HD coolers are they worth it?

[drifter_888]

I was interested in buying a hard drive cooler (strictly passive cooling if possible). Would anyone recommend a good passive cooling hard drive cooler. Are they worth it. My hope is it would not only keep the hard drive cooler but it would also reduce the noise.

It will be used for a 150 GB Raptor and possibly a 500 GB Western Digital.

 

[Mondoman]

Unfortunately, hard drives tend not to have nice big flat surfaces through which heat can be conducted to a heat sink/passive cooler. They're designed to be cooled by air, so mounting them with plenty of air space between adjacent drives and good air flow are the two main rules to keep drives cool. Mounting them lower in the case (where air is likely to be cooler) is generally a good idea, too.
If you need to cool drives further, supply them with more and/or cooler air. A passive way is to create a vent from the outside next to the drives so cooler outside air flows in past the drives. A fan is the obvious active route.

 

[elpresidente2075]

I use one everyday on my large hard drive. I haven't noticed a huge difference in its performance, probably none at all. I only have it on there because I had one laying around and I figured it was good insurance against premature wear and tear.

Honestly, they are pretty unnecessary for most if not all applications, but they're always nice for a bit of assurance that you are getting the most life out of your drives. Not to mention it keeps the air flowing around more in the system.

On the passive note, I believe Thermaltake makes one that is a heatpipe cooler, but it turnes the previously 3.5 inch drive into a 5.25 inch drive. Not to mention I believe its pretty expensive.

All in all, they're pretty inexpensive, but pretty useless in most cases. It won't usually make a lick of difference in performance, and while it may increase your MTBF, I have yet to actually prove that. That said, I personally would put one on at least the raptor, due to its high rotational speed, and probably one on the large one, just in case. It'd only be like 20 bucks or so for active ones. But if you want quiet(er), just leave it out and make sure plenty of space is between your drives.

 

[randomcow]

I used to have a typical HDD cooler where the drive mounts to an aluminum 5 inch bay box and a small fan cools the box. Typical temps were around 28-29C using a 7200RPM SATA. I now mount these same drives in line with a 700RPM 120mm fan and the drive temps are usually around 31-33C so not much difference.

 

[drifter_888]

Thank you all. I guess I'll just put more space between the drives and hope for the best.

 

[Mondoman]

At least initially, use utility software to monitor the drive temp(s). Any SMART drive should be able to provide drive temp. I'm not sure, but Speedfan may be able to access the SMART info. PC Wizard 2006 (an excellent and free package) can access the hard drive temp in its "temps, fans,etc" section.

 

[rodney_ws]

I use one everyday on my large hard drive. I haven't noticed a huge difference in its performance, probably none at all.

Were you expecting a change in performance from a hard drive cooler? Or were just referring to its temps?

 

[drifter_888]

Honestly, hoping to make my system as quiet as possible and with a small bonus of lower the temp a little

 

[atp777]

Adding a cooler to the HDD will most likely not increase performance. The main advantage is lower temps which can greatly increase the life of your HDD. Heat is a hard drives worst enemy. I would say use something to cool it if you want to avoid failure if you want to use the HDD for more than 3-5 years, but then again, tech changes so fast does it really matter? My case has a vent with 2 80mm fans side by side blowing over my HDDs.

 

[elpresidente2075]

I use one everyday on my large hard drive. I haven't noticed a huge difference in its performance, probably none at all.

Were you expecting a change in performance from a hard drive cooler? Or were just referring to its temps?

Just referring to temps. I was trying to quell any thoughts that an hd cooler would actually increase performance before they actually cropped up. Guess I got confused while I was writing it .