Cooling hard drives. HDD cooling - methods, their features, advantages and disadvantages

Today on the Internet you can find a huge amount of materials on the problems of air cooling. hard drives and suppress the noise they produce. You can find almost everything except a consistent, systematic approach to solving this problem.

And it is solved in different ways:

• some believe that the main thing is to cool and cover the entire hard drive with radiators, surround it with the most powerful howling and roaring fans, and noise is considered a side effect that does not deserve attention;
• others are annoyed by such noise, and they each try to deal with it in their own way, and often to the detriment of cooling;
• and many do not at all represent the consequences of overheating and do not pay attention to either exorbitant temperatures, or, especially, noise.

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Why is that?

The point, most likely, is that few people are sufficiently familiar with the ways of solving problems such as effective cooling and noise suppression produced by hard drive(and the computer system as a whole).

This state of affairs led to the appearance of this article. Its main goal is to provide all possible assistance in understanding, understanding and systematizing general principles and ways to comprehensively solve problems such as cooling hard drive, and the suppression of the noise it produces.

In this article:

• if possible, briefly, popularly or even completely axiomatically, the information and the minimum foundations necessary for understanding the material under consideration and approaches to the choice of specific design solutions are presented;
• an attempt is made not only to analyze and classify the methods and methods of air cooling of a hard drive and reduce the noise it produces, but also to analyze the effectiveness of solutions used in typical devices for cooling and reducing the noise of hard drives;
• shows an example of an integrated approach to solving the problem of cooling and reducing noise hard disk, both when choosing a specific finished device, and in the practical development and manufacture of a home-made design.

I would like to hope that the article will be useful to everyone who wants to get the most balanced solution for cooling a hard drive, producing a minimum of noise and preventing overheating of the drive even when extreme conditions operation and loads. Moreover, both for those who are guided by a ready-made solution, and for those who, in order to most effectively solve problems on a given topic, are ready to be smart in finalizing ready-made solutions, to make something of their own.

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Notes

Many of the terms used in the article currently have a lot of interpretations. Therefore, in such cases, we will specifically stipulate their meaning and content used in the article.

The following signs are used to focus the attention of readers:

COOLING BASICS

The hard drive is heated by both electronics and electromechanical elements. Moreover, more heat is emitted, perhaps, by the elements of mechanics, for example, such as a positioner coil in a jar with mechanics (pressure block) or an electric motor. Electronics emits less heat, but individual microcircuits, due to their small size, usually heat up to a higher temperature than the HDA.

From elevated temperatures, it is not so much the electronic components of the controller or the surface of the plates that slowly degrade, but the elements of mechanics. The life of the hard disk is shortening. Elevated temperatures have a detrimental effect on bearings, junctions of moving parts, and especially on read-write heads. Too much heat can cause the hard drive to fail immediately.

What should be the operating temperatures?

There are many opinions here, but many agree that from the point of view of the service life of a hard drive, the optimal temperature of the can can be considered to be (35 ... 45) ° C, and the operating temperature for most modern microcircuits, according to their documentation, is much higher and can reach 125 ° C

Of course, if there are already very hot chips, then the life of the electronics can be significantly reduced. But this phenomenon is quite rare and rather refers to the miscalculations of the developers.

In addition, disc manufacturers, as a rule, also limit the rate of change in the ambient temperature or the rate of change in the temperature of the cooling air, which is actually the same with air cooling, by values ​​no more than (15 ... 20) ° C / hour. In the documentation for hard disks various manufacturers, this rate of change is usually referred to as “temperature gradient” or “temperature difference”. See, for example, clause 7.2.1 Temperature and humidity or clause 2.8.2 Temperature gradient , or clause Temperature difference .

It is usually not at all difficult to limit the heating of the jar and hard disk electronics chips to the levels indicated above. But not to exceed the specified rate of change in ambient temperature is more difficult. Especially in the first (10 ... 15) minutes after turning on the system unit, when the air heating rate in it is very high. The change in air temperature around the hard drive during this time should not exceed (3…5) °С. Although at first glance, this is a little "surplus". But….

The excess of the considered parameters often manifests itself where, for the sake of minimizing the overall noise of the system unit, the number of fans and their rotation speed are thoughtlessly reduced. Often, in cases where the area of ​​air intakes for cooling hard drives is insufficient or there are none at all, hard drives are left to “stew in their own juice” without thinking about cooling them at all.

