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Keeping those drives nice and cool


CharleyVarrick

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CharleyVarrick

Hi,

 

I have a heat issue with 1 of 2 identical desktop, that tries its best to roast hard drives.

 

 

On #2, StableBit Scanner warns me the drives running temperature steadily climbing upward of 50c which is preset to send me an email.

From a overnight cold boot, they begin one by one to get in the 50c's within the hour ! 

 

The back-up server (#2) is an exact copy of the main server (#1).Back-up server (#2) runs only for incremental backup,I then shut it down

The main server (#1) runs about 18 hrs a day, then sleeps at night; Drives are usually running around 35c which is heaven for them

 

While I'm getting set to add two 120mm fans to the lower front as "standard option #1", I still wonder if it will be enough.

The projected 2 additional fans will draw fresh room air around the six lower 3.5" drive bays then into the case

The drives that are first to report being bbq'd are within the three 5.25" to 3.5" upper area.

Will they benefit at all from the new wind tunnel below?

 

A pic of my "bare" backup server. It's an Antec Three Hundred Two case.

I added ICY DOCK Flex-Fit 3.5" adapters to all three 5.25" bays.

5c0d7692471f1_20181208_1136111.jpg

Edited by jlr19
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pir8radio

"green" drives tend to run cooler, but 50c is pretty warm, I would look at replacing it, could possibly be failing bearings.  I tend to replace all of my drives every 2 or 3 years one at a time. But that's just me, and they are in a raid so its easy to do.

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Guest asrequested

You definitely need to get fans mounted to the HD rack. If you can mount them behind, that would be best. Pull the air through the drives, not push. And get PWM fans. Get a fan controller that has heat probes or actually gets the HD temps from the system. You can attach the probes to the hottest HDs, and set the controller to adjust the fan speed based on those temps. My fan controller in the server just died, so I replaced it with this one. So far I'm very happy with it, much better than the one I had. All the settings are in an app that you install. It gives you quite a lot of control. The app used to get the drive temps from the system, but they removed that feature because apparently some people reported it was causing their drives to click. But it comes with 4 heat probes. I'm only using two. I've attached them to the two hottest drives. The readings are pretty close to the S.M.A.R.T. temps, within 1C. The fan control can be customized. I made a temp/speed curve that it follows. And because I'm using PWM fans, the speeds are accurately controlled. As the temp rises, the fans are sped up, little by little. It maintains the temp very well. These are the fans that I have.

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Happy2Play

 

Will they benefit at all from the new wind tunnel below?

 

I wouldn't think very much as the air is not actually moving across those drives.  Is there room to mount a fan on the back of the adapters to pull air across those drives?

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CharleyVarrick

"green" drives tend to run cooler, but 50c is pretty warm, I would look at replacing it, could possibly be failing bearings.  I tend to replace all of my drives every 2 or 3 years one at a time. But that's just me, and they are in a raid so its easy to do.

 

 

I see where you're going with this and agree 100%, but in my case, I doubt nine blue and green WD would all fail simultaneously.

Edited by jlr19
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CharleyVarrick

 Is there room to mount a fan on the back of the adapters to pull air across those drives?

 Not really, I'm thinking more pass-thru adapters design such as this would improve airflow

5c0d987cbf658_1.jpg

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CharleyVarrick

You definitely need to get fans mounted to the HD rack. If you can mount them behind, that would be best. Pull the air through the drives, not push.

That was the plan, pull cool air from room thru the drives, but the fans have only the front of the case to go to, there are already fan screw holes there (we see them in the pic above).

The back side is the hdd wires connection side, not the best spot for fans.

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Guest asrequested

If you're only talking about the 5.25" adapter, I've used (it's sitting on my shelf) this one in the past. It has a fan built into it. It worked pretty well.

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Happy2Play

 Not really, I'm thinking more pass-thru adapters design such as this would improve airflow

5c0d987cbf658_1.jpg

 

To me these are the problem reducing air flow on the drives.

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pir8radio

I see where you're going with this and agree 100%, but in my case, I doubt nine blue and green WD would all fail simultaneously.

 

agreed, i thought it was only one or two.

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Guest asrequested
CharleyVarrick

Thanks @, I have bookmarked your amazon finds.

