3ware 9690SA-8I RAID card

[Arveene]

Hi, I'm recently purchased this RAID card with hopes of replacing my software RAID. I got the card in the mail a couple days ago, and I'm just waiting on a couple of new hard drives to expand my RAID. I put the card in today, installed the drivers, and everything is ready to go for when my drives arrive on Monday. I noticed what might be a small problem earlier. The card is really a bit hot, nothing like touch it and take your hand back immediately hot, but it's still noticeable. I used 2 different thermometers, and both read about 55-60C. After installing a PCI intake fan directly below the card, the temp dropped to about 50C. This is without ANY drives at all hooked up to it. I can't imagine what temperature it would run at when building my RAID6. The normal operating temperature according to 3ware is 0C-50C, should I be wary about building my RAID with this card or am I overreacting? Does anyone else use this card or a similar card with the same temps?

Edit: If it's any help, my motherboard is a EVGA E758-TR. I have a stock Core i7 920, that's running at about 25C according to SpeedFan, my GeForce 285 GTX runs around 38C while idle, and reaches about 54C when running a game like TF2 (fan speed set to 65%). I'm using a Thermaltake Spedo Advance case with 2 front intakes, 2 back exhausts, and 1 fan on the fanbar in the middle of the case that blows air through the thermal chamber directly at the RAID card itself along with the PCI exhaust fan below the card.

 

[wuzy]

Normally those cards are used in server/workstation case that can take full-length cards and have a dedicated fan at the end of the full-length slots for forced air induction over all 7 slots.

For use in a typical case you can either add a 40 or 60mm slim fan on top its heatsink (attaching it using whatever creative means) or use something like this right below the card.

Normally those processors on RAID card can operate beyond 100C (125C is the max. for mine), but is not recommended of course. 60-70C when under load e.g. writing to a RAID 5/6 array is what they typically run.

 

[boomhowar]

I ran a similar 3ware 8 port raid card in my mid-tower server case for a couple of years and yes they get very hot to the touch. I ended up putting a small fan on the heatsink and small stick on heat sinks for the onboard ram. --not sure if it was really needed though.

Everything ran hot to the touch, even the ram. Does yours have an attached battery back up unit? Mine did and the battery was also very hot. To help with cooling I removed the battery, but I also have a ups that the server is plugged into.

 

[Arveene]

I'm running with a UPS as well so I decided to pass on the BBU.

Update: I put one of those fans that wuzy linked and it dropped to about 40C. It's actually staying around there even while I'm copying a bunch of files onto it.

Thanks for the tip, any other tips would be appreciated as well for the future and just to test.