Hard drive coolers

Are they worth it? Just looking for a general concensus really. I am "upgrading" my case fans to higher CFM fans and getting a new heatsink because I am having severe cooling issues at the moment. I just wondering if anybody here actually usues HD coolers and wether or not they would even work in my setup. I currentlly have three SATA drives mounted with one bay seperateing each of them. also The case I have uses the "tooless" design so I'm not sure if I mount them to the drive wether or not the drives will slide back in and lock into place. They shoul looking at them though... One more question.. if I do decide to do this, what is the best way to arrange them?

The heat issues are also the reason I havn't been folding as of late.

Thanks in advance

 

In one year, I lost three HD's to heat failure. Then I got serious about finding a solution. After much trial and error, I came up with this:

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/HardDriveCooler.gif

(sorry that this forum won't allow pictures in the posts)

Anyway, this little two-fan cooler will keep even the hardest working HD cool as a cucumber.

It is however, necessary to mount the fan, just about 1/4" off of the drive for proper air flow. Here's one of my drives with the fan assembly mounted to the drive with 1/4" motherboard spacers.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/CoolDrive1.jpg

In some cases, a little tweaking or modification is required to make room for a drive plus cooler.
Here's the main drive in my own PC....installed with side spacers in a 5.25" drive bay.

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/MySataDrive-1.jpg

I have no AC here in my house in FL., but with my little coolers, my drives stay well below critical temps, even in the hottest summer weather.

Also, I never put the side panels on my tower, so the internal temp is never greater than the room temp.

Good Luck,
The Shadow :cool

 

hmmm? you should be able to post pics in posts...but back on the subject, i have 2 hdd coolers, one on top of the hdd and one on the bottom. works like a charm, and the average hdd temp has dropped 3-4C since i installed them

 

i have two of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835999002

 

they are not really that loud, although i usually have my ears covered with headphones or music pumping out of my large speakers when i'm on the computer...

as for fans in the front of my computer, i only have one 80mm, that's why i bought the hdd coolers

 

Years ago, I worked in an "Air Flow" lab, where I got some great training in what it takes to move heat from point "A" to point "B" with the greatest efficiency. So after loosing several HD's to heat exhaustion, I decided to install two-fan coolers on all my drives.

But, when I installed my little two fan cooler with the four screws supplied and didn't see the temperature change I was expecting, I began doing some "Air-Flow Engineering".

The fans I use are almost exactly like those shown in that NewEgg ad, except the ones I buy are only about $4 ea. A buck or two makes a lot of difference when you buy them 10 at a time like I do.

Anyway, what I found with the fan mounted tight to the bottom of the drive, (where all the heat generating components are) the air being sucked in by the fans had no-where to go and an "Air Dam" was the result. Cooling suffered dramatically. Just 1/4" of space was all that was required to remove the air dam and allow for a free flow of air away from the drive.
The area for the exhaust air, must be at least as great as the area for the incoming air.

Looking around the ol' junk box for something like a 1/4" spacer, I found my box of Motherboard spacers.....the little 1/4" brass ones! They are exactly the right size and if you find the ones with coarse threads on the male end, they screw right into the holes on the bottom of the drive.
See my picture in a previous post.
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/CoolDrive1.jpg

Even under the heaviest load, like doing a defrag, the drive temp never goes above room temperature. (or the ambient air temp inside the case)

Noise? I currently have three HD's with two-fan coolers mounted and running inside my case and they are quieter than a mouse blowing bubbles in a feather bed.:-D
Add to that the two fans in the PSU, one on the CPU and one on the Video Card and I have ten little fans humming away all the time. I don't even notice the 'noise'. (and both side panels are OFF on my case.)

If any one (fan) starts to get Noisy, I take it out, clean and oil it and put it back.
Problem solved. Every running fan will get dirty, and those little bearings won't run forever without some oil, so get pro-active and keep your fans clean and oiled and in good running condition.:major

One of my friends that tried my cooling methods, sent me this picture of his own Home-Brew PC.
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/redblue.jpg

A bit extreme, maybe, but I'll bet ya it stays nice and cool.:-D:-D
The left side panel is a sheet of clear Plexiglas and the red fan is mounted in that side panel.
The hard drive with the cooler with the blue LED's, is mounted to the base of the case, with duct tape. Hey, it works!!! Kind'O pretty too!!!

