Do I need to cool this WD HDD?

I have 2 drives inside my desktop tower PC. A 512GB 850 Pro Samsung SSD and a WD Black 12TB spinning drive. Typical temperatures are ~43C for the SSD, 50-52C for the WD. I see the WD specs say operating range of 5-55; so mine is at the upper end of this range. I'm not seeing any errors in the SMART data.

Should I try to find ways of lowering the temperature? There is a fair amount of open space in the PC with no components especially near the drive. I've wondered about attaching an HDD fan cooler but can't find one actually available.

Any suggestions? Or am I worrying unnecessarily?

tpriest said:

I have 2 drives inside my desktop tower PC. A 512GB 850 Pro Samsung SSD and a WD Black 12TB spinning drive. Typical temperatures are ~43C for the SSD, 50-52C for the WD. I see the WD specs say operating range of 5-55; so mine is at the upper end of this range. I'm not seeing any errors in the SMART data.

Should I try to find ways of lowering the temperature? There is a fair amount of open space in the PC with no components especially near the drive. I've wondered about attaching an HDD fan cooler but can't find one actually available.

Any suggestions? Or am I worrying unnecessarily?

Sounds like you might need to re-locate that 2TB hard drive, closer to a case fan if possible.
I have the exact same 2TB WD hard drive.






I keep my computer room cool... 16C. Even in use, the temp only goes up 2-3C

Samsung 860 EVO 500GB
WD 4TB Caviar Black FZBX
WD 2TB Caviar Black FZEX


Might be a dust build up. Could be bad location in computer case.
I have quite a few WD Black 1TB, 2TB etc., they all run just about the same temps.

Generally you want the case airflow with front and bottom as intakes, and top and rear as exhausts.
It doesn't say what case case you have, so I can't really suggest an arrangement for the fans and drives.

Thanks for that. Wow, what a tidy PC!

My PC case is a generic Gigabyte one (similar to this Just a moment... ) and is reliant on passive cooling. The only fans are for the PSU (recently replaced as the fan on the old PSU was getting noisy) and for the processor, there is no case fan. This is the rear view



and the side panel view - behind the upper vent is a duct to the processor fan


It would seem to me that a fan can be attached to the rear panel and set to pull air through the cabinet, presumably the bottom of the side, and out through the back. If so I just need to measure the size of fan needed - from the holes there look to be 2 options.

The MB has SYS_FAN1 & PWR_FAN, both 3 pin connectors; SYS_FAN2 is 4 pin. The MB manual says it supports CPU fan speed control, makes no mention of speed control for SYS_FAN2 though I'd hope that the Sense pin would be so used. My preference would be for a speed-controlled fan.

Does this sound like a plan?

FWIW I've been running with the side panel removed for the past hour or two and the 2 drive temperatures are 30C (SSD) & 40C (HDD), much better.

@tpriest

Yeah, the back fan looks to be 92mm. If you can find one, I'd recommend this one...
Cooler Master Blade Master 54.8 CFM 92 mm Fan (R4-BM9S-28PK-R0) - PCPartPicker

That is a 4pin PWM fan...if the sys fan connectors on your motherboard are 4 pin, then you can probably control the fan speed in the BIOS.

As @NavyLCDR said, there is probably at minimum one fan mount in the front.
On cheap cases like that, there are probably clips holding the front of the case on. You should be able to open that.





This isn't your case, but it should be similar. You can see how the front pulls off. Be careful, there may be wires attached to the part that pulls off.

Behind the part that pulls off you should see 1 or 2 fan mounts.








Here's a pic of another case with a similar front piece. The RED dots show the holes where the clips go in.
And on this case there's two front fan mounts.
On some cases the front doesn't "pop" off. On those type, you would have to mount the front fans from the inside.











Try to get a rear fan and two front fans if you can mount two in the front. Then you will also be able to remove the side air duct. With a front intake and rear exhaust, you won't need the air duct.

You will have to measure the size of the front fans. They might not be 92mm like the rear fan.

The MB is a Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3. The manual refers to PWM for the CPU fan and the CPU fan pin details have Pin 4 as Speed Control.

For PWR & SYS fans (both 3-pin), pin 1 is Ground, pin 2 is +12V, pin3 is Sense.

For the 4-pin SYS_FAN2, pins 1 is Ground, pin 2 is +12V/Speed Control, pin 3 is Sense, pin 4 is Reserve.

Does this mean that SYS_FAN2 has PWM / speed control?

The rear panel fan mounting holes are approx. 70mm or 82mm, so a 92mm fan will be appropriate. There's no fan provision on the front panel but I can see there's provision for a fan on the base of the case, not keen on an intake there.

Any thoughts on the least noisy fans? Prefer ones with rubber or otherwise insulated mounts to avoid transmission of vibration to the case.

tpriest said:

The MB is a Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3. The manual refers to PWM for the CPU fan and the CPU fan pin details have Pin 4 as Speed Control.

For PWR & SYS fans (both 3-pin), pin 1 is Ground, pin 2 is +12V, pin3 is Sense.

For the 4-pin SYS_FAN2, pins 1 is Ground, pin 2 is +12V/Speed Control, pin 3 is Sense, pin 4 is Reserve.

Does this mean that SYS_FAN2 has PWM / speed control?

The rear panel fan mounting holes are approx. 70mm or 82mm, so a 92mm fan will be appropriate. There's no fan provision on the front panel but I can see there's provision for a fan on the base of the case, not keen on an intake there.

Any thoughts on the least noisy fans? Prefer ones with rubber or otherwise insulated mounts to avoid transmission of vibration to the case.

I know.









Could you take a pic of the inside of your case? Like the pic of my case up above?