Shoutbox

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)?

quote:

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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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I used to get that ..scary thing it is...I had to switch my comp of for a couple of hours till it cooled down ..but normally it would only happen on those hot summer days...so yes i guess it does cause the BSODor the comp jus freezes up

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.

quote:

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

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Those temperatures aren't high, they are actually a bit lower that average.

Windows crashing may be caused by overheating of the CPU or GPU (most likely not according to your avatar), though check the temperatures. Like MenthiX said, an exhaust fan for your case might be useful.

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).