Do some Maxtor DM9+'s run hot? How much does the # of platters/heads matter?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Milhouse Van Houten
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Milhouse Van Houten

I have two drives in the same machine, several inches apart, and regardless
of which is where, the 160GB drive always runs about 10C cooler than the
200GB drive. The 160GB drive runs about 15C above room temperature; the
200GB drive about 25C above room temperature. These temps are from
S.M.A.R.T. data.

What worries me is that Maxtor quotes 55C ("as measured from the top cover
of the drive," which may not be what S.M.A.R.T. is doing) as the magic
number you don't want to exceed, and I'm often within 10C of that right now
with a cool room. In the summer, the room temp will vault 15C, which if
things track linearly, would put the drive temp at 60C. I'm not really sure
what to think about this.
http://tinyurl.com/yqrn7

Since these drives are very similar and of the same generation, the only
thing I can imagine is that it comes down to the platter density, which I've
surmised below based on the serial number method (in which the second digit
of the serial gives you the number of heads).

160GB PATA 6Y160P0 (Sep 2003), Firmware YAR41BW0, Serial Y4... therefore 4
heads, 2 platters each 80GB
200GB SATA 6Y200M0 (Sep 2003), Firmware YAR51BW0, Serial Y6... therefore 6
heads, 3 platters each 68GB

Perhaps if I happened to have the 200GB drive with the 80GB platters, which
I believe should be widely available now, the temp would be more in line
with the other drive?

Thanks
 
Milhouse Van Houten said:
I have two drives in the same machine, several inches apart, and regardless
of which is where, the 160GB drive always runs about 10C cooler than the
200GB drive. The 160GB drive runs about 15C above room temperature; the
200GB drive about 25C above room temperature. These temps are from
S.M.A.R.T. data.
Click to expand...

FWIW, my Maxtor 80 gig drive (6L080J4) usually runs at 44C per SMART. I
notice it jumps to 51C during heavy activity (creating backup image, etc),
but immediately returns to 44C when activity complete. I am guessing that
the temp reported by SMART is an internal temp and might be a bit higher
than the temp at the top cover of the drive.

Room temp is about 20C so I have a 24C or so temperature differential
between ambient and SMART.
 
FWIW, my Maxtor 80 gig drive (6L080J4) usually runs at 44C per SMART. I
notice it jumps to 51C during heavy activity (creating backup image, etc),
but immediately returns to 44C when activity complete. I am guessing that
the temp reported by SMART is an internal temp and might be a bit higher
than the temp at the top cover of the drive.
Click to expand...
Room temp is about 20C so I have a 24C or so temperature differential
between ambient and SMART.
Click to expand...

The Maxtor sensors are not very accurate. My guess would be tolerances
up to +/- 5C. I have had two with identical body temperatures (measured
with IR thermometer) be about 8C apart in reported temperature. Still,
the temperatures are a little high. From my experiences these drives
should have some airflow, otherwise they have indeed a tendency to
overheat.

BTW, Maxtor specifies 55C as maximum and states that up to 60C the
failure rate does not increase massively. But take into account that
a drive under load can be another 10-15C hotter than a mostly idle
one...

Arno
 
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