The trays I bought (ICY DOCK Flexfit Trio) seem to have a design flaw regarding airflow.

The 64k$ question remains: why 1 of 2 identical desktop overheat the drives and not the other :unsure:

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Guest asrequested

Thanks @, I have bookmarked your amazon finds.

The trays I bought (ICY DOCK Flexfit Trio) seem to have a design flaw regarding airflow.

The 64k$ question remains: why 1 of 2 identical desktop overheat the drives and not the other :unsure:

Who knows. It might simply be environmental, or imperfections in the drives etc. Don't bang your head against the wall, over it.

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pir8radio

Thanks @, I have bookmarked your amazon finds.

The trays I bought (ICY DOCK Flexfit Trio) seem to have a design flaw regarding airflow.

The 64k$ question remains: why 1 of 2 identical desktop overheat the drives and not the other :unsure:

 

Oh its a whole PC worth of hot drives?   Do the fans show the correct RPM?  Check the power supply voltages as well. That's pretty much the only two things that would raise the temp of perfectly fine drives.  Other than adding fans which you are looking at doing. 

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CharleyVarrick

Oh its a whole PC worth of hot drives?   Do the fans show the correct RPM?  Check the power supply voltages as well. That's pretty much the only two things that would raise the temp of perfectly fine drives.  Other than adding fans which you are looking at doing. 

For fan RPM, I remember seeing my the bios display: chassis fan1: 000 rpm / chassis fan2: 000 rpm (but no worries, the top and back fans are spinning quite normally). I should check how/where their wires connect to.

The PSU is a 3 month old bronze.

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CharleyVarrick

You definitely need to get fans mounted to the HD rack. If you can mount them behind, that would be best. Pull the air through the drives, not push.

 

As I said, this case has provision for 2 front mounted 120mm fans. Logic would dictate they pull cool room air thru drives to the inside (to be exhausted by either of 2 out flowing back fans.

Are you saying I should exhaust from the front (as well as from back, 4 exhaust only, no intake (?) Please confirm.

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Guest asrequested

As I said, this case has provision for 2 front mounted 120mm fans. Logic would dictate they pull cool room air thru drives to the inside (to be exhausted by either of 2 out flowing back fans.

Are you saying I should exhaust from the front (as well as from back, 4 exhaust only, no intake (?) Please confirm.

You're talking about the fans mounting behind the case facia, right? So it'll pull air in from outside then push it through the hard drives?

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CharleyVarrick

@ Yes, on this pic taken from case manual, an optional fan being installed, a 2nd one can be installed below, so they are just in front of the six drive bay.

I could install the fan in either directions, so they can either draw cool air in the tower, or draw hot air from inside to outside.

With my existing fans (a top 140mm and a back 120mm) are already venting out, I was assuming the optional fans I'm about to install on the front should draw fresh air in.

(cool air drawn in from front, hot air exhaust back and top)

5c1099b6d4a42_Capture2.png

Edited by jlr19
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CharleyVarrick

To me these are the problem reducing air flow on the drives.

 

In comparison, here's an Icy Dock Flex fit Trio. the double wall design doesn't allow much air circulation.

 

5c10a4c3c86c9_Capture3.png

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Guest asrequested

That's what I thought you meant, but it's better to create negative pressure between the drives and suck air through them. That's how it's done in server boxes. But if you look at those videos, you should be able to configure your fans to promote a similar air pattern, and pull the air. The neutral pressure setup is probably your best bet. Don't connect the fans to the motherboard. They won't spin in unison, you'll need consistency.

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CharleyVarrick

Yesterday was folder sync time, and this is what I'm getting after 80 minutes.

The 3 tv drives (M-L-N) are the hottest, and they're all in those 5.25" to 3.5" adapters.

Scanner is never able to complete Status analysis as this pc never gets enough continuous running time.

5c10ac39815c9_Sanstitre.png

Edited by jlr19
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CharleyVarrick

That's what I thought you meant, but it's better to create negative pressure between the drives and suck air through them. That's how it's done in server boxes. But if you look at those videos, you should be able to configure your fans to promote a similar air pattern, and pull the air. The neutral pressure setup is probably your best bet.

Interesting. And it make extra sense to avoid drawing room dust inside the computer.

Edited by jlr19
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