RMA'ing a drive, let alone the cost of the downtime and potential data loss.
 
The best option is an add-on fan if your case takes it.

If your case doesn't have cooling provision, you could try an add-on drive bay, e.g. a Thermaltake iCage. These aren't very expensive; need 3 external 5.25" drive bays, and fit 3 3.5" drives within, and provide good cooling. They can be used with many cases.

There are other similar devices, some with greater capacity, some with the same capacity but lower slot requirements, some with built-in filters. But some of these have specific case requirements.

They work great when you have a case with a grill in front, and OK with a case with a door in front.

If you can't just add a fan or a cooling cage, then assuming that you have vents in front of the drives, you could try forcing the airflow through them by increasing the exhaust fan and/or directing the airflow over the drives by closing some other intake vents. This can have a negative effect on your other cooling; it's a trade-off / compromise.
 
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