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Hard drive cooling fan?

  • 04-07-2012 5:34pm
    #1
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,781 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    hey guys, noob questions here I would appreciate help with. I have a self build PC which I nearly had a disaster last week with a drive dying on me. I'm told its best to keep the hard drives cool - and there does not seem to be much airflow etc going on inside my pc - so I want to put in a fan in a spare bay between two hard drives to get more airflow. Can anyone suggest what I should get - would something like one of these do the job? Preferably something quiet...

    I found a few on ebay: http://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=hard+drive+fan but I'm not sure what is good or bad!Any recommendations?

    Also, my apartment is pretty dusty, I give my pc a hoover out every once in a while as the heat syncs on the cpu etc get pretty dusty. Is this something that I should be worrying about?

    Thanks


Comments

  • #2
    ED E
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,170 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    I have 4 HDDs sitting in a stack in my case, like touching. They get warm...but not mega hot. How hot are they reading?


    I'd be more inclined to work on overall airflow rather than just trying between the gap. Its grand moving the air between them but if the ambient inside the case is pretty warm already it wont be that effective.


  • #3
    Cuddlesworth
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,012 ✭✭✭✭Cuddlesworth


    Hard-drive failure is kinda luck of the draw.

    "and there is less correlation between drive temperature and failure rates than might have been expected, and drives that are cooled excessively actually fail more often than those running a little hot"


  • #4
    cherryghost
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 17,137 Mod ✭✭✭✭cherryghost


    Just out of interest, can you post pics of the inside of the PC?


  • #5
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,781 Mod ✭✭✭✭Zascar


    Thanks for that, very interesting. As I said I really don't know much about this but I was told proper cooling is important. It's a low spec pc but does me fine as all I do is basic stuff.

    Here is a photo:

    IMAG0535.jpg

    Is it ok as is?

    This is my pc spec from hardwareversande:

    4GB-KIT Mushkin Silverline Stiletto PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24
    AMD Athlon II X3 445 "Boxed" 95W, Sockel AM3
    ASRock M3A770DE, Sockel AM3, ATX
    Club 3D HD5450 1024MB, ATI Radeon HD5450, PCI-Express
    Samsung SH-223C bare schwarz SATA
    Super-Flower SF500P12P 500W
    Xigmatek Asgard, ATX, ohne Netzteil, schwarz

    I have a new Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200 drive and an old WD 160gb for the OS


    The only thing I can think of is the fan at the front - in front of where the hard drives are, gets clogged with dust, I wipe it away but it kinda gets jammed in the mesh. Right now I just keep the side off...


  • #6
    ED E
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,170 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    Zascar wrote: »
    Right now I just keep the side off...

    Probably counter productive. The idea is normally to get air flowing through the case past the components. Having the case open just lets it flow in and out.


    You never posted how hot your drives were? Run "Speccy"(free) and see what it reads(after you've been using the machine for a while).


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  • #7
    cherryghost
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 17,137 Mod ✭✭✭✭cherryghost


    What ED E said. Cases are designed to have the flow inside the case, pulling in air from the front and sending it out the top/back.

    I assume there's a large fan at the front of the base behind the hard drives, yes?


  • #8
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,781 Mod ✭✭✭✭Zascar


    Ahh right ok. Yes there is a fan in front of the hard drives - that is the front of the pc. I'll post more pictures when I get home from work today. Maybe its absolutely fine I just had lots of problems with it randomly freezing etc - thought it might be heat or dust related. Changing from XP to Win 7 seems to have solved all these problems. Before that I could not get data off my old card drive, it crawled to a halt almost when trying to transfer from an old 750gb to the new 2TB - and it was a freah install of xp. Installed 7 and it flex through the transfer. Anyway all happy now I just want to make sure its ok. I'll run that speccy tonight and report back.

    Oh also is it normal for the heatsync on top of the processor to collect a lot of dust? I've hoovered it but I can only get rid of so much.
    Cheers guys :)


  • #9
    cherryghost
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 17,137 Mod ✭✭✭✭cherryghost


    If you want to download this and grab your HDD temperatures, and try doing a stress test on them too to see if the disk is failing in any circumstance. And if you really want to be thorough, open CMD, and run chkdsk <partion path> to see if you have any bad sectors that are possibly throwing up problems. About 40-45C and under is grand for a HD, anything near 50 and its near critical point.

    And yes, its VERY normal for a heatsink to collect a whole rooms worth of dust :D


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