Conclusion. AT general case it is necessary not only to adequately cool both the jar with the mechanics and the electronics of the disk, but also to prevent the temperature gradient of the cooling air from exceeding. Those. create some device or cooling system that performs these (and not only) tasks.

A system is something whole, which is a unity of regularly arranged and interconnected parts.

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How can you take away heat from the HDD?

It is known from theory that the amount of heat per unit of time or the heat flux q taken from any cooled surface (chip, hard drive, etc.) is described by Newton's formula:

q=α*S*ΔT(1)

• q - the amount of heat per unit of time (unit of J / s or W),
• α - heat transfer coefficient, W/m²K,
• S - heat exchange surface area, m²,
• ΔT=T-Tair - overheating or temperature difference between the temperature of the cooled surface T and the temperature of the coolant Tair (air temperature during air cooling), K.

Simply put, the formula says that the amount of heat taken from any cooled surface is directly proportional to:

• temperature difference between the temperature of the cooled surface and the air temperature;
• area of ​​the cooled surface;
• heat transfer coefficient.

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Findings:

To improve the cooling of the hard drive (increase the amount of heat removed), you can only use three methods:

• decrease in the temperature of the cooling air;
• an increase in the heat exchange surface area;
• an increase in the heat transfer coefficient.

The combined use of these methods dramatically increases the efficiency of the hard disk cooling system.

And what does it look like in practice?

Increasing the heat transfer surface area

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The heat exchange area is usually increased with the help of radiators.

It can be seen that, theoretically, in order to double, say, the heat flux (or, what is the same, double the decrease in overheating), it is also necessary to double the heat exchange area.

In practice, due to the fact that both the properties of the heatsinks themselves and the heat transfer from the disk to the heatsink are not ideal, more than a twofold increase in the heat exchange area is required to reduce overheating by a factor of two.

In addition, HDDs have almost no flat surfaces suitable for installing smart radiators.

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Although it seems not. Almost all hard disks have a flat surface formed by a thin tin - a HDA cover, on which a solid heatsink can be easily fitted.

But since all the heating elements are fixed on a cast massive base, the removal of heat from it through a thin tin with a piece of paper glued to the radiator immediately looks unpromising. The path through the air inside the can and the tin lid is also not particularly attractive.

But it looks much more promising than cooling through a thin tin cover. Especially if you do not spare the thermal paste between the heatsink and the side surface of the hard drive.

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In practice, heat removal from the side surfaces of the HDD is the most common.

You can, of course, level and sand the side surfaces of the hard drive (loss of warranty!!!). Then install quite decent radiators on them.

In this scenario, the cooling of the disk through the side surfaces is quite efficient, but not optimal:

• improvement of heat transfer is observed only through the side surfaces, the total area of ​​which is less than 1/6 of the total surface area of ​​the can;
• uneven cooling of mechanics, as the elements located in the middle of the jar away from the radiators (side walls) are not cooled in the best way;
• without additional cooling, the electronics remain (although? heatsinks can also be adapted to the hottest chips, and in some cases it is necessary to adapt them).

Well, installation on the lower, as a rule, very curved surface of many small radiators is quite laborious.

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Recently, however, soft heat-conducting pads have become widespread. They are easily deformed and allow heat to be transferred from the uneven surfaces of the hard drive to the heatsink.

An example of such a design is the CoolerMaster DHC-U43 CoolDrive 3 HDD cooler. Its design differs from the designs of "unframed" coolers by the presence of an aluminum casing-air duct. ? It also serves as a radiator, increasing the heat exchange area.

To cool several hard drives at once, devices of the LIAN LI EX-332 HDD Mount Kit type are used, installed in free 5.25 ”bay.

This type of “basket” has an increased gap between the disks, is closed from above and below and allows for an air flow to evenly “lick” almost the entire surface area of ​​hard disks and allow for efficient cooling of both electronics and uniform cooling of a can with mechanics.

In addition, this type of “basket” is often equipped with air filters and rubber dampers to combat hard drive noise.

Air flow shaping

In the hard drive cooling systems just discussed, ventilation grilles, air intakes, hard drives themselves, etc. are always obstacles to the movement of the air flow formed by the fan, which has to create some pressure to overcome the resistance to the air flow.

