How hot do RAID drives run?!?!

[Hockeymanc]

Hey guys,

i'm thinking about buying two Segate 160 SATA drives to run in RAID 0 in my Shuttle SB61G2R.  I know that invovles taking out the card reading and putting the drives on top of one another...my question is, would that be too hot??  If so, what can i do to cool them as there's not enough space for a HD cooler.  thanks!!!

Terance

[Hockeymanc]

How hot do RAID drives run?!?!

[OLIRC]

I have three hd's in top of each other so i have one 120 mm fan sitting in front of them blowing the air directly on them but then again i have an ordinary midtower case so it might not fit in a sff case.

[scrappydog]

RAID is too hot for these little guys!   I have the same setup with my SN85 and card reader - I removed the card reader and put the drive in its place.

I am in the process (as we speak) replacing my two Maxtor SATA's in RAID 0 with a one drive solution - I chose the Seagate SATA 160.  

I can tell already that RAID is (was) fast during the Windows installation - incredible access times.  Only time will tell for gaming and other tasks.....

[Hockeymanc]

Yeah, so i think that 2 drives might be too hot if not cooled properly.  I was browsing and found that Koolance makes a niffty little watercooling kit.  It is outside of the case (I measured and you can fit it on top of a shuttle case with maybe 10 cm of the end hanging out, which i find acceptable).  Then since everything except the tubes go inside, there'll be plenty of room.  They also make a 2 harddrive cooler that fits perfectly between two drives.  I think i'm going to do a little more research, but probably end up getting that for my SATA drives.

btw, the Koolance can be found here: http://www.coolerguys.com/productslist.aspx?categoryid=165

[inVINCEable]

It works with some people. My friend has an SN85 and he put two Maxtor 160 GB and set them up at Raid 0. They got really hot. He took one out and just bought some 300 GB ( i dont remember what brand) Then he just put the card reader back in. And took the 160 GB drives and put them in one of his Thermaltake Xaser Towers.

[zoney70]

Whether too hot would depend on:
A) The drive spec ambient emp
B) How hot your box runs

IOW, it isn't a matter of the drives heating up the box. It is a matter of a hot box cooking the drives.

I run RAID 1 because I am more interested in data safety than max performance. I have a pair of IBM/Hitachi  SATA drives installed. The spec sheet for these says 5C to 55C ambient temp when operating. My box ususally runs around 42C and rarely over 45C. But, then I have a fairly cool processor (P4 2.60C) and a Matrox G550. Not much to heat the box up. The hottest thing in there is the Shuttle chip with the fan mounted on it. Probably should have worked that into their ICE design.

[Zid]

slightly OT: "The spec sheet for these says 5C to 55C ambient temp when operating."

So the temp specification is the temprature around the disk and not the disk itself?

[zoney70]

Quote
Originally posted by: Zid
slightly OT: "The spec sheet for these says 5C to 55C ambient temp when operating."

So the temp specification is the temprature around the disk and not the disk itself?

Correct! Most components are spec'ed that way. On the Intel site I noticed that the P4 processor is spec'ed to operate at 70 or less, but the integration guide recommends maintaining an ambient of 50 or less to achieve it. (Measured at the fan intake) With the ICE, I observe a lower CPU temp than the ambient box temp. (per MBM) Amazing piece of technology.