Avoid HD failures, KEEP IT COOL!

[vertol]

I think the ( cool the H/D thing is major BS ) Cause ,for one I have tested them every way but loose !

I have at the moment 3 Maxtor (6L300R00's ) 300GB drives sooo close ,I bet you could not stick a

paper in-between them running almost 24/7 Inverted upside down for 27 months now (and guess what shure they get hot .lol)

But if you have good voltage and a great Power Supply ,I would never worry about it ,and I guess I have about 25 H/D that I don't use

anymore from every manufacture (Segate,Western Digital,Maxtor ) no failures ever ....You no why ..They get great voltage ,not cooling.

I use a seperate P/S for H/D's ,Now people are doing that for video cards ,I have used this tecnique since the mid 90's on H/D's and has always

worked and never lost any data.

Edited December 28, 2006 by vertol

[bonestonne]

well, i would agree in a sense, but in all honesty, how many cases have the room for power supply setups like that? i have this dual 300W power supply that gives me 600W total, a pair of 300s....if you look at how the chip is setup, one of the PSU's powers the ATX and AUX connector, the other supply is for the floppy and molex connectors...but i have no case [or way to get a case] large enough to fit that...and also, if i can run a single 300W supply that powers everything plus the fans to cool it, why would i want to do it any differently?

works for some, but i wouldn't say its convenient or plausible for all.

[DL.]

A friend of mine had a number of drives failing in just a few months because of heat (I've seen his case). He's quite stupid since he won't fix the heat problems, but rather keep replacing the drives and trying to find other reasons for the failures.

Putting the HDD:s in a 5.25" slot using something like this or this or a cheaper home made solution using just an ordinary 120 mm fan for cooling and for example this or this to hold the drives will work very good.

A high quality PSU is also very important. Using an UPS is highly recommended.

[bonestonne]

i almost got one of those zalmann hard drive heatpipe coolers, the place i saw them had it for $25, which isn't bad, but i have the fans, and it was an easier fix for me...i would easily recommend it for someone though...the PSU i'm using was brand new just for this system, and it had great reviews, an Enermax, and i decided i might as well give it a go, and its been holding up perfectly. powers this board and all...i had 3 ODD's for a day or two, but then thought it would be easier if i only had 2 at most..

i guess the most important thing i have to say about having case mods, and keeping the thing running well, is that if you aren't showing the thing off actively, keep the cathodes and any other lights off...1) it'll keep their lifespan at max. 2) it will prevent it from taking power away from other much more important parts, and 3) it keeps the case cooler. Cold Cathode lights aren't physically cold...it'll just slowly cook the inside of the case.

[LLXX]

My system has 7 fans and the noise is around 60dB, I don't mind though.

Any noise level that's low enough to not cause permanent hearing damage is fine by me.

i would agree that many fans would make the case loud, but 60dB? i kinda find that a little hard to believe. 72dB causes internal ear damage, 60 isn't that far off. i would say my system, with 10 fans might make it to 35 at the most...but unless you have a 5700RPM 80mm case fan, i doubt that your system is that loud. seemingly 60dB, but working with audio and being a little more realistic, -3dB is where most mp3's are recorded.

Two 6000RPM 80mm ball-bearing fans in the rear (extracting hot air expelled from the CPU heatsink), one 3600RPM 120mm in the front cooling the HDDs (which are heatsinked, as I mentioned above). For the CPU, two 80mm 7200RPM fans on a huge custom-made heatsink, and the last two fans are a pair of 3600RPM 80mm in the PSU.

I've measured it with a sound level meter next to my ear and it's ~60dB; right next to one of the fans gets closer to 70dB.

Edited December 28, 2006 by LLXX

[Jeremy]

That's insane. I think I'll be moving to fanless cooling.

[bonestonne]

i stand corrected...i didn't expect you to have fans like that...in that case, i wouldn't doubt it being pretty loud...

i've seen people using acoustic panelling on the inside of cases [that don't have windows and mods] to damper the sound a lot, thats probably what i would do to that case, but its not mine, so i guess its just my suggestion...this dual processor system is my loudest, i put smaller quieter fans in my other running tower [the celeron] and that was just so it would be quiet when in my room for playing music or something. this one i splurged on..

[Zxian]

Two 6000RPM 80mm ball-bearing fans in the rear (extracting hot air expelled from the CPU heatsink), one 3600RPM 120mm in the front cooling the HDDs (which are heatsinked, as I mentioned above). For the CPU, two 80mm 7200RPM fans on a huge custom-made heatsink, and the last two fans are a pair of 3600RPM 80mm in the PSU.

I've measured it with a sound level meter next to my ear and it's ~60dB; right next to one of the fans gets closer to 70dB.

Good lord... 6000RPM? That's just insane.

I've got 3 fans in my server - two 120mm Nexus fans, and one 80mm SilenX. The Nexus fans are running at 50% (6V) and are completely inaudible. The temperature inside the case stays at a nice cool 27C, and the CPU never goes above 45C. I really don't understand why you'd need that many high speed fans in your system. If you do, then I'd suggest that you try to create a more efficient airflow path.

If you think that quietly cooling high power systems isn't possible, have a look at these two articles. You honestly can't say that there's any excuse to have a system that's that loud.

Superquiet Superclocked DIY Core 2 Duo System

Quiet DIY OC'ed Pentium D 830 System, Part Two

I haven't taken a sound meter to my computer, but comparing it subjectively to some of the stuff over at SPCR's labs, it's probably in the 25dBA range. Let's just say that it's quiet enough so that I don't notice it until I stop doing whatever it is that I'm doing and listen.

@Jeremy - Fanless cooling is usually expensive, and if it fails, you've got no backup whatsoever. You're better off going with the stock 120mm Nexus fans. If you want to control them further, get a decent fan controller, or you can make yourself a simple 7V mod from some spare molex plugs, and run the fan off that.