Moreover, the greater the air flow required to remove heat, and the greater the degree of turbulence of this flow, the more the cooling system counteracts the passage of this air flow, the great job it is necessary to make the fan creating this flow. And the more powerful the fan is required to overcome the resistance. Accordingly, the generated noise increases.

And since the fans themselves (regardless of the rotation speed) form an air flow with a high degree of turbulence, the resistance of the system with the “pump” fan at the inlet is greater than the resistance of the system with the “exhaust” fan at the outlet.

As a result, hard drive cooling systems with an “exhaust” fan have the following advantages over systems with a “pull” fan:

• at the same speed of the same fans, a slightly larger amount of air flow and, consequently, slightly better cooling;
• for the same cooling, the same fan speeds are required to be lower and, therefore, less noise is obtained.

Air flow thickness

The total thickness of the air flow with the use of "exhaust" ventilation in the HDD cooling system should not be too large, since the air layers most distant from the cooled surface are little involved in the cooling process.

on the one hand, here, with a constant air flow, the thinner the air flow, the higher its speed and, therefore, the better the cooling of the disk (see p.). But in this case, with a decrease in the cross-sectional area of ​​​​the air flow, the resistance to the air flow increases, a more powerful fan is required, and noise increases.

on the other hand, if the air is heated mainly near the surface of the hard disk, then the average temperature of the excessively thick air flow that has passed through the hard drive cooling system will increase very slightly, and such air flow can be used to cool other components of the system unit. But pumping excess air is again a source of excess noise.

Practice has shown that in most cases the optimal flow thickness around typical 3.5” discs is 8-12 millimeters. From the side of the thin tin cover of the HDA, this value can be reduced to 5-8 millimeters.

For 2.5” disks, due to lower heat dissipation, the thicknesses of the threads may be smaller. The author cannot give specific values ​​for the optimal flow thickness around 2.5” disks, since I did not experiment with such disks.

When using "pressure" ventilation, the air flow is obtained with a very high degree of turbulence over the entire cross section, and its thickness can be several times greater. But again, pumping excess air is a source of excess noise.

Yes, but how much air is needed to cool the disk?

Air consumption

There is a simple formula that allows you to calculate with sufficient accuracy the air flow Q in cubic feet per minute CFM (cubic feet per minute) required to remove thermal power W from the hard drive in Watts with allowable overheating ΔT in degrees Celsius:

Q=1.76*W/ΔT(2)

This ratio unambiguously shows what capacity Q the cooling system must have to remove the required thermal power W with the help of convective heat exchange at a given superheat ΔT.

Other types of heat transfer - heat transfer by conduction (heat transfer through direct contact with the basket or, for example, the walls of the case) and radiant heat transfer (heat transfer by radiation) are not taken into account here. Moreover, in the presence of gaskets and washers, special shock-absorbing, vibration-isolating mounts or a soft suspension of a hard drive to reduce noise, the contribution of these two mechanisms to the heat transfer process becomes completely miserable. Therefore, they can be ignored.

For example, let's estimate the value of the air flow required to remove the average (7 ... 15) W of heat from a hard drive with overheating, depending on the tasks (5..15) °С.

The calculated value is

Q = 1.76 * (7…15) / (5..15) = (1…5) CFM.

Based on the found value, the appropriate fans are selected, and the air path of the cooling system is designed. However, it must be said right away that in the right cooling system, almost any fan can provide the amount of airflow for cooling one disk, even with reduced power.

True, due to the worse heating of the air layers remote from the cooled surface and pumping excess air completely past the hard drive, as a rule, a slightly larger air flow value is required. Moreover, the thicker the air flow, the more excess air is pumped. Turbulent flow heats up more evenly, so it is more economical than laminar flow.

Cooling air temperature reduction

Everything is simple here.

By how many degrees the temperature of the cooling air decreases, the temperature of the hard drive also decreases.

Thus, the usual options with cooling the hard drive with air heated inside the case are not optimal, although sometimes they are implemented in a simpler way.

If we exclude such “exotics”, such as, for example, installing the system unit in a refrigerator or using outdoor air for cooling in winter, then it is optimal to use outside air to cool the hard drive, i.e. air taken from outside the system unit, and not from inside it, where the air is, by definition, warmer.

