Should i keep distance between the sata drives or it doesn't matter?

winterwonderland · May 20, 2020

Some centuries ago, i was told that i should always have some "space" between the drives, but does that still apply now, or?

Here is how my current setup is, and as you can see, i have some space between each drive. The OS drive is not shown, as that is placed elsewhere.

Should i keep having a distance between the drives or will it be all good since the front fans are blowing towards the drives?

Bill_Bright · May 20, 2020

With those fans, you won't have to worry.

winterwonderland · May 20, 2020

Bill_Bright said:
With those fans, you won't have to worry.

Great! I just installed my noctua 140mm, but yeah, thanks for clarifying that.

Tried googling about it, but i got unsure, so i had to ask.

Without those fans (or 1 fan), i should have distance between the drives, yes?

xman2007 · May 20, 2020

You have like 2 drive spaces between them, nothing to worry about in the slightest, heck I've had 2 stacked up on top of each other before now and even that wasn't an issue, it's more important to have good airflow in the case, such as 2/3 120mm front fans and a rear/top exhaust with no major blocking of the airflow, cables look a tad messy though I'm assuming thats the back side of the case where they are tucked away and not interfering with the main airflow? My cabling's worse as I have 0 cable management in the case I'm currently using, that said, most cables are pushed over to the rear side panel creating a good line of airflow from the front to back so even though it's not the most asthetically pleasing setup, it works pretty well.

claes · May 21, 2020

Mostly you just don't want to impede airflow from the front intakes. With only three drives, and all of that space, it's not an issue, but if you really wanted to optimize airflow you could toss out all of those unused trays. You could possibly move the drives to slots that aren't obstructing the fans but you're really not going to notice a performance difference.

Toothless · May 21, 2020

I've had my drives all stacked, like 6 drives stacked together and as long as you have airflow you're good.

xvi · May 21, 2020

There's even evidence to suggest (section 3.4) that warmer drives last longer.

TheLostSwede · May 21, 2020

Yes, at least 2m to prevent spread of the Wuhan virus...

Seriously though, it shouldn't be an issue in most modern cases, as long as there's airflow around the drives as pointed out. You have drive caddies which adds a nice bit of breathing room around the drives, unlike some older cases where the drives had almost no room between them at all.
I think Silverstone took the piss with their KL04.

FordGT90Concept · May 21, 2020

minstreless said:
Some centuries ago, i was told that i should always have some "space" between the drives, but does that still apply now, or?

Here is how my current setup is, and as you can see, i have some space between each drive. The OS drive is not shown, as that is placed elsewhere.

Should i keep having a distance between the drives or will it be all good since the front fans are blowing towards the drives?

View attachment 156017

You don't have to but it gives the drives more room to passively cool. If you have space, I would keep them spread out. If you don't, then it becomes really important to have good, high pressure fans ramming air between them.

My server has six drives packed in with two high pressure (aka loud) 120mm fans blowing air between them. The only drive I ever had fail in it (13 years and counting) was the one not actively cooled.

tabascosauz · May 21, 2020

Leaving space between drives refers to applications like this:

where the drives are literally stacked atop one another below the front panel, without any airflow whatsoever. And if you're not doing incredibly storage-intensive activities all day long, those SATA drives still don't have any heat issues.

So rest easy.

winterwonderland · May 21, 2020

Got it. I figured a way to keep the space between the drives, so it's all good now.

Thanks for the advises. Thread solved!

E-Bear · May 21, 2020

minstreless said:
Some centuries ago, i was told that i should always have some "space" between the drives, but does that still apply now, or?

Here is how my current setup is, and as you can see, i have some space between each drive. The OS drive is not shown, as that is placed elsewhere.

Should i keep having a distance between the drives or will it be all good since the front fans are blowing towards the drives?

View attachment 156017

Put a mask on each of them otherwise you might expect Covid transmission.

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Should i keep distance between the sata drives or it doesn't matter?

winterwonderland

Bill_Bright

winterwonderland

xman2007

claes

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