[Mr.Radar]

System: 28 *C
CPU: 41 *C
HDD1: 45 *C

System specs:
Motherboard: ABIT NF7-S v.2 with onboard everything and a Vantec Iceberq A1C copper northbridge cooler & a passive southbridge heatsink
CPU: AMD AthlonXP 2500+ "Barton" AQYHA 0347 underclocked to 1.47 GHz @ 1.35 volts (36 watts heat output!)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright SLK-947U w/ Panflo 92mm H1A (set to about 7 volts)
RAM: 512 Meg Kingston ValueRam PC2700 (crappiest RAM ever) @ 133MHz/2-2-2-11/2.6v
Case: Superflower SF-701 w/ 2x Generic exhaust fans (turned off) & 3x 80mm Panaflo H1As (2 front intakes set to about 6 and one side intake set to about 7 volts)
Power supply: Fortron FSP350-60BN 350w PSU (with the only exhaust fan in case, usually at low-medium speed)
Hard drive: Seagate 200 gig 7200 RPM UltraATA100 [ST3200822A]
Optical drive: Verbaitum DVD+ Producer 4/2.4/16 16/8/32 DVD+RW/CD-RW (Re-branded NEC 1100A)
Video card: Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro @ Pro (430/378 max) XT FLASHED! w/ stock cooler (I used to have a Rev. 2 VGA Silencer cooler but its fan died a smokey death about a month ago)
Sound card: EMU 0404

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saturnine Eh, it only screwed up one time out of a hundred. I know people who have used it hundreds of times and havent had a single error.

yeah, only problem is that if you have alot of data on your HD, then it takes a painfully long time to create/rearrange partitions

 

[JWFokker]

Yep. Delete or backup as much stuff as possible, then defragment the hell out of that drive. One pass with Windows integrated defrag won't do it. Try three or four times. Or you could try Diskeeper, as it does a much better, though still not flawless job. Usually one pass is 90-95% good with Diskeeper, if you have a drive fragment OCD or something, twice will usually do it completely.

Just make sure you set it to move data forward on the drive. That makes Partition Magic's job a lot easier.

 

[sgrossklass]

Hard drives are best kept at 40-45°C at most, preferably lower (somewhere in the 30s is near perfect; something beyond 45°C would be too hot for my taste, and 50°C and above definitely is - if a drive is spec'd for 55 or 60°C maximum this still doesn't mean you should run it near these temps for any extended length of time, as reliability is very likely to suffer). This is real temp, of course, temp sensors included may not always be accurate. (Samsungs tend to be a bit on the low side, while some Maxtors may have insanely high readings. Maxtors also tend to be on the warmish side in terms of real temp, while even WD is using reasonably cool FDB motors these days (Samsung and IBMtachi have been for a while longer) - check out the SPCR drive reviews for the power consumption data.)

I cannot provide any realtime read-out temps because Promise still have to rewrite their controller drivers to allow SMART readout in Server 2003 and XP SP2, but my SV0802N (in a modestly ventilated spot) used to hover around 35°C and the Deskstar T7K250 (in a better ventilated location) is only moderately warm either (with a 45°C lifetime maximum, probably when it still was outside the comp and not yet cooled).
When I still had an 18 gig Cheetah 36ES where the T7K250 sits now, this was a bit hotter running, closer to 45°C I'd say - not too surprising given a spec'd power dissipation of 10.0 W in idle. (This was the quietest 10k rpm drive for years until the Raptors came along. It came out together with the Barracuda ATA IV and Cheetah X15 36LP and like these also used FDBs which at the time still meant noticeably higher power dissipation. The progress made in those bearings is illustrated very nicely when looking at the next generation 15k drive, the Cheetah 15K.3. Here the 4 platter top model dissipates 12.5 W vs. 12.4 W on the 2-platter and 10krpm 36ES. Incidentally, Seagate was the first HD manufacturer to use FDBs, with the first drive using them being the infamous 7200 rpm Medalist Pro in 1998, at the same time being the first 7200 rpm IDE drive. These ran really hot - 12.3 W heat dissipation idle for the 4-platter 9 gig top model in the Narrow SCSI incarnation - and dropped like flies. I guess it was a combination of the considerable power dissipation - IDE drives had rarely needed cooling before, so Joe User crammed those into thermally questionable places - and /possibly/ bearing leakage. It took Seagate 3 years to launch another FDB equipped drive, this time with success. This is noteworthy as the only other manufacturer to have FDB drives available before this was Fujitsu with the MPG series, which didn't fare too well either, if for unrelated reasons.)