Systems that provide the flow of fresh and cold air into the system unit

To create air flow to cool the disk, fans of the general cooling system in the power supply, on the back or top wall of the case, etc. are usually used.

Such solutions are now used in many modern buildings.

With “exhaust” ventilation, i.e. which creates some air pressure in the case, part of the air sucked in through the ventilation holes is directed to HDD.

With “push” ventilation, which creates some excess air pressure in the case to blow the disk, a separate additional fan located in front of the disk must be used.

At the same time, the same fan is used in common system cooling to force air into the housing.

Sometimes special adapter trays are used to install 3.5-inch hard drives into 5-inch bays in the case.

On the front panel they have a fan for blowing the drive with outboard air.

There are such devices for installing multiple disks.

The use of outside air for cooling allows not only to automatically meet the requirements for, but also to reduce the temperature of the disk by several degrees.

Systems that provide heat transfer to the outer surface of the hull, cooled by outside air

Such solutions are now rarely used. Mainly in fanless cooling systems such as corps Zalman TNN500A.

Here, the hard drive has thermal contact with the side wall, which plays the role of a radiator cooled by outboard air.

However, in practice, such a solution, due to the rapid heating of the air in the housing after switching on, as a rule, does not allow meeting the requirements for.

That's what I remembered from the fact that, willy-nilly, I will have to take into account when developing a truly efficient and low-noise cooling system. Let's talk about noise.

To be continued...

Do you want to extend the life of your hard drive? Are you willing to spend an extra $5-$10 on a cooling system for it? Let's see what options there are.

There are not so many types of cooling:

• First of all, of course, air cooling. The vast majority of such systems are a plastic or metal frame with a fan, which is screwed to the bottom of the hard drive. And the power supply for the fan is taken with the help of a special adapter from the free connector of the power supply. There is also an option with installing a special adapter for mounting the hard drive in the 5.25 slot (this is where the DVD drive fits), and the fan (or fans) is placed instead of the plug on the "facade"
• Secondly, this passive cooling systems. That is, just a specially designed heatsink that is attached to the hard drive, in contact with the heating parts of the "hard drive" and removes heat to the environment "by gravity", due to the large heat transfer area.
• And thirdly, we can mention liquid cooling systems. But this is an uninteresting exotic, the practical application of which is practically absent. The advantages of liquid systems include very good thermal efficiency and uniformity of heat removal (The exception is modders, overclockers, etc. "homemade")

Keep your feet warm and the Winchester cold

Today we will review the entire product line of Titan coolers designed for cooling hard drives. Some of them have already been considered by us one by one, but now it's time to bring everything together and consider all the models at once. I hope that this material will be useful to those who are looking for a cooler to cool their hard drive.

As you probably know, the hard drive is not one of the hottest components in a computer. Its temperature, as a rule, does not exceed 45 degrees during operation without any additional cooling, and in the list of computer "heaters" HDD is after the processor, video card, power supply and system chipset. But why, then, since the advent of hard drives with a spindle speed of 7200 rpm, coolers for HDDs have come into use? The answer is simple - a hard drive is a complex mechanical device, and its performance directly depends on temperature. And if the processor or video card can be overheated without fear of consequences, then the overheating of the hard drive is detected by its SMART system and recorded in memory. Subsequently, the warranty service has the right to refuse free replacement media, as the conditions of its operation have been violated. In addition, the higher the temperature of the hard drive, the less it will live. For example, a hard drive is three times more likely to fail at an operating temperature of 50 degrees Celsius than at 25 degrees Celsius.

HDD temperature, °C	Failure Rate
25	1.0000
26	1.0507
30	1.2763
34	1.5425
38	1.8552
42	2.2208
46	2.6465
50	3.1401
54	3.7103
58	4.3664
62	5.1186
66	5.9779
70	6.9562

The table above shows how much the number of failures increases when the hard drive operating temperature is above 25 degrees. Looking at this table, draw conclusions - whether it is worth cooling the hard drive or not.

