How to get more air to the bottom disk?

[pcwin]

1. I have a disk that is on the bottom most rack that cannot receive air flow from the front fan because the front fan it too high. Is there any way to let the bottom disk receive air flow?

2. I intend to add fan b and fan a, does fan b or fan a helps to cool disk 3?

3. Should I installl the kind of hard disk fan that will attach above/below the hard disk? Any recommendations?

(note: rack above disk 1 gets very little/no air so i do not use it. i leave a blank layer between disk 1 and disk 2 for better air flow. i leave a blank layer between disk 2 and disk 3 for better air flow.)
(note: there is no point moving the fan down. if I move it down, disk 1 will not get any air flow.)

 

[Ranger4]

With the number of fans you have, I wouldn't be worried about hard drives overheating. From your pictures it looks like there would be plenty of air exchange in the case.

Do you have any reason to suspect the drives are overheating?. Overheating of hard drives is not usually a problem in desktop PCs.

 

[pcwin]

The drive is 40 degrees. Someone mentioned it is better to keep hard disk below 40 degrees.

 

[Ranger4]

It does depend on what the air temp in the room that the computer is in. So if your room air temp is 20 then the hard drive will be cooler, but if the air temp is 30 then the hard drive will hotter.

Also it depends on what you are using to measure the hard drive temp. 40 degrees should be well within it's range as from what I have seen most hard drives are safe up to 50.

i assume you are talking about degrees C & not degrees F.

 

[pcwin]

I am talking about degrees C

I want to be lower than 40 degrees C.

"Then Google came along and published "Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population", a research paper that some consider to be the Bible of HDD failure. Pulling data from more than 100,000 consumer hard disk drives, some of its major findings included:

• Hard disk temperatures higher than 45°C led to higher failure rates
• Temperatures lower than 25°C led to higher failure rates as well
• Aging hard disk drives (3 years and older) were much more prone to failure when their average temperatures were 40°C and higher

This study also suggested that the effect HDD temperature has on failure rate is not as severe as previously believed. However, there was no mention of the effect of temperatures higher than 50°C (probably because Google kept their hard disk drives in server rooms with strict temperature controls).

What is a Safe Hard Disk Temperature Range?


Drawing conclusions from the Google paper, smaller independent studies and tech forum users:

Hard Disk Temperature


Less than 25°C:
Too cold
25°C to 40°C:
Ideal
41°C to 50°C:
Acceptable
More than 50°C:
Too hot

- See more at: http://www.buildcomputers.net/hdd-temperature.html#sthash.rP09VNfR.dpuf"

 

[Ranger4]

As I mentioned in post #4 it will depend on what the ambient temp in the room is. If the room temp is 30 then you will have a very hard job keeping the HDD below 40.

As I have said I would not be too worried about it. You can often spend a lot of time & money trying to accomplish something that really does not result in a better outcome.

For the average home user HDD temps really aren't a problem unless they are well over 50.

What program are you using to measure the HDD temp with, sometimes these temp readings are not completely accurate.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Besides drilling out the rivets and lowering the fan to the other holes and reattaching it ?
No
You might also think of upgrading the fans while you're at it
Even the exhaust fan.
Not sure how many you have but exhaust is equally important for ventilation.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It appears you can move each HDD up one notch. That way, the bottom fan would move into the airflow of the fan and the top HDD would still have airflow across the bottom, which may still be enough to keep it below 40°C. At least it should be easy to do without any surgery on the case.

 

[ThrashZone]

Good eye Lady

I also notice the front cutout is not really as wide as a 140mm fan
Seems to me 2-120mm's would fill the entire space better ?

 

[pcwin]

It appears you can move each HDD up one notch. That way, the bottom fan would move into the airflow of the fan and the top HDD would still have airflow across the bottom, which may still be enough to keep it below 40°C. At least it should be easy to do without any surgery on the case.

Bottom fan c is blowing upwards, I don't think the air from fan c is going to reach the disks?

And fan b is drawing air from the hard disk column and blowing towards the back, I don't think top HDD will get air from bottom fan c.

 

[pcwin]

Good eye Lady

I also notice the front cutout is not really as wide as a 140mm fan
Seems to me 2-120mm's would fill the entire space better ?

The 140mm front fan is the default fan that came with the casing. as seen in the photo.

At most only 1 120mm fan could fit in front. Unable to fit 2 120mm in front.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It appears you can move each HDD up one notch. That way, the bottom fan HDD would move into the airflow of the fan and the top HDD would still have airflow across the bottom, which may still be enough to keep it below 40°C. At least it should be easy to do without any surgery on the case.

Bottom fan c is blowing upwards, I don't think the air from fan c is going to reach the disks?

And fan b is blowing inwards to the motherboard, I don't think top HDD will get air from bottom fan c.

I used a wrong word (see bolded text above). Sorry!

Fan B & C don't enter into the equation. From what my old eyes can see in that grainy picture, it appears your HDD cage is designed to hold six HDDs, which means you have three unused HDD slots in the cage. If so, moving each HDD up one slot will allow Fan A to blow air across the bottom of the top HDD, both sides of the middle HDD, and the top of the Bottom HDD. You probably have enough slack in the HDD cables to allow you to relocate the HDDs without having to use any tools or do any surgery on the case so it can't hurt to at least try it.

 

[ThrashZone]

With the amount of holes in the front nearest to the cutout it's setup for 2 of something ?
Image is in a downward angle so it's difficult to tell.
You can move the outside fan down or fan B down.

 

[pcwin]

You could click the photo to enlarge the photo for clearer view. Moving each disk up by one level, disk 3 would just reach the bottom edge of the front fan a and fan a still does not overlap disk 3. Disk 3 might get a little air increase. Disk 1 will get no air as only the bottom part of disk 1 is receiving a little air, the top part does not get air, disk 1 is a SSD drive.

 

[pcwin]

Would moving disk 3 to the slot between disk 1 and disk 2 be better? that would make all 3 disk receive air flow.

But I always read that it is better to leave an empty slot between disk for better air flow.

 

[ThrashZone]

Probably the easiest
Otherwise just drop fan B
Pulling air is good too

 

[pcwin]

Why is there a need to drop fan B? I thought fan B will make the hard disk cooler since it draws air away from the hard disk so heat will be draw away too?

 

[ThrashZone]

Because you want to ventilate the lowest hdd more
The front fan and B are in the same line and you want more ventilation on the bottom
Lower either fan to accomplish the task.
The front fan is Pulling air into the case,
Fan B is doing the same I assume I can't tell ?

Seems obvious lower one of the fans it doesn't matter which.
Or don't worry about it like the first couple of people said :/