Cheers mates!
The Shadow :cool

 

I'm sure the OP has already bought a new cooling unit, but for anyone interested, I recently installed an Evercool PC Air Conditioner:

http://www.aerocooler.com/products/FANECACB_m.jpg

These things go into a standard (empty) 5.25" desktop drive bay, and plug into a 3-pin connection receptor (like for standard CPU fan) for power - make sure you have one free, or buy the appropriate adapter for a few extra bucks. The propeller (right word?) just pushes hot air out and cooler (room temp) air in to your computer case.

I picked mine up from eBay for $18.49 shipped. Installation was easy once I figured out where I had a free 3-pin receptor + I had to remove the bay door to make room for the thing.

Performance: I'm very happy with this in terms of bang for the buck. Before my hard drive used to slowly or not slowly creep up to over 50 deg C, and even crashed a few times (got the burned plastic/machinery smell + a big scare). I had to keep the case open to keep the temp down and even use an external fan to blow air into it. After installing this unit, the temp has leveled off around 45-47 deg C, and it creeps up much more slowly than before. The noise isn't bad (significantly less than the noise from the other fans when the case is open).

That said, this is new to me, I've only had it running for less than a week, so I cannot comment on durability, or noise level after wear. Also, there's no off button. You can adjust the speed via an external control, but not turn it off completely. Still, at this point, I'd buy it again. If others know better sub-$20 cooling solutions I'd be interested to know.

 

sorry, I tried to make the pic show up above but guess the "http://..." tags don't work. here it is attached:

 

I'm just curious.....did anyone read my post and maybe even look at the photo's I left links to?

There is NO better way to keep a hard drive cool than what I showed in my pictures and at only about $4 per fan assembly, no cheaper way either.
NO other air flow scheme will actually blow cool air onto the two heat generating components of a hard drive....that being the motor hub and the logic board. Blowing air at the end of the drive does little or no good.
Ditto, the top cover, which is just that, a COVER.
Even the "Hermanator" which I paid $49 for, years ago did a really poor job of keeping my HD cool and the two little fans in the front of the unit howled like a banshee. I do hope no-one else makes that rather expensive mistake.

I almost hate answering threads like this one because the answers just get more ridiculous and more ridiculous, from people who know nothing about air flow engineering.

I'm done here.
:cool

 

i read your post The Shadow, and looked at your pics!

(you really do sound like you know what you're talking about)

once i can find some mobo spacers, i'll try your idea.

i know i have some around here somewhere....

 

Of course, it helps if you've been building computers for years and have a substantial junk box.

But then, anything to provide about 1/4" of space will work.
Some of the things I've considered when I finally run out of spacers, includes a stack of washers, little blocks of hard rubber or even balsa wood.
Anything to relieve the little fan so it's exhaust air has some way to get out from under the fans.

I think I may have mentioned that I buy these fans for less than $4 each and ten at a time. I won't install a new Hard drive anymore without a fan on it.
Dell is one of the worse PC's out there that don't have adequate cooling for their HD's.

 

I apologize for making one post into two, but I couldn't figure out how to attach four pictures in a single post.

OK, on my last post, I was working on a Dell that had roached (burned up) its hard drive. The drive sits inside a steel cage, where NO cooling air can blow against the bottom of the drive.
So, I cut out the bottom of the drive cage and mounted my VIO cooler to the drive with the 1/4" spacers, then reinstalled the whole assembly back into the case.

I shipped that little PC half way across the US to a friend of mine, where it's been running happily for almost a year now.

The Shadow :cool

 

I've been noticing a similar problem with my parent's Emachines. Very hard for any cool air to get to the drive. The case doesn't really have an overheating problem, but I think I may add one of these to the drive just in case.

 

Every tower type case has a nice flat base plate the makes a wonderful place to mount a hard drive, upside down, that is. Then you can secure it with anything like duct tape, RTV Silicone rubber sealant or even two sided tape. Just anything to keep the drive from moving around if you should move the computer. I've done that quite a bit for cases that didn't have a drive bay for the second or third (backup) hard drive.
I'll attach a couple of pictures of just such applications. Like the Cable Guy says, "Git'er Done!".

