PC Peripherals placing 80mm fan above HDD

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Trajan

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I have a 200GB Seagate PATA baracuda... It reaches temp of 44 during heavy HDD usage and usually stays at ~41c. Now if the temp in summer is high the temp is bound to cross 45 which is the maximum recommended by Seagate...

i thought of placing a 80mm fan (local one) some 3-4cm above the HDD so tat air is blown over the top of the HDD... Is this a good setup? is there anyother recomendation?

also i am planning to fix the fan to the side panel to which HDD is also connected... there is going to be some vibration from the fan... will this affect the HDD???
 
itsmevivek said:
Does cooling HDD require cooling on both sides of the HDD or is the top side alone sufficient?
Click to expand...

I bought a few cheap HDD coolers which attach to the bottom of the HDD for about 250/- ..... the HDD temp came down around 10C !! But these fans throw a lot of dust on the HDD - I found I needed to clean the HDD once a month. If you find a HDD fan that blows air away from the HDD then get that one - I have one of these type.

This is the one available locally - it was cheaper on ebay than Lamington Road Mumbai :( ...it blows air onto the HDD :(

http://www.titan-cd.com/eng/hdd/hd12.htm

BY the way the HDD coolers which come in a tray form and are inserted into 5.25" drive bays are a waste of money. they cool the HDD max 1 or 2C and cost over 1500/-
 
@Hacker - About 2 years back I paid Prime 300/- and the next day saw on Ebay a guy from Coimbatore selling them for 225/- :( Check in Ebay if this guy from Coimbatore is still selling them - he seemed to have a lot of these. Remember to clean the HDD regularly if you attach this fan - it really throws a lot of dust onto the HDD. I use it only in Summer to keep HDD temps low.

@zhopudey - you can use the freeeware Sensor View.... http://www.stvsoft.com/
 
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i have a couple of 80mm fans lying around... so thought of using them rather than buying a HDD cooler... anyway thanks for the links Eazy

On which side of the HDD cooling reqd? i was under the impression that cooling was sufficient on the top of the HDD... correct me if i am wrong...

and will the vibrations of the fan affect the HDD?
 
itsmevivek said:
i have a couple of 80mm fans lying around... so thought of using them rather than buying a HDD cooler... anyway thanks for the links Eazy

On which side of the HDD cooling reqd? i was under the impression that cooling was sufficient on the top of the HDD... correct me if i am wrong...

and will the vibrations of the fan affect the HDD?
Click to expand...

a 80mm fan if placed above or below a HDD will make the HDD have a layer of dust in a couple of weeks !! :( If you do use an 80mm fan then try it with 7v supply this will reduce the air flow but it will still be sufficient to cool the HDD. If you dont know this - 7v is got by using the +12 from a molex connector connected to the + wire of the fan and the +5 from the molex connected to the - wire of the fan.

I always cool the bottom of the HDD and that seems to work fine for me. The HDD coolers have mounting arrangement for placing below the HDD.

This may interest you - untill last week the room Temps here in Mumbai used to give me 30C for CPU and CASE as well as HDDs .... since yesterday the room temp has gone up and my CPU is now at 32 and my case is the same ... BUT... the HDDs are up to 37C on idle !!! :O Very soon I will have to connect the HDD coolers. :(

Most fans are quite vibration free - I have 2 120mm ball bearing fans attached to the sides of my HDD cage and there is hardly any vibration felt on touching the cage or the HDDs. But if the fans bearings are worn out and there is vibration than I would worry about it. I think Ball bearing fans should vibrate less than sleeve bearing fans.
 
@Eazy -- whch wire is +12v and which is +7v in the molex connector? can you please give details abt all the 4 wires?

I got those fans for 70-80.. so i think they wud be sleeve bearing fans... will try getting ball bearing ones... are ball bearing fans costly?

@Nikil - try everest home edition... it seems to be accurate...
 
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itsmevivek said:
@Eazy -- whch wire is +12v and which is +7v in the molex connector? can you please give details abt all the 4 wires?
I got those fans for 70-80.. so i think they wud be sleeve bearing fans... will try getting ball bearing ones... are ball bearing fans costly?
Click to expand...
+12v = YELLOW
+5v = RED

connect + of fan to Yellow and - of fan to RED and the fan will run at 7v.

Last time I checked 80mm ball bearing fans were about 150/- to 200/- each .... that was a couple of years back. If you are going to buy a ball bearing fan for cooling the HDD then think about buying the Titan HDD cooler instead - this will cool the drives quite well.

I prefer using Sensor View over Everest as when Sensor View is run it parks itself in the systray and shows the CPU temp there constantly - One click and all the temps and voltages pop up. Good for keeping track of stuff.
 
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itsmevivek said:
i have a couple of 80mm fans lying around... so thought of using them rather than buying a HDD cooler... anyway thanks for the links Eazy

On which side of the HDD cooling reqd? i was under the impression that cooling was sufficient on the top of the HDD... correct me if i am wrong...

and will the vibrations of the fan affect the HDD?
Click to expand...
cheap and dirty recipe:
2 cocktail toothpicks (long ones)
some blue tack
1 80mm cooler

insert the toothpicks into the mounting holes of the fan (diagonal arrangement). put generous amounts of blue tack on the ends of each tooth pick and place it into your case directly below the hdd. works like a charm for me...
 
vinitwins said:
cheap and dirty recipe:
2 cocktail toothpicks (long ones)
some blue tack
1 80mm cooler

insert the toothpicks into the mounting holes of the fan (diagonal arrangement). put generous amounts of blue tack on the ends of each tooth pick and place it into your case directly below the hdd. works like a charm for me...
Click to expand...

Any pictures ?
 
Eazy said:
Any pictures ?
Click to expand...

ugh, gimme a few days for the pix - all my old pcs that have this crude hack are in a rack on the floor below my study table - there's 5 of them and it's a 'pain in the ass' to physically access them (pun intended!)

V
 
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