Hard drives - How close together?

  • Thread starter Thread starter S.Boardman
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S.Boardman

I have just removed two Maxtor drives, and want to replace them with two WD
drives. The problem is these are larger, as in deeper. I can get them them
in one above the other, but there is no more than about half a mm between
them, if not touching. Given that the other two got quite hot, what should I
do? I only have the two 3 1/2" bays available.
Suggestions please.
 
In message <[email protected]> "S.Boardman"
I have just removed two Maxtor drives, and want to replace them with two WD
drives. The problem is these are larger, as in deeper. I can get them them
in one above the other, but there is no more than about half a mm between
them, if not touching. Given that the other two got quite hot, what should I
do? I only have the two 3 1/2" bays available.
Suggestions please.
Click to expand...

Depending on the design of the case, you might be able to mount a fan to
force air over the drives.
 
I have just removed two Maxtor drives, and want to replace them with two WD
drives. The problem is these are larger, as in deeper. I can get them them
in one above the other, but there is no more than about half a mm between
them, if not touching. Given that the other two got quite hot, what should I
do? I only have the two 3 1/2" bays available.
Suggestions please.
Click to expand...


You should allow at least 1 cm, preferribly more especially
if they're passively cooled. If you have an unused 5.25"
bay you might consider getting an adapter or bay-tray and
mounting one there, or fishing a bay out of an old unused
case if your present case has room to mount it, or taking
some rear slot cover brackets and drilling a couple holes
at each end to hang the drive below the bay.
 
kony said:
You should allow at least 1 cm, preferribly more especially
if they're passively cooled. If you have an unused 5.25"
bay you might consider getting an adapter or bay-tray and
mounting one there, or fishing a bay out of an old unused
case if your present case has room to mount it, or taking
some rear slot cover brackets and drilling a couple holes
at each end to hang the drive below the bay.
Click to expand...
Looks like I'll have to get a drive bay, as I have a spare 5.25 bay. I could
really use a new case I guess. For now, it'll have to be outside the case
until I can get a drive bay.
 
S.Boardman said:
two
Looks like I'll have to get a drive bay, as I have a spare 5.25 bay. I could
really use a new case I guess. For now, it'll have to be outside the case
until I can get a drive bay.
Click to expand...

I needed a 3.5" to 5.25" drive adaptor recently and the only place to get
one locally was the most expensive pc shop in town.
It was just £4 plus VAT.

Martin.
 
Looks like I'll have to get a drive bay, as I have a spare 5.25 bay. I could
really use a new case I guess. For now, it'll have to be outside the case
until I can get a drive bay.
Click to expand...

Id forgotten just how hot these 7200 drives get. Man are they HOT ! I
put in a maxtor 60 gig in a neighbors system and was really surprised
at how freaking hot it gets in a short time. That thing was getting
close to uncomfortable levels of hot with my hand on it after a few
minutes. I rechecked all my drives - two WDs and two Maxtors and they
all kind of get hot though I have fans on all my drives. In my hazy
memory I knew they got hot but didnt think they got quite that hot.

Of course they are designed to work without active cooling but maybe
thats whats causing some of the erratics feedback on various brands.
Maybe theres thinline between keeping it in the OK range and over the
dangerous range. I remember monitoring temps with a program and using
some compression progs the temps shot up like crazy. Maybe a combo of
some types of usage and having it in some poorly ventilated case or
not much space between the drives kills the drives in a short time
while just having a a bit better environment and pattern of usage
makes it last for years.

One thing - a lot of the coolers are really crappy. I bought a tray
that fits underneath one HD in the 5.25 bay and when you put it on ,
it only works with one drive at one spot. The lowest bay doesnt work
at all. The middle bay works but then I cant put one on the bays above
it. Its not really made to fit right unless you want it crammed it
with no space between the tray and a lower drive which would block the
intake fan holes.

The 5.25 bay cover front panel coolers would seem like the obvious
choice but then the ones I bought didnt have any decent way to attach
them. They have screw holes in the side which doesnt correspond to
anything in the case and you couldnt reach it in any of the cases I
have. You have to mod it yourself and think of a way to attach it.

One easy way would be to use the existing plastic covers you already
have since many cases have unique clips anyway. Drill some big holes
with a hole cutter drill bit. Then attach two small fans to the fron
panel cover.
 
One easy way would be to use the existing plastic covers you already
have since many cases have unique clips anyway. Drill some big holes
with a hole cutter drill bit. Then attach two small fans to the fron
panel cover.
Click to expand...

... or if you can spare two bays, super-glue two covers
together and cut the hole for a single 80mm fan. That
seems to be the easiest, quiet way to reuse some of the old
cases I have that don't need more than one optical drive in
them and have the poor HDD bay flush with front wall of case
so there's no ventilation at all through it. I have the fan
blowing out though, not an intake because it helped move
more air in the lower half of the case that way... cases did
usually have lower air intake holes in the front and back.
 
S.Boardman said:
I have just removed two Maxtor drives, and want to replace
them with two WD drives. The problem is these are larger,
as in deeper. I can get them them in one above the other,
but there is no more than about half a mm between them, if
not touching. Given that the other two got quite hot, what
should I do? I only have the two 3 1/2" bays available.
Click to expand...

Hang at least one of the drives vertically from the bottom of the
lowest bay. I started doing that after I found that the hottest chips
on a Maxtor ran at 68C with the drive horizontal (6"+ of air space,
top and bottom, 25C air temperature) but only 53C with the drive
vertical. You may need to drill holes in the bay or use large washers
(look for "fender" washers -- big washers with small holes), and it
can help to have a very short screwdriver or a 1/4" wrench (hex
screws). If the drive bay assembly extends all the way to the floor
of the case, you may have to mount the drives on the sides of the
assembly, using standoffs with 6-32 threads (mobo standoffs often use
different threads or even two sizes of threads) to space the drives
away from the rack assembly. You can even mount drives vertically on
the floor of the case. Another benefit of vertical mounting is that
the drives are usually in the air flow of the front case fan.
 
In message <[email protected]> "(e-mail address removed)"
Id forgotten just how hot these 7200 drives get. Man are they HOT ! I
put in a maxtor 60 gig in a neighbors system and was really surprised
at how freaking hot it gets in a short time. That thing was getting
close to uncomfortable levels of hot with my hand on it after a few
minutes. I rechecked all my drives - two WDs and two Maxtors and they
all kind of get hot though I have fans on all my drives. In my hazy
memory I knew they got hot but didnt think they got quite that hot.
Click to expand...

Try a couple 10,000rpm Raptor drives :)

Luckily, my case has slots for fans positioned appropriately at the back
of the drives, so it keeps cool air cycling over the drives.
 
Actually I just removed the diskdrive hehehe.

Now I have a little opening in the front... I kinda like it now :)

Like an air shaft for the drives hehe.
 
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