The first picture is one of my own PC's, and the second one is a friends PC in Arkansas. He took my ideas and elaborated on them, just a little.:-D:-D

Good Luck!
The Shadow :cool

 

To be honest, I skimmed your post earlier and clicked on the pics, but thought it looked complicated and possibly expensive. I now took a second look and it still seems slightly complicated (because I'd probably have to modify the hard drive bays to merge two into one), but I see what you are saying now, and next time I'd probably try to go that way.

By the way, I replaced my old 150W power supply* with a 350W supply and that too has lowered the temperature - it was only $20 from newegg.com and the old one was full of dust, etc. According to SpeedFan, my computer temp has remained around or below 40 deg C since then, which is another drop of over 5 deg C.

*my first post at majorgeeks, the reason I registered, was on that.

 

How do you open the fans to oil them? In particular, I'm referring to the basic CPU fan with no screws like in the attached pic/link. I can unclip it, but have no access to the central axle, and gentle force will not disconnect the propeller.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=88458&d=1210821715

 

Ah HA! An Interrogative!

First off let me say, that every fan I've run across in the last XX years has had the blade hub on the front and a bearing cavity on the back, where the wires go into the motor. The bearing is usually covered by a round label of some sort.
Once you take the label off, they won't go back on and seal correctly.
SO, I just inject a few drops of fine machine oil (not WD40) thru the label and into the bearing cavity using a hypodermic needle.
The blade hub is permanently fastened to the motor shaft and trying to remove it could permanently damage the fan. the bearing is NOT on the front of the fan anyway, it's in the BACK.

The fan in the picture appears to be held to the heatsink by two plastic clips, one on either side of the fan.

Something that also stands out in the picture is the dirt that's been plastered against the ram chips by the waste air from the CPU fan.
That ram should be removed and thoroughly cleaned.

This thread is titled "Hard Drive Coolers" and Not CPU coolers, but as far as cleaning and re-lubricating is concerned, the process is the same for all fans.

Recently I heard a subdued moaning coming from my PC. I tracked down the sound to the video card cooling fan. A close examination of the fan showed that three little screws is all that holds the fan motor to the heatsink. So I removed those three screws, unplugged the fan from the video card and removed it from the heatsink. I carefully (very carefully) cleaned those tiny fan blades with Q-Tips dampened with Household Ammonia then injected some oil into the bearing cavity and replaced the fan and reinstalled the video card in the PC. It's now running quietly, again.
I hadn't touched that fan since the video card was installed a year ago, so I guess it was about time for some T.L.C.

What more can I say. I think I've more than covered this topic. Probably more than most people want to read.:zzz

Cheers Mates,
The Shadow :cool

 

Hey Shadow, thanks for the info. I tried (but failed) to oil the CPU fan (more about that here).

But I did install one of those double HDD fans under my desktop's hard disk with the spacers just for good measure (it was only $4 for the fan shipped, $1 a set of longer bolts, and I used zipties (~$0 since I already had extras) zipped around the bolts for the 1/4" spacers.

Just a few follow-up questions if you don't mind:

1. Have you tried putting the double-fan on top of the HDD? At least on mine, that's where the heat sink/plate is. When I take the HDD out after just turning the computer off, it's that plate that's the hottest component, so using fans on it would seem reasoable.

2. Have you tried these fans, or would they make sense, for externl HDD? Would there be an easy and inexpensive way to power the fans on an external HDD? (I realize it would not fit the default external HDD casing, but I could improvise)

 

I've indicated many times that if a person can't find the little brass stand-offs used to mount a mobo, that they use whatever they can lay their hands on that is about 1/4" thick. Yes, you'd have to use longer screws. That too may be hard to find for some folks. They are coarse threaded metric! just like most case screws.

Cooler on top? Absolutely NOT!!!
The top is just a very thin aluminum cover for the drive platters. It won't get hot till the motor hub and logic board on the bottom of the drive are too hot to touch.
To work properly the cooler must blow air on those heat generating components. That's why the mounting holes in the coolers exactly match the pre-drilled and taped holes on the bottom of the drive. Understand?:confused

I've shown pictures of hard drives mounted upside down in the base of a PC, because there was NO place else to mount the HD with the cooler attached.
That works just fine.

My own main drive is mounted with a two-fan cooler and side spacers, in my top 5.25" drive bay. There is nothing in the bay under it, so there's plenty of room for air flow.
Just "Git'er DONE!" any way you can. Git Inventive!

Well, that should do it!
Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?
The Shadow