What are good hard drive temps?

KBD · Jul 31, 2007, 04:36 PM

I've been wondering about this cause i've heard that the drives tend to die prematurely if exposed to higher temps. My 2 SATA drives in my main rig run from 29 C on a cool day but go up to 37 C on really hot days and thats with a 120mm case fan blowing cool air to the top hard drive cage. The IDE drive in the old rig goes a little bit past 40 C though that drive has served me for several years, but i suspect that those temps are still kind of high. In any case, what temps are considered normal?

kwchang007 · Jul 31, 2007, 04:39 PM

<50 C is good imo. Once it starts getting up over 50 C you have problems.

Kammster · Jul 31, 2007, 05:46 PM

WD 120 goes up to 36deg about 34 with a slow fan
seagate drive never broke 32

Jimmy 2004 · Jul 31, 2007, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwchang007

<50 C is good imo. Once it starts getting up over 50 C you have problems.

That's what I would recommend as well - most hard drive manufacturers say that 50-55C is the maximum, my two are at 41C and 47C at the moment (my Maxtor gets quite warm for some reason). This is an interesting read about some findings by Google though.

DaMulta · Jul 31, 2007, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimmy 2004

That's what I would recommend as well - most hard drive manufacturers say that 50-55C is the maximum, my two are at 41C and 47C at the moment (my Maxtor gets quite warm for some reason). This is an interesting read about some findings by Google though.

Just what I was thinking about when I say this thread

pbmaster · Jul 31, 2007, 09:38 PM

My Western Digital always stays pretty cool...
@ Jimmy: my old Maxtor also got rather warm, maybe has to do with the design?

Jimmy 2004 · Jul 31, 2007, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbmaster

My Western Digital always stays pretty cool...
@ Jimmy: my old Maxtor also got rather warm, maybe has to do with the design?

Could well be - my other drive is a WD, and the two drives are right on top of each other yet a 6C difference in temps, so there must be something about the Maxtor. Admittedly they are in quite a confined space without much circulation, but as long as they don't get hotter than that I'm happy. Anyway, this is yet another reason I wouldn't recommend Maxtor to anyone!

hat · Jul 31, 2007, 09:46 PM

Yeah my maxtor drive was always hot... but it never failed on me... but yeah anything under 50C is ideal. You don't need to buy a hard drive cooler though. My uncle buys coolers for everything... heatspreaders for ram, advanced cooling for cpu, video card... coolers for hard drives :headbang: he doesn't even oc

Black Panther · Jul 31, 2007, 10:10 PM

It seems Maxtors run warm - I've got one on another pc and it's always at 45 or 46 degrees, been running for over four years now.

On the other hand the seagate on the rig in my specs rarely goes above 36.

Jul 31, 2007, 04:36 PM	#1
KBD Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: The Rotten Big Apple Posts: 2,416 (1.06/day) Thanks: 423 Thanked 291 Times in 273 Posts System Specs	What are good hard drive temps? I've been wondering about this cause i've heard that the drives tend to die prematurely if exposed to higher temps. My 2 SATA drives in my main rig run from 29 C on a cool day but go up to 37 C on really hot days and thats with a 120mm case fan blowing cool air to the top hard drive cage. The IDE drive in the old rig goes a little bit past 40 C though that drive has served me for several years, but i suspect that those temps are still kind of high. In any case, what temps are considered normal?

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Jul 31, 2007, 04:39 PM	#2
kwchang007 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Severn, MD, USA. Posts: 2,949 (1.28/day) Thanks: 72 Thanked 189 Times in 185 Posts System Specs	<50 C is good imo. Once it starts getting up over 50 C you have problems. __________________ Power User Teenager Club Laptop Overclocking club Thanks button....hit it if someone helped you, not a difficult concept really. [img disabled]http://www.hwbot.org/signature.img?t=1&uid=8351&iehack=.jpg[/img]

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Jul 31, 2007, 05:46 PM	#3
Kammster Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Guyana, South America Posts: 183 (0.08/day) Thanks: 0 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts System Specs	WD 120 goes up to 36deg about 34 with a slow fan seagate drive never broke 32 __________________ Rig#1 : 2006 Generic Rig#2 : Athlon Xp 1.25ghz, 6200 TV BOX Rig#3: 2010???...Silent & Energy Efficent

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Jul 31, 2007, 09:38 PM	#6
pbmaster Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Savannah, GA Posts: 1,985 (0.80/day) Thanks: 131 Thanked 295 Times in 275 Posts System Specs	My Western Digital always stays pretty cool... @ Jimmy: my old Maxtor also got rather warm, maybe has to do with the design? __________________ “pbmaster your tongue in your mouth speaks the truth” -von kain

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Jul 31, 2007, 09:46 PM	#8
hat Maximum Overclocker Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Ohio Posts: 12,236 (5.15/day) Thanks: 2,054 Thanked 2,039 Times in 1,549 Posts System Specs	Yeah my maxtor drive was always hot... but it never failed on me... but yeah anything under 50C is ideal. You don't need to buy a hard drive cooler though. My uncle buys coolers for everything... heatspreaders for ram, advanced cooling for cpu, video card... coolers for hard drives :headbang: he doesn't even oc __________________ My Heatware “Inb4 smartphone LN2 overclocking.” -radrok

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Jul 31, 2007, 10:10 PM	#9
Black Panther Senior Moderator™ Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 7,062 (3.23/day) Thanks: 2,170 Thanked 1,838 Times in 1,104 Posts System Specs	It seems Maxtors run warm - I've got one on another pc and it's always at 45 or 46 degrees, been running for over four years now. On the other hand the seagate on the rig in my specs rarely goes above 36. __________________ *My Great White Bengal build* Join the techPowerUp! Official Group on Facebook.

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