My hard drive gets too hot too touch

My PC runs hot since I've installed a video card. My HDD is so hot that I can't touch it more than a few seconds. I've moved the wires to allow for air flow.

What is a cheap way too cool it besides the AC?

 

Could you give us an idea of what hardware you have

and also what fans and fan placement you have

 

See page 63+
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps200/om/TD649A03.pdf

I have this PEG video card which is underneath my HDD. My chasis is small, and I don't have alot of room.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131029

Could I put cooling gel on my hard drive? Would this hurt it?

 

I have adjust the position of some wiring so that they no longer block the fan. I also have four DDR2 533Mhz, 512MB RAM (2,048 MB toal). My adjusted my BIOS settings so that my HDD performs fastest but makes more noise.

I've read that 50 C is normal for a HDD, that's 122 F, which is generally hot enough to burn skin.

 

Woud it hurt to drill holes in my tower to allow for more air flow? Or would this slow down the circulation of air out the back?

 

Do you have everest installed ?
http://www.majorgeeks.com/EVEREST_Free_Edition_d4181.html

It would be good to know what all of your temps actually are


page 99 of your manual
Storage –40° to 65°C (–40° to 149°F)

my hard drive is running at 27 degrees celsius at the moment !


there are hard drive coolers available
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=577&name=Hard-Drive-Cooling

space is going to be an issue though

Ive had a reasonable look through your manual and didnt see any fans at all
(correct me if I am wrong)
except fot the PSU fan

I would get your temps from everest first
then try taking the side covers off and see what difference it makes

although they have given you a slot for a graphics card, they dont appear to have considered the heat issues it is going to cause, especially to your hard drive.

Personally I would consider running the hard drive outside of the case, which is far from ideal.

Anything else you try may bring the temp down by 10 degrees celsius if you are lucky.

Hopefully someone else has some easier alternative

 

I have everest installed, but I don't think it gives me the temps. I've tried to find ways to get cpu temps, those nearly killed my pc.

I think I may have a fan in the front also, there is something wired to a fan socket on the mother board there.

 

My HDD did not run hot until I installed the video card. Could it be that it's absorbing heat from the card?

 

I could stick a block of dry ice against the cover

 

yep, looking at your manual
the graphics card would be blowing the hot air directly onto your hard drive,
plus being so close together the graphics card is going to radiate a lot of heat as well.

If you run Everest
select: computer
select: sensor

should show your temps no worries.

 

30C for the HDD, no other temps. I'm going to defrag my HDD and check the temp. then.

 

It peaked at 56C, I took the lid off, and it eventually dropped to 54C.

 

My cpu heat sink has plastic over it, should I remove it?

 

Presumably, that was while you were defragging. A peak temp then is no surprise -- the drive armature is in almost continuous operation during a defrag, and that goes on for a LONG time for a hard drive. All that current running through the armature's coil drives the temperature well up.

What sort of temps do you get in normal operation? If they're in the 30's (Celsius), I wouldn't go to a lot of trouble. Just don't defrag during hot weather!

 

I would not recommend that.

It's there to ensure that your CPU's heatsink gets the airflow it needs to keep it within acceptable temperature limits. Removing it will likely cause your CPU to overheat.

 

I don't know, I should check to see what it is while idle. I've set it up to cut off the HDD in 30 Min.