For an ordinary hard drive with a spindle speed of 7200 rpm, a conventional fan is enough, which would be directed to its case (preferably from below, from the electronics side). But traditionally, there are only two designs of HDD coolers - with cooling of the HDD case by air taken from outside the computer and cooling of electronics by air inside the case. It is worth noting that in both cases, coolers cool the entire hard drive, but in one case, the electronics are more than mechanics, and in the other, vice versa. Coolers cooling HDD electronics are designed for simple conditions cooling, when, in general, the ventilation in the computer case is normal, and there are one or two hard drives in the case. The same models that take air from the room and cool the HDD with it are designed for more difficult conditions. For example, when an array of several hard drives is installed in the computer, and the ventilation in the case is not enough to effectively cool the drives.

Today we will consider both those and other cooling options. Let's start with the simplest models.

The first cooler in our review is a traditional design - direct cooling of electronics.

The cooler is supplied in a blister pack. The package bundle is minimal - the cooler itself, and a set of screws for mounting the hard drive.

The Titan TTC-HD11 hard drive cooler has one 60x60x10 mm fan with a blade speed of 3600 rpm. It has a performance of 15 CFM at a noise level of 26 dB. The wave-shaped body of the cooler helps the airflow to quietly pass over the entire bottom surface of the hard drive and cool both electronics and mechanics.

The 2.04 W fan is connected to the hard drive with a 4-pin PCPlug connector. The power connector is pass-through, and does not take up an extra outlet in the computer. TTC-HD11 coolers are equipped with fans with plain and rolling bearings. To be honest, I've never seen fans with rolling bearings on such coolers - the cheapening of the design forces the use of simple plain bearings. Their MTBF is 25,000 hours, and since the fan does not change here, we can consider this time as the lifetime of the entire cooler.

The cooler can be easily installed on a 3.5" hard drive. The height of the TTC-HD11 is 14 mm, which should be taken into account if you have several hard drives installed next to each other in your computer.

The next model, TTC-HD12 is very similar to the previous one. The same design of direct cooling of electronics and the bottom of the hard drive can, but with minor changes.

The cooler comes in the same "blister" package and is also equipped with only screws for attaching to the hard drive.

The body of translucent blue plastic has a different convex shape. Cuts are made in its corners for freer passage of air. It often happens that the end of a hard drive rests against the case wall, and in this case the air flow is distributed unevenly - most of it exits through a free hole, and the other part, bumping into an obstacle in the form of a case wall, causes turbulence, which negatively affects cooling and noise level. Holes in the body of the TTC-HD12 cooler solve this problem. Plus, the cooler looks prettier and more technologically advanced.

The same fan is installed here as on the TTC-HD11 model, which has the same noise level and is firmly soldered to the case in the same way.

The height of TTC-HD12 is 15mm, 1mm more than TTC-HD11. Using the terminology of video cards, we can say that with this cooler the hard drive occupies one and a half 3.5" bays.

Further development of the direct blown electronics design resulted in the TTC-HD22 cooler with two fans. In fact, the need for a second fan is highly debatable. Usually, the difference in the performance of one and two fans is small, and it is more correct to consider the second fan as a standby one. Yes, they are both connected in parallel and work at the same time. Yes, in this case, the probability that the cooler will howl like a wolf is twice as high, but... even if one fan howls or simply stops, the second one will continue its work and will not allow the drive to overheat.

A blister pack that needs to be cut with scissors to expose the cooler to the light. Inside, in addition to the cooler itself, you will find a kit for attaching it to a hard drive.

Here we also see the ventilation holes in the case, which are simply necessary here so that the air flows created by the two fans interfere less with each other. It is impossible to turn off any of the fans, just as it is impossible to change them in case of failure.

Two 60x60x10mm fans produce a total airflow of 30.06 CFM at 3600rpm and around 26dB each.

I honestly don't know how else to improve this traditional design. And, perhaps, in 3-5 years, these coolers will remain exactly the same as today, as they were several years ago. Well, let's move on to the next type of coolers with frontal airflow.

Titan TTC-HDC2 and TTC-HDC3

The advantages of the design with frontal airflow are that such a cooler cools the hard drive with air at room temperature. And if you have a hellish inferno in your case, your hard drive will continue to receive a fresh atmospheric stream of normal temperature. It is this cooling method that is incorporated into server cases and disk arrays. Such coolers are installed in the 5.25" bay of the case and already in them, as in an additional chassis, the hard drive is mounted. Titan produces models with frontal airflow TTC-HDC2 and TTC-HDC3 with two and three fans, respectively.

