Hello everyone,

I have been questioning about this a lot recently, and a lot of people have given me advice, but I do not know if this is correct. My hard drive is a Fujitsu Siemens (do not know the product id) which came with the computer and is running at an average temperature of 45-50° Celcius (even up to 55° whilst long gaming). Several shop keepers have told me that it is normal for a hard drive to run at about 30° Celcius, and that this high temperature may depleat its life expectancy, and data loss might occur. I have thought about a hard drive cooling fan, but apparently it does not help much. Therefore my only other option is buying a new one (which I do not know if I should).

Thank you for your support,

philipe

*Note: The temperature is taken with a heat sensor (Cooler Master Aerogate II), and the hard drive is not connected via SATA.   

The temprature of my HDs are always like that (i have 3 in my system now). My system runs pretty much 24/7. All i got in years is 1 broken HD. The broken HD didn't even cause data loss, it's just the test tool from Maxtor that reports a failure and got replaced with a free new one because of that.

The temprature is a bit on the high side, but don't buy a new HD. Your new HD will have the same kind of temps. You could try to improve airflow in your system. A big fan that sucks out the hot air at the back of your system might help.

Thank you very much MenthiX! I was just about to buy a new one, but if it is supposed to be like that, everything's fine . I was just wondering if these high temperatures could cause the computer crashing like the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death)?

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Originally posted by philipe
Thank you very much MenthiX! I was just about to buy a new one, but if it is supposed to be like that, everything's fine . I was just wondering if these high temperatures could cause the computer crashing like the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death)?

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30° C can be an expected temperature for case air, certainly not for hard disk. Hard disks generally cruise at and above the temperatures you are describing, so you're fine.

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Originally posted by philipe
I was just wondering if these high temperatures

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WRONG. NO. Aerogate II Is useless. I know this because i have one. it is NOT ACCURATE.
If you want a more accurate temperate range download a program such as mbm (motherboardmonitor) or everest from lavalys (great program)

My aerogate usually says about 15-20 degrees above what it really is, so your hard drives are probly running at a normal temperature.

Also note that many current hard disks have a feature called S.M.A.R.T.. This means the hard disk can report back some variables back to the motherboard (or any program which calls upon these funtcions). Temperature is one of the standard variables which can be reported (without the need for an external sensor).

50°C is indeed not a (too) high tempurature for a modern hard disk.
Though it depends from disc to disc. The normal, average, optimum and max temperatures for a hard disk can be found in the manual or specs of the hard disk.

But it is indeed true that a much too high temperature will shorten your hard disk's life compared to an optimal temperature.

Although, it must be said and noted that a constant temperature, even if it is high!, (because of constant running), is far and far better than a temperature which changes all the time from room temp to high (or even only optimum) tempn, and back (because you only use your PC a few hours at the time).

The thing which shortens the lifetime of any hardware component (and this goes for any hardware, thus also for non-computer related equipment also like video players, dishwashers, radio, whatever) is not so much running at high temperatures (or humidity for that matter) but the changing in temperatures.

This is because materials expand or contract due to temperatures (or moisture gets condensed due to changing of humidity, etc). And it is this expanding/extracting, aka changing of environment, which damages components more than anything else...

So if I have my computer running 24/7 as an average how much will it live? A year or more? Usually I'm just downloading stuff, but the CRT is off because I'm (almost) never at the PC.

Probably longer than 10 years, and longer than if you turned it on/off three times a day.

About keeping the monitor off, let Windows turn it off itself (set it to monitor off in 1 min of inactivity or something). If you use the power button on the monitor all the time, you'll probably break it.

Of course keeping the monitor powered on all the time when you most of the time don't use the computer when it runs (thus monitor is blanked out by Windows), the monitor will still consume power. But indeed, constantly powering it on/off isn't good for it (same thing as with anything else).

Okay, thanks a lot for your advice, I was just about to buy a new one! But if these temperatures are average and won't harm my hard drive, everything's fine.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
Of course keeping the monitor powered on all the time when you most of the time don't use the computer when it runs (thus monitor is blanked out by Windows), the monitor will still consume power. But indeed, constantly powering it on/off isn't good for it (same thing as with anything else).

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Originally posted by Scone
My aerogate usually says about 15-20 degrees above what it really is

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I think you mistundertood me...

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Originally posted by rav0
There is a difference between Windows sending a black screen signal, and an off signal to the monitor.

In the first case, the monitor consumes about as much power as it will during regular usage (whatever that is).

In the second instance, the monitor is off, in the same state as if the computer had been turned off, using close to zero power.

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Originally posted by rav0
This is recomended by manufacturers over using the front power button

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
But indeed, constantly powering it on/off isn't good for it (same thing as with anything else).

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Originally posted by CookieRevised

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Originally posted by rav0
This is recomended by manufacturers over using the front power button

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Recommended to save power??? Where did you read that? This is totally wrong... standby mode or not, the moni (or any equipment for that matter) will always consume power.

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Originally posted by rav0
same state as if the computer had been turned off, using close to zero power. This is recomended by manufacturers over using the front power button

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Well, in that case I want to see the exact quote/source, as that does not make any sense at all in reference to power consumption and even not in reference to the dureability of the equipment.

They most likely mean it in the context as we both already have said before: constantly powering anything on/off over a short period of time isn't good for any equipment (nothing todo with power consumption in that case either).

Recommending to leave a machine on for a long period of inactivity is the worse thing you can recommend even for a manufacture (and even how low the power consumption might be in standby mode). If you don't use a machine for a long time, you switch it off.

Well, the 2 monitors i have enters standby mode after 5 seconds of no-signal, i was reading the user's manual of one of them and is just as rav0 said:

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Originally posted by rav0
However, letting the monitor turn itself off, after the connected computer has been turned off completely, will use very little power, close to none, and this course of usage is recomended by manufacturers including BenQ, LiteON and Samsung, whether leaving you computer on and inattended for an extended period of time, or leaving it off.

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Originally posted by YottabyteWIzard
Well, the 2 monitors i have enters standby mode after 5 seconds of no-signal, i was reading the user's manual of one of them and is just as rav0 said

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Originally posted by YottabyteWIzard
Indeed, it might use some power but for some reason the monitors turns their system off after a period of inactivity, wich obviously will be for save a lot of energy when not in use.

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Originally posted by YottabyteWIzard
And another question, barely related to all of this, how much energy uses a 17" monitor (CRT) and how much an LCD (sic: an "LCD" is also a monitor. The word "monitor" does not say anything about the type of monitor)? A lot of people told me CRTs uses a very crazy amount of energy, wich is the main reason of high amount of $ in bills

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WOW, thanks for the info CR

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
Well, in that case I want to see the exact quote/source, as that does not make any sense at all in reference to power consumption and even not in reference to the dureability of the equipment.

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Originally posted by rav0

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
Well, in that case I want to see the exact quote/source, as that does not make any sense at all in reference to power consumption and even not in reference to the dureability of the equipment.

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I've attached a page out of the user manual for BonQ FP756ms. (the last point is the important one)

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
It will never be stated or recommended, in any manual, to always keep your monitor powered on (even in standby) when you leave your computer unattended for a long period of time.

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