Diamon 9 + 10 Raid = overheating?

[CosmoHorizon]

Hi, this might seem to be an odd issue, but this is the story.

I went overseas for Chinese New Year and got my self a comp and brought it back ot Australia (for about $200 AUS cheaper)

This is my spec
Opty 165 CCBWE 0551VPMW 2.4 GHZ (320*7.5) @ Stock (Priming) with XP 120
2X 1 GB Kingston Value (133MHZ 2.5/3/3/7 @ 1T)
ASUS A8N32 - SLI DLX
GF 6600 256 TOPS
2X 120 GB SATA 150 Maxtor

I got everything except for my opty overseas, and so i couldn't test it myself, but they were tested on the day i went to pick up my order. Ok, here's the problem. My both HD are indeed 120GB SATA150, but one of them is Diamon 9 Plus and the other is Diamon 10. I think both of them has 8mb of cache. I currently got them in a RAID 0 with blocking size of 32k, and while installing Windows, i realised that the chip on the Diamon 9 becomes very hot, probably around 40+ degrees. Should I break the RAID ? Or is it normal? I've heard a friend's maxtor raid go without a problem for 2 years under heavyload, how about mine?

Thanks in advance

 

[TabrisDarkPeace]

How is 40 C hot for a support chip on a HDD ?

HDD are capable of operating in 50+ C ambient temperatures dude, if your chip heats up to 40 C the ambiet temperature and airflow will be fine.

The chip would potentially get to the same temperature even without RAID-0 being used, if you hammered the drive (RAID or not) it would heat up.

If the chip gets to 60-65 C then concern is justified... a little, but it would be fine at even high temps.

The chip in question doesn't even require a heatsink does it ?

Tip: 70 C (for the chip, not the physical HDD media) is where people should be concerned, 65 C if they want 10+ year lifespans.

ICs are not water, so people shouldn't compare temps to water, or human body temperature, or anything else, only other ICs.

 

[CosmoHorizon]

Thanks for the reply. It was hot to touch, and the case i've got, very little airflow is being passed through the HDD, so i was a little worried. I guess my drive wont be under heavy load 24/7, so i should be OK. I was only concerned because the Diamond 9 has 2 seperate power connectors, 1 is the regular SATA connector and the 4 PIN connector on regular IDE drives. I only connected the SATA power, so i was wondering whether tihs could cause that problem

Well, i guess i shouldn't be worried. Thanks heaps

 

[RichPLS]

You should have an intake near front of case and an exhaust out the rear.
And a $7 fan mounted near the drives blowing across or pulling through should reduce temps, and should be easy to do.
Cooler drives do help increase performance and longevity.

 

[TabrisDarkPeace]

True, any decent case should have a 92mm or 120mm fan at the rear, just under the PSU, to move hot air out of the case.

Some have a (or space for) typically 92mm intake fan in front of the HDDs.

If you where hammering Maxtor HDDs 24/7 you would be running MaxLine / SOHO models, instead of 2 differing Diamond Max units.

Also, just in case, don't plug both SATA and Molex power connectors in at once, one or the other and you'll be fine.

Temps are important, yes, but 40C for an IC sitting on a HDD (basically a block of metal that gets warm) is not 'battlestations alert critical', not even close.

Above post is right, if longtivity is a concern (and dust buildup isn't, or airflow is good to keep dust movement out the back) then consider adding a 92 mm (typically) intake fan to the HDDs. Also space the 2 HDDs the 'width of 1 HDD slot apart' so they have space around them for said cooling.

Using S.M.A.R.T software (literally) you can measure HDD temps anyway, if over 65C regulary consider more cooling.

(I used to run 4 x Diamond Max 9, 120 GB, in RAID-0 on a Gigabyte GA-8PENXP Rev 1.xx, but that was awhile back, they where crammed pretty close together and worked fine for years. Tested them OK before selling each one with Maxtor PowerMax, no angry 2nd hand customers, even today. The array performance was also pretty damn good for the price.)