SMART Hard Drive Temperatures

  • Thread starter Thread starter Silver Blade
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Silver Blade

I've always been concerned about the temperatures being reported by
SMART monitoring utilities I've used. I even ended up taking the side
of my case off and sticking some massive fans to the side to blow air
on the hard drives. This allowed me to put the PSU outside of the
case, too, as it was half an inch away from the CPU fan.

I recently decided to remove the large fans I'd added, because the
whole system was making one hell of a racket!

So, having put the PSU back in, and removing the extra fans, the CPU
now runs about 10 degrees cooler, and the hard drives about 20 degrees
hotter.

Now I'm getting temperature readings of 47-50 degrees C for the
primary hard drive, and about 40 C for the secondary hard drive. This
seems way too hot, especially when the CPU is at 45 C most of the
time!

I have read that the SMART temperature is usually taken from the
controller chip, which is the hottest part of the hard drive, and also
that the maximum operating temperature on the spec. sheet is probably
referring the ambient temperature (ie, not the temperature of the
drive itself.)

Should I be worried? The hard drives feel fairly warm, but not
scorchingly hot...
 
Silver said:
I've always been concerned about the temperatures being reported by
SMART monitoring utilities I've used. I even ended up taking the side
of my case off and sticking some massive fans to the side to blow air
on the hard drives. This allowed me to put the PSU outside of the
case, too, as it was half an inch away from the CPU fan.

I recently decided to remove the large fans I'd added, because the
whole system was making one hell of a racket!

So, having put the PSU back in, and removing the extra fans, the CPU
now runs about 10 degrees cooler, and the hard drives about 20 degrees
hotter.

Now I'm getting temperature readings of 47-50 degrees C for the
primary hard drive, and about 40 C for the secondary hard drive. This
seems way too hot, especially when the CPU is at 45 C most of the
time!

I have read that the SMART temperature is usually taken from the
controller chip, which is the hottest part of the hard drive, and also
that the maximum operating temperature on the spec. sheet is probably
referring the ambient temperature (ie, not the temperature of the
drive itself.)

Should I be worried? The hard drives feel fairly warm, but not
scorchingly hot...
Click to expand...

In a quick look at hard drive specs, maximum operating temperature is speced
at 50-55°C by most makers. I do not know if this is ambient temperature or
via the diode on the hard drive. My guess is it's the latter. 55°C ambient
seems way too high. I'd replace those fans or substitute them with quieter
versions. Taking the sides off the case is a last resort and is actually
counter productive, since unidirectional airflow is made impossible.
 
I've always been concerned about the temperatures being reported
by SMART monitoring utilities I've used.
Click to expand...

I got 2 Hard Drives, one IBM 120GXP (80GB) and a Seagate Barracuda V
120GB (both 7200 rpm) and with 23 degrees Celsius room temperature
the IBM is 29-32 degrees and the Seagate 30-33 degrees.
I got one 80mm fan in the front of the case running on 7 volts
blowing right on the HDD:s. Works perfect for me, very quiet.
Example
http://w1.857.telia.com/~u85710476/docs/image/example/pcvent.png
 
Ken said:
I got 2 Hard Drives, one IBM 120GXP (80GB) and a Seagate Barracuda V
120GB (both 7200 rpm) and with 23 degrees Celsius room temperature
the IBM is 29-32 degrees and the Seagate 30-33 degrees.
I got one 80mm fan in the front of the case running on 7 volts
blowing right on the HDD:s. Works perfect for me, very quiet.
Example
http://w1.857.telia.com/~u85710476/docs/image/example/pcvent.png
Click to expand...

But where are these temperatures taken from? My IBM drive runs at
about 40 degrees most of the time - roughly 10 degrees more than
yours.

Adding fans is not an option for me, since I want my PC to be as
silent as possible. Plus, it seems if I add more fans, the CPU
temperature rises.

I've thought about the possibility of insalling some slow large fans,
but have only one place for a fan to go. Besides, I'm thinking of
saving that for if I ever get round to making a cabinet to go round
the computer case - just for some airflow I might stick a couple of
fans at the bottom/back to pull cool air in while the hot air rises
out of a vent at the back, perhaps.

-SB
 
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