Hadrdiak running at 50 celcius - normal ?

gilwe · #1 April 5th, 2005, 02:45 PM

DTemp detects about 50 degrees (celcius) as the temp of my 80GB WD harddrives. Is that a safe temperature for them ?

**Steve R Jones** · #2 April 5th, 2005, 03:00 PM

Quick search on www.wdc.com found this:

"The normal operating range for WD SCSI drives is 41 to 131 degrees Fahrenheit. Ensure that your system has adequate cooling to maintain this range. This may require forced air-cooling to meet specified operating temperatures."

Would imagine this would apply to all their drives.

**Justintime** · #3 April 5th, 2005, 07:30 PM

Too hot, would like my hdds around 30-35C optimum, life would be heavily in jeoprady and degraded when run constantly @ 50C

**jankerson** · #4 April 5th, 2005, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Justintime
Too hot, would like my hdds around 30-35C optimum, life would be heavily in jeoprady and degraded when run constantly @ 50C

Yes for IDE and SATA drives that is too hot, check your case temps as your HD temps are directly related to your case temp.

Get your case temp down to around 30C and you will be fine.

Dan W · #5 April 5th, 2005, 07:59 PM

That particuliar drive may run really hot. I have that in my system and after it's been running (not doing anything) it is very hot to the touch compared to my other ones. I can keep my finger on it but it's uncomfortably hot to keep doing so.

**jankerson** · #6 April 5th, 2005, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dan W
That particuliar drive may run really hot. I have that in my system and after it's been running (not doing anything) it is very hot to the touch compared to my other ones. I can keep my finger on it but it's uncomfortably hot to keep doing so.

Thats not good at all.

Have you thought about getting a fan and having it blow air across your drives?

Dan W · #7 April 5th, 2005, 08:39 PM

I've thought about it, I'd probably ahve to mod the case somehow though. The other drives feel warm so I think they are ok, just that drive.

**jankerson** · #8 April 5th, 2005, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dan W
I've thought about it, I'd probably ahve to mod the case somehow though. The other drives feel warm so I think they are ok, just that drive.

There isn't a place in the front of the case to mount a fan? Most cases are fan ready there.

Dan W · #9 April 5th, 2005, 11:46 PM

There is a slot for a fan to be placed near the bottom but I don't think there is one in front of the hard drives. As for the bottom slot I do plan on ordering a 80mm fan for that I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I think I'll do that when I get home tonight come to think of it and I'll check in front of the drives too.

**jankerson** · #10 April 5th, 2005, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dan W
There is a slot for a fan to be placed near the bottom but I don't think there is one in front of the hard drives. As for the bottom slot I do plan on ordering a 80mm fan for that I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I think I'll do that when I get home tonight come to think of it and I'll check in front of the drives too.

Sounds good, your drives are up high in your case then?

Not at the bottom where the fan would be?

Dan W · #11 April 6th, 2005, 12:39 AM

They are about mid level just below the floppy drive. The fan place is just below the drives but it would not blow directly on them, just into the case. I checked and ther really is no place to put a fan so that it will blow directly on the drives. Should I perhaps remove the hot WD one? Also I did finally order a case fan for the bottom slot to blow into the case.

gilwe · #12 April 6th, 2005, 05:26 AM

Thanks, I'll place two fand in there. These are 3 WD drives of the same model... all running 45-50@

Skywlkr79 · #13 April 6th, 2005, 06:48 AM

For anyone that's got a hot drive in a 5.25" bay, I used to have THIS on my last machine. Worked great, and didn't make too much fan noise (a little vibration against the case that was easily fixable though).

I turned the fans around so that they blew out instead of in. That made a major difference in all my system temps.

I just added 2 more drives (4 total) and they're freaking hot. Painful to touch. Didn't realize it until the system completely shut down saying unable to read drives. Now I have 2 80mm fans stuck to the front of the case blowing right onto the drives. They're very cool now.

**jankerson** · #14 April 6th, 2005, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Should I perhaps remove the hot WD one?

I would go ahead and leave it for now.

Professur · #15 April 6th, 2005, 03:14 PM

As Sky mentionned, you really have to pay attention to the air direction in the case. Slapping fans in willy nilly risks making the problem worse instead of better. I've seen a PS fan mounted (****ing air out of the case) right over a CPU fan (drawing air down over the HS. The PS fan was starving the CPU fan, and causing overheats. But when checked, all the fans were working, weren't they. I was the third tech to look at the system, and the user was ready to start shooting.

One other thing to watch is your cable routing. If you're not using round cables, try to fold them so that they're either out of the way, or edge on to the airflow.

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