The external Seagate 300 and 400 giggers were known for overheating, btw. You'd get intermittent shutdowns of the drive, caused by an overheating motor driver triggering an emergency shutdown. It is to be hoped that they fixed this by now.

 

[bundee1]

Thanks for the history lesson and comfortable ranges Sgrossklass, it was very helpful.

 

[Alu]

Around 40, mostly under 40, all 4 of 'em.

Cooling done with only 1 nexus 120mm case fan and 1 120er in the seasonic super tornado psu. In the antec sonata case. Quite noiseless, cool, cheap, and comfy.

 

[bundee1]

Im going to see if I can switch all the little fans for 120mm ones where I can fit them. The exhaust fan will definitely switch the one in between the face and the hard drive grill will have to stay and the one exhausting the second hd will have to switch if I can. Thanks guys!

 

[petery83]

Hard drive: 43°C
Room temp: 28°C

There's a 120mm Nexus fan in front of the hard drive, with no other case fans.

 

[Skipinder]

Maxtor 120gb = 31°C
WD 120gb = 30°C
Case: 25°C
CPU = 43°C
Room = 23°C

Cooling

CPU: Tt Silent Boost
Case: 4-80mm Vantec Stealth
2-120mm Vantec Stealth

 

[Jasper994]

HD 0 - 41C (Maxtor 60GB)
HD 1 - 27C (Maxtor 120GB)
HD 2 - 30C (Seagate 160GB)
HD 3 - 29C (Maxtor 120GB)

Using a CoolerMaster ATC-S 201 case with Antec 350W PSU.

Room Temp ~24C
CPU Temp 45C

You're kinda pushin' it with that 51C drive but the 40C shouldn't be a big deal.

 

[Jasper994]

Quote:

Originally Posted by petery83 There's a 120mm Nexus fan in front of the hard drive, with no other case fans.

Geez!!! no wonder your computer was so quiet...

 

[Kram Sacul]

What's with the concern over HDD temperatures? It's a computer, not a pet. You use it, not worry about it. If anything will overheat and blow up first it will be my P4 Prescott, which hovers around 50c most of the time. It's built for the heat though so it can take it. I'm more concerned over the fan making noise.

 

[sgrossklass]

A hard drive is a complex electromechanical part that's just about as high-tech as your average CPU, yet gets far less attention. It must not become as hot as a pure semiconductor part such as a processor (the latter is allowed to reach almost 70°C, HDs only 55-60°C), and it contains Your Valuable Data[tm]. If keeping your drives at a sufficiently low temp allows making use of the Backups of Your Value Data (BOYVD[tm]) less often or at least increases the Peace-of-Mind (POM[tm]) factor, you've already won something. Besides, it is a good idea to check HD temps if you've managed to reduce noise emissions - it may happen that the comp is dead silent but the components inside are cooking due to near-zero airflow (and there's other stuff as well that doesn't like that in the long term, such as electrolytics). Yup, I once managed to "optimize" the airflow in such a way that warm air accumulated inside the case - Not Good[tm]. Turned around my case/HDD fan, and all was well (and incidentally still is).

 

[Little J040]

Mines at 50C ouch!

 

[bundee1]

Whats more effective in close proximity to the fan; exhausting hot air away or blowing cool air onto it?

Im thinking of something like this:

Case faceplate>>>Cool air>>>80MMintake fan on front of case>>>MUSIC HD (currently 40C)>>>PRIMARY HD (currently 51C)>>>120MMexhaust fan>>> 120MMexhaust case fan.