The coolers are supplied in the same "blister" packages, on which only a sticker indicates how many fans you will find inside :). In the kit, in addition to screws and screws, you will also find steel brackets for attaching the hard drive to the 5.25" bay of the case.

There are two or three fans installed on the front panel of the coolers, depending on the model. The 5.25" bay format does not allow vertical installation of fans larger than 40x40 mm. And such fans have low performance - only 5.6 CFM each. Therefore, in order to achieve an airflow level like the fan on the TTC-HD11, they need a minimum Plus, these fans have to move air across the entire length of the hard drive, so two or three front-facing fans are common, each of them consumes 0.96 watts of power and, at a blade speed of 5000 rpm, produces a level noise is not higher than 23 dB.

The fans are connected to the same power connector. The only way to turn them off is by cutting the wires. But they are removed easily, and in which case - you can change them.

Both coolers have a filter installed in front of the fans to prevent dust from entering the system unit. This filter is hidden behind a decorative plastic grille. It can be easily removed for washing.

The cooler is already assembled directly in the computer case. But the hard drive is attached to the 5.25" bay separately, and the block with fans - separately. It is impossible to assemble a hard drive with a cooler into a single structure.

If we consider the distribution of air flows from the fan in such a design, it turns out that most of the air diverges directly upon collision with the end of the hard drive, and only a small part cools the electronics and the top plate of the can. For better cooling of the hard drive, manufacturers decided to install a large radiator on top of the jar.

This design was proposed back in 1999 and was called the "Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler". Its peculiarity was that the radiator mounted on top of the hard drive was blown through by frontal fans, and the use of springs on the radiator mount guaranteed uniform contact of its surface with the hard drive can.

This cooler has only two fans, a larger number does not allow you to install a hard drive mount. It also mounts in a 5.25" chassis bay with screws included.

As you can see, the front side is similar to the TTC-HD2 models. Here, too, a dust filter and a plastic grille are installed.

As you can see in the photo above, some of the fans are covered by a radiator, which has its own air ducts. In the TTC-HD82 model, the hard drive is installed inside the cooler, and then the entire structure is installed in a computer case. There is no thermal interface between the heatsink and the hard drive.

Fan performance and noise levels are similar to those of the TTC-HD22. Fans also cannot be disabled, but in which case they can be replaced.

Well, since there is a heatsink on the cooler, it is quite appropriate to put another fan on it to increase efficiency.

Titan TTC-HD88 (Alaska)

The Titan TTC-HD88 model, also known as "Alaska", combines front airflow with forced cooling of the upper radiator in its design. Today it is the top model in the line of Titan HDD coolers.

The front of this cooler is similar to the HD88 and HD2, and the heatsink is of interest, more precisely the system radiators, since there are not one, but three of them.

Two heatsinks are attached to the sides of the hard drive, which in turn are attached to the main one. The side heatsinks and the front of the hard drive are generously blown by the airflow generated by the front two fans. The top heatsink is blown by its own 70x70x10 mm fan. This fan will be very difficult to replace.

Due to the design features, the hard drive does not fit snugly against the upper radiator. So its effect on HDD temperature is minimal. Of course, the problem can be solved by adding a paste or thermal interface as a thermal interface, but this is already a task for enthusiasts. We have already reviewed this cooler in more detail in one of our reviews, if you want to take a closer look at it, the link is given at the end of this article.

Comparison

Testing was carried out as follows: the hard drive was idle for 30 minutes to equalize the temperature. After that, the IOMeter test was run for 15 minutes. At this time, the hard drive was heating up. At the end of the test, the hard drive was idle for another 15 minutes and cooled down. During the test, temperature readings were recorded every minute, which were taken by the MotherBoard Monitor program from the internal HDD sensor. We will compare idle and boot temperatures.

test system
CPU	Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
HDD	Hitachi 60Gb 7200 RPM
Motherboard	MSI 915P Combo-FR
Memory	2 x 512 Mb DDR2 OCZ
video card
Air temperature

Comparison of coolers.

