Fan and hard drive question

[hougtimo]

Right,

I recently built myself a new machine. It is housed in an Antec Superlanboy case, and I am just wandering where it would be best to put my hard drive.

In the diagram, The red oval is where there is a 120mm case fan, the blue dot is where my hard drive currently is, and the gree dt is where im thinking of moving it too.

Would it be better off in the middle of the hard drive enclosure, or is it ok where it is?

THanks

Tim

[thomasd]

My opinion, place it, where you put the green dot.

You will then get airflow on both the upper and lower side of the drive.

Cooler drive, longer lifetime..........

[trickytwista]

yep i agree, put it close to the fan

[hougtimo]

Thought so....will do that now then

[puntoMX]

Put it one step lower or higher, so you will have more airflow there. Remember the rotor? You will only get airflow from the blades .

[LLXX]

Unless it's a 10000RPM+ drive, it doesn't need that much cooling. The case already acts as a huge heatsink for it, and as long as there is some airflow it will be fine.

[Aegis]

I don't recommend it. Keep it where it is. The hard drives will be cooled, but the air rushing past will warm up and increase the temperature for the rest of your computer.

[puntoMX]

I don't recommend it. Keep it where it is. The hard drives will be cooled, but the air rushing past will warm up and increase the temperature for the rest of your computer.

....

... Explain that to me...

[ripken204]

I don't recommend it. Keep it where it is. The hard drives will be cooled, but the air rushing past will warm up and increase the temperature for the rest of your computer.

....

... Explain that to me...

he's right. but its not like it will make a big difference. thats one of the things that i like about my case, hdd temp is compltely away from the rest of the system. but again, it wont make a big difference, especially with 1 drive. now say he had 3-4 raptors... that would create alot of heat and would raise the system temp.

[Zxian]

I'd say move the drive as puntoMX said. Sure, you might raise the temperature of the incoming air by... 0.5C, maybe 1C, but that's not going to kill the rest of your system. On the other hand, it will help your hard drive.

[Delprat]

Put it one step lower or higher, so you will have more airflow there. Remember the rotor? You will only get airflow from the blades .

This is funny... Are you meaning that the airflow could, in all or at least some circumstances, pass through the drive ?

My opinion is "the green dot" (in summer) and "the blue dot" (in winter)

Using another place will block the incoming airflow, making more noise with less cooling

And add another fan in the rear panel, unless the PSU gives a very efficient outgoing airflow.

To get the best best cooling, invert all your fans (including the one(s) in the PSU, but excluding the CPU, chipset and graphics board ones), invert your optical drives, and invert your case. That's ugly too see the bottom of the case, but it works (unless you use a bad-quality PSU, it may overheat your CPU). (note : the secondary fan on the rear panel is mandatory)

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Edited September 14, 2006 by Delprat

[Andromeda43]

As the hard drives have been made faster over the past 26 years, they have also run at higher rpm's and as a result generate more heat.

After years of replacing hard drives for myself and my customers, I've finally come up with a solution to drives in confined spaces overheating.

First off, you need to keep that 7200 rpm drive as cool as possible. NO case fan will do that.

I've done extensive work in an 'airflow' lab while at Caterpillar Tractor Co. in the early 80's, so I do have some professional background in this topic.

Here's my answer to drive cooling:

The 1/4" brass spacers are mandatory. They are the same ones used to support a MOBO in a case.

They must also have course threads to screw into the holes on the bottom of the HD.

Now, how to mount this assembly. Well you can do this:

Notice the tab that's had to be bent out right under the left drive mounting screw in this picture.

No biggie!

or you can even do this:

This is my own SATA drive in an upper 5.25" drive bay. My backup drive is shown above in a lower bay.

Both drives stay at room temperature. I don't use case fans,,,,, I just don't close up my case.

Just a little imagination and minimal expertise can go a long way towards keeping a HD cool and running at peak performance. There's no black magic or great expense involved at all.

Those little drive coolers can be had for about $10 ea.

Some cleaning and re-oiling twice a year, keeps them running smoothly.

I use a hypodermic needle and some fine machine oil, to inject a drop or two of oil into the bearing cavity on the back of the fans.

Good Luck and thank you for this opportunity to offer my own experience in this matter,

Andromeda43

Edited September 14, 2006 by Andromeda43

[puntoMX]

Put it one step lower or higher, so you will have more airflow there. Remember the rotor? You will only get airflow from the blades .

This is funny... Are you meaning that the airflow could, in all or at least some circumstances, pass through the drive ?

If the fan is stong enough it will , did you smoke some and got it from Holland?

No for real, air dos not come from the center of the fan, it comes from the radius of the blades, so if you use a fan it would be better to NOT put it in the middle of the fan. The CoolDrive Andromeda43 uses are nice but a bit noisy. Also putting the drive directly on the place with the most airflow will make a few dBA more.

EDIT: Why don´t we try it out .

Edited September 14, 2006 by puntoMX

[LLXX]

7200RPM drives do not need any additional cooling when properly installed in a metal case with good airflow.

10000+ RPM drives such as WD Raptors etc. do need a dedicated fan as they produce much more heat.

Keep your drive where it is, anywhere in that area of the case is fine.

[Delprat]

If the fan is stong enough it will , did you smoke some and got it from Holland?

No for real, air dos not come from the center of the fan, it comes from the radius of the blades, so if you use a fan it would be better to NOT put it in the middle of the fan. The CoolDrive Andromeda43 uses are nice but a bit noisy. Also putting the drive directly on the place with the most airflow will make a few dBA more.

The smoke may have allowed you to see that :

- if the drive is on the green dot, incoming airflow passes up and down the drive

- if the drive is one step higher or one step lower, incoming airflow passes only up or down, and most important, is reduced (less smoke gets in)

Since air does not come from the rotor, it seems better to me to have the drive in front of the rotor. Like LLXX wrote, the metal case takes an important part of the drive's heat, so cooling the case up and down the drive is as important as cooling the drive itself. Sending the airflow directly to the drive (like you say) is nearly useless because top and bottom parts of the drive's case are already the coolest ones.

That's the setup i use since years with two 80mm fans, and the HD at the rotor's level ; unlike Hougtimo's case, mine is made with same drive orientation as on the second Andromeda photo and only about 1/6 of the "blades radius" is "blocked" by the drive. I have two more 80mm fans on the rear panel, these four are at 5V instead of 12V (no noise), and the reduced airflow is sufficient enough to make the thermal controlled PSU fan silent.

For real, fans are cheap and the device Andromeda presented us is cheap also..

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