I'm pretty sure 40 is fine. I recall reading an article ages ago that tested hard drive failures in different temeratures, and it turned out they failed more at cooler temps for some reason, I guess they are designed to run warm. I can't seem to find the article now though, I will keep digging!

 

40°C is fine. 45 would start to worry me. 50 is considered overheating and if you hit that, you will trigger a SMART alarm. If you run above 50 for too long, you risk damaging the FDB motor which will cause the drive to stop spinning and make for a very difficult professional data recovery, as replacing the motor is a very complicated process.

 

Well, Since I just posted this in another thread, and it's still in my clipboard, I shall share

http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf
Page6, fig 4. Optimal hard drive reliability is at 38*c. Too cold is far worse than too hot.

 

I'm pretty sure that in the summer most people's abiant temps aren't much lower than 40C.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxxa I'm pretty sure that in the summer most people's abiant temps aren't much lower than 40C.

LOLWUT!?

Do you realize quite how hot that is?! That's enough to give anybody heat exhaustion over a day. My ambients in summer are about 24C, I don't know about you but I don't leave my computer outside in the beating sun.

 

40c is probly fine you might wanna stay under 45c and you could maybe move the drive or rig a fan on it to help it good thing about hardrives is the temps dont normaly change to much they stay around same mark.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xero. LOLWUT!? Do you realize quite how hot that is?!

In the summer here, ambient air temps get above 40c, and my loft stays at about 27-30c. An ambient of 40c in a living space would be hell though.

That being said, I do not think 40c is too hot for a drive. All three of my drives receive direct airflown and they still stay around 35-40c. I'd be more worried about the temperature swinging a large amount from cool to hot, rather than operating at a stable, slightly warm temp.

 

My ambients in the summer are about 27 degrees but 40 is okay. You shouldn't be worry about.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xero. LOLWUT!? Do you realize quite how hot that is?! That's enough to give anybody heat exhaustion over a day. My ambients in summer are about 24C, I don't know about you but I don't leave my computer outside in the beating sun.

40c is 104f alot of places summers hit 95-105 for atleast a few days i know in ky we usualy hit 100f a couple days some times more if no rain.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xero. LOLWUT!? Do you realize quite how hot that is?! That's enough to give anybody heat exhaustion over a day. My ambients in summer are about 24C, I don't know about you but I don't leave my computer outside in the beating sun.

That's funny.

We had a 105 average for about 2 weeks in Manhattan.

The hottest I've been to was in Texas - 117F or 47C.

Now that.. was hot.

 

http://www.samsung.com/global/busine...4&model_cd=552

Temperature / Operating 0 ~ 60 °C

From the manufacturer themself

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xero. LOLWUT!? Do you realize quite how hot that is?! That's enough to give anybody heat exhaustion over a day. My ambients in summer are about 24C, I don't know about you but I don't leave my computer outside in the beating sun.

I'll take my shot now~
Some days my front room of my house goes 32c if my air isn't on thats almost hot enough to melt my igloo.

However I was more referring to the case ambient temps being an easy 5-10C hotter than outside temps.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xero. LOLWUT!? Do you realize quite how hot that is?! That's enough to give anybody heat exhaustion over a day. My ambients in summer are about 24C, I don't know about you but I don't leave my computer outside in the beating sun.

In summer my bedroom hits 35ºC at 3~5 PM. Then gets lower and at night its about 22ºC.

It's 22:42 and I have both windows from my bedroom opened because of the heat... So in summer...

 

Sure, and you can run your Q6600 at 90°C, since it's not designed to shut itself off until it exceeds 100°C, but for how long?

The Google study was interesting, though based on its 2007 date it's not likely that the drives they worked with included many modern drives with fluid dynamic bearing motors (basically any hard drive SINCE 2007 or so). These are much more sensitive to heat than their ball bearing motor predecessors. For that matter, they're also sensitive to cold, but they warm up quickly enough that it doesn't really matter.

And now you know why you have to wear a jacket in a data center.

 

Thanks guys, it's been very helpful. I see 40°C is borderline ok, but if the temps were to rise further I should try some sort of active cooling. In the current case there is no room for the tiniest of fans so a case-mod may be in order

 

it's on the high side
but safe

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3dfxvoodoo;13119331
it's on the high side
but safe

Agreed.

