Are HDD coolers necessary?

[nerr]

The ones on Newegg seem pretty cheap, so I was just wondering, are HDD coolers necessary/a good idea if you're building a new system and trying to just keep temps down overall. My CPU, GPU, and RAM will all have some kind of cooling mechanism (Tuniq Tower heatsink, 8800GTS second slot cooler, Crucial Ballistix heat spreaders), but my HDD won't. Should I spend a few bucks on a HDD cooler, just to be safe? If I should, can I get some recommendations? Thanks!

 

[imrul]

nope, there not that necessary unless your using a server/workstation

 

[budlite1bb]

while you dont need a dedicated cooler for your hdd i would make sure you at least have a fun blowing on it... hard drive failure sucks and heat is usually a cause.

 

[jay2tall]

Nope just good case flow. Alot of cases have room for a fan on the intake side that blows over them. A single HD with plenty of space around it should be fine without one. However if you start packing them in there I would recommend at least an intake fan over them. Raptors might be the exeption, they get warm. And if for some reason you get an SAS or SCSI drive I would recommend a fan or cooler. The faster they spin the more heat they are going to produce. a 7200RPM drive won't be bad but 10K, 15K and up will most likely need some sort of cooling.

 

[night_wolf_in]

no, u dont need HDD cooler

 

[nerr]

Okay then. I'll probably be running two 7,200 RPM SATA drives in my PC, and my CM 690 case should have plenty of room for installing some additional fans if necessary. For now though, I won't worry about a HDD cooler. Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[jay2tall]

Just give them a space between each other and they will be perfectly fine.

 

[nevesis]

Nope just good case flow. Alot of cases have room for a fan on the intake side that blows over them. A single HD with plenty of space around it should be fine without one. However if you start packing them in there I would recommend at least an intake fan over them. Raptors might be the exeption, they get warm. And if for some reason you get an SAS or SCSI drive I would recommend a fan or cooler. The faster they spin the more heat they are going to produce. a 7200RPM drive won't be bad but 10K, 15K and up will most likely need some sort of cooling.

You would think a 10,000rpm drive would produce more heat, however in my experience it does not.
I have 4 hd's in my current machine, 2 250gb wd's, 1 500gb wd's, and 1 74gb raptor.. they are all located in the same drive bay, with 1 80mm fan blowing across them, the raptor is sitting @ 33c, while the other drives range from 36 - 40

For the O.P you dont really need a cooling fan, I just recently took mine off my raptor, just make sure you have good case air flow and maybe an 80mm fan to blow over the drives.