Raid array running far too hot, help?!

[andyjharris]

I have just bought a new system with 2x200gb Diamond Max plus 9's in a RAID array and it has been unstable from the word go. When I looked at the temperatures I found out that the disks are running at 56degrees!

To check if this was causing the problems I ran the system with the disks out side the case with a fan heater, (set to blow cold air ;-) and it's run sweet as since.

I know that I can buy some hard disk cooling but should this be a problem in the first place - is there likely to be another problem that is causing the drives to work too hard or something else that would cause such high temps?

I'd like some thoughts on this before I bite the bullet and possibly send the system back because I've finally got all my data transferred onto these new drives and really don't want to have to do it again!

 

[paparazi]

Doesn't sound too off the mark but obviously these temps could be bettered with some additional cooling.

Also note many ready built systems often don't have adequate cooling, this is mostly down to cost cutting measures designed to keep their systems more competitively priced.

Think about extra fans, possibly one directly infront of the drives, seperate the drives and tidy wiring, maybe even swap to round cables if IDE.

See at the bottom of this page, not the same drives but should give you some indication of what to expect.

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/print.php?cid=10&id=1092

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Participate and help others.

 

[andyjharris]

Thanks for that, I think I will have to look at the cooling options - it's trickier as I'm going to need one for each HDD.

Seems strange that the system became so unstable desptie only being about 5 degrees above the maximum recommended temp. Is this normal - I.e. are system freezes what you would expect from this kind of problem - for reference the case and processor temperatures are a very acceptable 30ish degrees.

 

[jurgen36]

Nevermind the max recommended temperatures. The most importand think is to keep the drives well separated and use plenty of cooling for them. I use 8 SATA and two IDE drives in one of my machines, they are cooled by 10 fans, this way I can keep the drive temperatures below 38 degrees with a room temperature of 30 -35 degrees. Modern drives spin at 7000 or more rpm's and can get rather hot, especially if they are very close together.
Regards and good luck


Jurgen

 

[andyjharris]

I'm trying to resurrect my earlier question because I have discovered further problems. Even once my hard drives are nice and cool my system continues to periodically freeze and occasionally but rarely it will reset or give a BSoD with an error about IRQ greater than or equal to something or other.

I have run memtest86 for a whole day, (26 passes!) and no errors were found. I am running out of ideas here – nothing else is running hot, the memory is fine – no spyware or viruses present – help!

 

[garebo]

Even though its new, might as well give all the capacitors a good visual check. You can get info on how to do that at badcaps.com.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

I wonder if the cpu is running too hot as well? Perhaps a better fan on the cpu or have your house fan blowing on the cpu just to see if this helps.
You mentioned above that you had a house fan on the drives and you had the drives outside the case and all was well, so why not install the hard drive type fans on your hard drives? They are pretty cheap these days. Unless you can install a case fan that will blow on some or all of your hard drives.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[andyjharris]

I have installed a twin fan to the bottom of each HDD and the system, fingers crossed, appears stableish at the moment and they're down to 26degrees now. (89p each!!?? WOW). Only problem is they double the size iof the disks so one is living in a 5.25" bay and screwed on one side.

Hoping that it is only temperature now and have ordered an extra case fan just in case.

Fingers reamining firmly crossed!....

 

[garebo]

Those twin fans work real well, so im not surprised. Yes, they take up space such that you have to put them in 5 1/2 lots but they do the job!


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[firewolfrl]

New cases are cheap and some are configured so the case fans blow through the hard drive bays then cooling the drives in the process. I have six 200 meg hard drives that cool this way. for my clients that don't want alot of noise I set up cases with the bigger cooling fans. I have also doubled up two fans and dropped the voltage to the 5 volt circuit for those fans (it really quiets down the system and moves alot of air). There are alot of ways to provide cooling. some are loud (lots of fans). some are quiet (sacrifice cooling efficiency). And lots of arguements on which way is the best. But, I believe if all the components that need cooling have some type of cooling and it doesn't compromise the computer. Then hey! It works for you.


Piece of advice...find a good quaility case (the design works for you) and spend a little bit more for it and not the budget cases. if you have a computer store near you. Go look at the cases and talk to the repair techs and not so much the sales rep.


good luck