I haven't seen my HDD temps go above 35C.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragosmp;13119307
Thanks guys, it's been very helpful. I see 40°C is borderline ok, but if the temps were to rise further I should try some sort of active cooling. In the current case there is no room for the tiniest of fans so a case-mod may be in order

Your case can have a 120x25mm fan mounted in front of the HDD cage in the front center. Try installing one there.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by error10 For that matter, they're also sensitive to cold, but they warm up quickly enough that it doesn't really matter.

I thought one of the most harmful things was a quick temperature swing from cool to warm?

Are you talking about a data center where the drives are on 24/7, or is that also a tolerance of fluid dynamic bearings?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by error10 Sure, and you can run your Q6600 at 90°C, since it's not designed to shut itself off until it exceeds 100°C, but for how long? The Google study was interesting, though based on its 2007 date it's not likely that the drives they worked with included many modern drives with fluid dynamic bearing motors (basically any hard drive SINCE 2007 or so). These are much more sensitive to heat than their ball bearing motor predecessors. For that matter, they're also sensitive to cold, but they warm up quickly enough that it doesn't really matter. And now you know why you have to wear a jacket in a data center.

The HD's OPERATING temperature is up to 60 cel. My Q6600 OPERATING temperature is up to 71 cele. Just because the CPU will shut down at 90 or 100 doesn't mean thats the operating range.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=29765

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by error10 Your case can have a 120x25mm fan mounted in front of the HDD cage in the front center. Try installing one there.

I actually don't have these in my P180, it's a different build. I've attached two pics of the server case (an Asus Pundit) - you'll see the HDDs in a corner to what amounts the front-left part of the case. In the bezel there's no room as there is an USB bracket sticking out, so what I'm left with is to drill a hole in the left side of the case (precisely behind the HDDs), or to clean up the wiring with some angled SATA connectors & to add an 80mm fan blowing air towards the disks from the CPU cooler direction. I'm open to suggestions

Quote:

Originally Posted by _02 I thought one of the most harmful things was a quick temperature swing from cool to warm? Are you talking about a data center where the drives are on 24/7, or is that also a tolerance of fluid dynamic bearings?

/side-note: I remember on my college TV, in one winter the heating broke down partially and then totally for about a month. During the mornings we had some 10°C in the room, after starting the TV in these condition for a couple of days, the power rectification board gave up in smoke; the repair man said it was because of the temperature delta (start @~10°C, working @~60°C).

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by _02 I thought one of the most harmful things was a quick temperature swing from cool to warm? Are you talking about a data center where the drives are on 24/7, or is that also a tolerance of fluid dynamic bearings?

Isn't your desktop drive on 24x7?

Now, sure, if you are in the habit of running the drive outside in the middle of winter, then you're probably just going to cause long-term problems for yourself.

As for fluid dynamic bearings, the temperature range we're talking about is minimal (down to 0°C, for instance) so the increased viscosity at lower temperatures really doesn't matter much when the drive will heat up to its normal 30° or whatever anyway. Though that might be a bit less if you really are running it outside in Yukon in January. Don't do that.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragosmp I actually don't have these in my P180, it's a different build. I've attached two pics of the server case (an Asus Pundit) - you'll see the HDDs in a corner to what amounts the front-left part of the case. In the bezel there's no room as there is an USB bracket sticking out, so what I'm left with is to drill a hole in the left side of the case (precisely behind the HDDs), or to clean up the wiring with some angled SATA connectors & to add an 80mm fan blowing air towards the disks from the CPU cooler direction. I'm open to suggestions

That's what I get for looking at your sig, which was completely wrong. Oops!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by error10 Isn't your desktop drive on 24x7?

Nope =p

Celsius is not my native measurement so I was forgetting that a 20c thermal gradient over 24 hours (for WD RE2 drives) is actually 68 degrees Fahrenheit, which is far too large of a change to represent realistic conditions.

 

In the future our CPU's will be built from an alien material (Cold Steel), and in order for our computer to run we will need methods of keeping our CPU's warm.