I just purchased a new drive for $35US. Guy needed money and it was an unopened box. I added the extra 400gb Western Digital Enterprise to my 750gb Samsung SpinPoint F1 and 500gb Seagate Barracuda. What a mix right? ....but got good deals at different times. The entire computer has heated up. Everything went up several degrees. These pictures are before and after. I just so happened to be talking temps yesterday and had a before shot. I found it interesting that one extra storage drive could do this. The "after" picture I played TeamFortress 2 for 30min to see what the max temp would be. My computer has always stayed cool until now even with my crazy cables everywhere, but now I think some cable management and a redirection in airflow is needed. As you can see in the picture of my case the two fans in the back are switched Bringing air In/Out. (One fan on the side door) I think now they should both be pushing air out, and add two fans to the front of the case blowing on the HDs bringing air in. Cable management, what do you think zip ties? I can careless about the look. My case has a solid door, never was into looks. The reason I'm worried about temperatures now is I have a XFX 260 Black Edition GPU ordered. When I put that thing in there I think my case will be running to hot. Advise? Click on Pictures and increase size:
Yup! Some hard drives heats up normally more than others. For example for me Western Digital drives internal or external are about ~50C. Such temperature range is normal for any HDD under load. Make sure that the fans is big enough (yes, in size) that air goes above and below each hard drive. What you can do is play around. For example you can regroup the HDD together and put them at the bottom of the case, and have some PCI brackets removed (so that the hot air try's, despite going up, to get there) and have a second fan above the first one which cools off the HDD's to bring cool air to the mix, and your computer components. I know it's not a perfect and easy solution. But, you are the one that knows best your case and computer components.
Well thats good to know that Western Digital normally run high. I guess I got use to the Samsung's cool temps. I have turned one of the fans around so both in the back pull air out of the case. It has made a huge difference. I removed the 2 hard disk plates in front of my tower and now I can feel the 2 fans from the back working together to pull air in from the front. As you can see my temperatures have went back down. Before I receive my new GPU I will either figure out how to fit a 120mm fan in the front or have 2 more 80mm fans in the front. I'm sure I could fit a 120mm fan above my HDs. I look at the in side of my case and I don't even know how to begin managing my cables.
Yes, when you do your first cable management, it takes time, as you try stuff and can even restart, for optimal results. It takes time to do, especially when it's your first time. Once done and practice, it goes faster. People say, use zip-ties or those thing you stick in a case. I say no to them, as the day you'll change something, it will annoy you so much. Just look what other people do for some ideas that you can try. Here are some tricks: - Revert the HDD, so that the connectors are at the front of the case. - Pass long thin wires under the motherboard. - Pass cables on the other side of the case. (behind motherboard tray/holder) - Avoid cables being in front of fans and holes that releases air out. - User black ties that comes with your devices that you buy. As you can easily untie them. Here are some example: - My case (old picture, it's actually a bit better now) NOTE: In my case I can't put the HDD on reverse like the next person was able to do. - Ali Nield case: You can find more on the modding section of the forum (see end results)
Nice, I will try a few of those tricks. I have a computer to build now for a neighbor. Waiting on the delivery of the tower and power supply. I will straighten out my cables before it arrives. It might be a day or two but I'll post the results. Thanks.
GoodBytes, I did it. I finished building my neighbors computer and then I worked on cable management on mine. The neighbor knows nothing about computers and to me its a shame she doesnt know what shes getting. But she wanted something fast and better than her Dell. Every week I have to go over cause she cant open her e-mail or print off paperwork. Nothing really is wrong with her computer, just her. I had to go cheap in the end on her Power suppy and Tower cause she became tight on money from paying for the removal of her daughters wisdom teeth. Otherwise the cable management would have been better and reached areas so I could do a better tuck away. I used the Coolmaster 330 suggested by Bit-Tech, its not a bad tower for the price. She has a dual boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu9.04, E2200, P5Q SE Plus, EVGA 8600GT, 2Gs ram, 250G HD. She says she will buy the W7 Lic in June. I know it will only reboot every two hours after the date, but just in case I placed Ubuntu on there just as back up. Now! my computer received some cable management after I was done with hers. All in all from fan adjustment and cable management each of the computer hardware runs 10 to 20 degrees cooler, except the Q6600 only a expected 2% drop or so. It was running cool from the start. Thanks for your help.
Well just keep in mind it is a good thing that your computer runs warmer. HDDs perform better and last longer in a warmer environment.
sui_winbolo, I guess HDDs are like car engines. I was originally worried because I never had a WD HDD run idol at 50+ degrees. Now I feel good about a clean looking computer with good air flow. I have another before and after I will post later.
I wish my case could be cable managed better.. Shuttles don't lend themselves to things like "airflow" or "cleanliness".
Yep, pretty much! Since it's a mechanical device the parts move better when it's warmer. Your computer looks really good, good work!
Awesome work on your case cable management! If she runs Windows 7 (well now she has Ultimate as she has Win7 RC, but when she purchases) Professional or Ultimate edition (this is true for XP, and Vista as well), you can do remote desktop (she won't see what you do) or remote assistance(she does see what you do, but she needs to run the software on her side and invite you in) on her computer. All you need to do is enable it on her computer and setup her router to allow this (port: 3389). That is nice. nicely done!
Guys...... Thanks alot. Did not expect that. A whole different praise than what I received with a house full of women. They just looked at them and said "hhmmm much neater". Haha I had one more computer thats an old P4 for the visitors. I had not looked inside for a while and forgot what it looked like. What a surprise! I was embarrassed to take before and after pictures. I slapped it together one day to make sure people stayed off of mine. I obviously spent more time on the software than the hardware. It has a crazy Ultra PSU with long wires that are hard to manage. I have no idea what I was thinking with that fan on HDDs. Thanks again
