Hard Drive, Upside-Down is which?

[Bob Brown]

I've been mounting the hard drives with the circuit side down and the
flat metal side UP. Is this backwards? Does it matter with regards to
heat?

It's almost spring and at this rate I'll have a drive running 60C
working hardly ever.

I've Googled this "question" a million different ways and can't find
the answer.

 

[Dave]

I've been mounting the hard drives with the circuit side down and the
flat metal side UP. Is this backwards? Does it matter with regards to
heat?

It's almost spring and at this rate I'll have a drive running 60C
working hardly ever.

I've Googled this "question" a million different ways and can't find
the answer.

This one should be obvious. Right side up is so you can read the specs.
printed on the top. -Dave

 

[Frank McCoy]

This one should be obvious. Right side up is so you can read the specs.
printed on the top. -Dave

Having worked for a drive-company a few years ago:
Generally, board-side down and metal-side up is "normal".
However, drives *these days* are built to run in *any* position; and one
of the test-procedures we ran in Product Assurance, was to run all tests
with various drives in about as many positions as could be handled.

However, the biggest indicator of "right way up" is the screw-holes.
In general, screws are located on the *bottom* half of the drive.
That matches mounting hardware.
Also, with some screw-holes in the very bottom surface of the drive,
that makes them mount properly _on_, not _under_ flat surfaces.

Finally, as-said, you *should* be able to read the nameplate,
identification, and jumper-settings from the *top* of the drive, as you
lay it flat on a normal work-surface.

Does that help?

 

[Bob Brown]

This one should be obvious. Right side up is so you can read the specs.
printed on the top. -Dave

Yeah, just grasping for ways to keep it cooler than 46C...
grasping at straws...

 

[Trimble Bracegirdle]

The proper n normal way is with the circuit board / components side bottem /
under.
A HD will work equally well at any angle (A CD or DVD unit won't)
...The components under is best so that any bits of rubbish falling on the
drive will not go in and mess up the electronics...It far more protected
that way.
Mouse
@@@@

 

[Frank McCoy]

Yeah, just grasping for ways to keep it cooler than 46C...
grasping at straws...

Gotta find a fan ... Or, more likely, a better drive.
(Have you noticed how inexpensive they're getting?)
However, the number of different cooling fans available for various
purposes, from CPU to case to drive, is amazing; as more and more people
design around the rising heat-flow problem.

I've got an old AMD 2300, in which I've upgraded the CPU fan and cooler
about 4 times. The last, a solid-copper cooler I got at COMP-USA, cost
me about the same as a "standard" CPU heatsink with just a copper insert
in an aluminum body, but dropped my CPU temperature by 8 degrees C.
I've seen about a dozen different "drive coolers" available, from
double-fan inserts that replace the cover of a standard drive-bay to
specialty external coolers that pipe cold liquid in from an outside
device, somewhat like a whole-house air-conditioner.

For that price though, you could likely buy two or three replacement
drives, with twice the disk-capacity and half the heat generation.

 

[John Doe]

However, the number of different cooling fans available for
various purposes, from CPU to case to drive, is amazing;

Look for a case with an intake fan blowing on the hard drives.

as more and more people design around the rising heat-flow
problem.

For what it's worth. You might notice that heat is rising if you are
buying faster hardware these days. Components run faster which
increases heat, but transistor integration is larger which reduces
heat. I'm a gamer using only one add-in card slot, for video
(7950GT, maximum 65W). One CD drive and one hard drive. Local Area
Network support is built into the mainboard and my soundcard is USB
external. Ordinary PC users can do the same, and with onboard audio.
You can buy a modern personal computer that requires little power.

 

[Rod Speed]

I've been mounting the hard drives with the circuit side
down and the flat metal side UP. Is this backwards?
Nope.

Does it matter with regards to heat?

Not normally, because drives are mostly cooled by the airflow
over the drives, not by convection and most drives get rid of most
of the heat they generate thru the metal body of the drive anyway.

It's almost spring and at this rate I'll have
a drive running 60C working hardly ever.

Then you have likely got the drive jammed up against another drive.

Its better to have a free drive bay slot on either side of the drive.

I've Googled this "question" a million different ways and can't find the answer.

Yeah, its not something that thats easy to search for using google.

 

[The Seabat]

True.

Not entirely true! A CD drive will work sideways and probably even
upside down, if you can find a way to keep the disc from falling out
when you open the tray. DVD I'm not sure about, but I would imagine
they would be pretty much the same. The only thing to over-come is
gravity!

 

[Timothy Daniels]

This one should be obvious. Right side up is so you can read the
specs printed on the top. -Dave

About 5 years ago, I called the Tech Support managers at
Seagate, Maxtor, and Western Digital about recommended running
orientation for their hard drives. They all said that it didn't matter.
Two said that the drive shouldn't be "slanted", i.e. the axis of rotation
of the platters should be either parallel or perpendicular to the ground,
not somewhere in between.

As for cooling, the engineers at Dell chose to mount the HD in
my Dell Dimension vertically on its end with the circuit board facing,
and immediately behind, the air intake holes. That tells me that
cooling of the circuit board and the "bottom" is more important than
cooling the "top" of the hard drive. As for cooling the "sides" of the
hard drive, notice that the flat surfaces surrounding the screw holes
are raised about 1 thousandth of an inch above the sides - greatly
reducing the contact between the sides of the hard drive and any
mounting cage. In my Dell, the mounting cage is even plastic!
Obviously, cooling of the "sides" of a hard drive is not critical.

*TimDaniels*

 

[DaveW]

The smooth metal side goes UP.