Need advice on HD coolers...

[smileygladhands]

Alright, my HD's are contributing a bit of heat to my case and I'd like to not only cool them off a bit, but also move their heat to the back and top where it can be exhausted.

There are a lot of different types of HD coolers: heatsinks, Fans - some fans push air away from the HD while some bring in cool air over the HD. There are also more expensive models with a Heatsink and a small fan.

I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with any certain type of HD cooler, or all of them, and what they can suggest as the best way to cool them off.

Is it better to have a heatsink and fan or would it even make that much differnence from just having a fan or just having a heatsink?

All experiences are welcome.

Thanks.

 

[zeroordie]

um, i saw on a site once a hd cooler that you would just slide in one of the available hd slots. it looked like something that mighr interest you, i'll try to look around and see if i can find it again, but know that this kind of option exists

 

[smileygladhands]

Ok.. so, anyone else?

 

[m3trj]

I have an Antec thingy, it shows temps on the front, and it goes in a CD drive bay and the HD goes inside it. There's 2 fans to cool it. It works pretty well.

 

[Codeine]

Smileygladhands, what kind of HDD do you have? Around 90% of the time, people dont even need HDD coolers. If you have a 10000rom drive plus, i suggest some type of cooling system. But if your running 7200rpm HDD, you really WONT need them. But this all depends on your case cooling.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Well hadr drives coolers are not nessacary if you have a little airflow, wont really drop your temps at all.

But their was a 5$ HD cooler sale, and yes, I had HD coolers now

 

[smileygladhands]

Smileygladhands, what kind of HDD do you have? Around 90% of the time, people dont even need HDD coolers. If you have a 10000rom drive plus, i suggest some type of cooling system. But if your running 7200rpm HDD, you really WONT need them. But this all depends on your case cooling.

Yeah, mine are both 7200's. I have just recently placed a 120mm fan - using an 80mm adapter - on the side of my case, blowing cool air at my cpu/heatsink fan. I also have 2, 80mm's exhausting.. one in the top and one in the back (not including the psu fan).

With that, using arctic 5 as the thermal compound, I'm seeing 29-31 degrees C for idleing and full load's around mid to high 40's.. depending on the room temp. I know my HD's will be ok but I'm just thinking that since they generate a bit of thermal heat to the overall case, It would be a good idea to bring in more cool air from the front and try and dispose of it in the top and rear.

I've just heard that fan's alone don't move a lot of heat off your HD's so it's recommended to use heatsink's. But I'd rather not spend $30-$50 for a HD bay cooler if it's not really worth it.

Do you think it's even necessary?