Comparison of hard drive coolers
Model	Cooler dimensions, mm	Venti- lyators	Total CFM	The noise of everyone valve	Price, $	Pace. at rest, o C	Pace. when loading, o C
TTC-HD11	125x100x15	One 60x10	15.03	26	3.56	30	33
TTC-HD12	125x100x15	One 60x10	15.03	26	4.1	30	33
TTC-HD22	130x100x16	Two 60x10	30.06	26 26	5.46	30	32
TTC-HDC2	149x58x43	Two 40x20	11.2	23 23	5.25	31	35
TTC-HDC3	149x58x43	Three 40x20	16.86	23 23 23	5.66	31	35
TTC-HD82	176x149x43	Two 40x20	11.2	23 23	11.3	31	34
TTC-HD88	176x149x43	Two 40x20 One 70x10	28.42	23 23 27	17.5	30	34
Winchester without cooler						35	49

As you can see from the table, with a significant difference in price between the coolers, the cooling effect is approximately the same everywhere. As for the noise level, the record holders for silence are HD12 and HD11 with one fan. The TTC-HDC3 with three fans is the loudest, Alaska is a little quieter. The rest of the models - in terms of noise level are something in between. Although, if you look at the noise without comparing coolers with each other, then all models of HDD coolers are very quiet compared to coolers for processors or video cards, they will be almost inaudible in a computer case.

While the temperature has a critical effect on the hard drive, it is very easy to cool it down. Under normal conditions, the simplest cooler, such as the TTC-HD11 or TTC-HD12, is enough for this. And if you have an ordinary home computer, then perhaps you should not overpay for a more expensive cooler. But if your hard drives work in difficult conditions and the temperature in the case is kept consistently high, then it makes sense to choose a cooler with air supply from outside the computer. And it is in difficult working conditions that the difference in cost between coolers will be justified.

But the low price of Titan coolers and the low noise level make us look at cooling from a different angle: even for $3.5 you can halve the probability of a hard drive failure. And if you remember how many problems a suddenly "flying" HDD can cause, then even $ 17.5 does not seem like a significant price to pay for confidence in the safety of data.

We continue our acquaintance with the families of CrownMicro brand cases, and the next in line is the CMC-245 line. This series of thin desktop cases for mini-ITX and mATX systems comes with a pre-installed ITX power supply...

Does the hard drive need cooling? It is unlikely that there is an unambiguous, uniquely correct answer to this question. Some argue that the lack of additional HDD cooling will inevitably lead to its premature death, others say that hard drives are able to withstand much higher temperatures, and if the issue of cooling was so critical, manufacturers themselves installed cooling systems without fail. However, everyone will probably agree that lowering the temperature (to reasonable limits) will at least not worsen the characteristics of one or another component of the computer system, and the hard drive is no exception.

Now there are a huge number of HDD coolers on the market. The most common and inexpensive option- installation of a conventional fan cooler. For me personally, as for an ardent opponent of the appearance of an additional source of noise in the computer, the "prospect" of installing such a cooler was purely negative. In addition, more than once in my lifetime I had to observe dead drives, hung with fans almost from all sides. And the fan itself, like any other mechanical device, tends to break, get clogged with dust, stop, in the end, only worsening heat removal from the HDD. Therefore, once I noticed an interesting hard drive cooling system based on heat pipes from Zalman, I had a desire to get such a "thing".

And now, Zalman ZM-2HC2 in his hands, let's see how he copes with his duties.

But first things first. So, the scope of delivery:

• in fact, the cooling system itself
• instruction
• set of fixing screws

Here it is worth noting that in addition to the usual screws-bolts, there are also rubber stands, which are the connecting link between the cooler and the case, the iron parts of which are not a single whole, as it might seem at first glance. Naturally, this decision should have a beneficial effect on vibration and sound insulation. And taking into account the lack of electrical contact between the HDD case and the "ground", the manufacturer took care of this by equipping the device with a jumper that serves to ground the HDD.

In addition, two stickers with hole marks were found in the kit.

To tell the truth, it was not immediately clear what they were for and where to sculpt them. But reading the documentation, albeit a simple one, made it clear. It turns out that in addition to the banal installation of this monster in a 5.25 "bay, it is also possible to install it on the bottom of the system unit. And these stickers are designed to facilitate this procedure.

Radiators are made of aluminum, heat pipes in the amount of 11 pieces are copper. Looking closely, you can understand the manufacturing technology, or rather, the method of combining radiators and tubes into a single whole.

For testing, a Seagate ST3320620AS hard drive - 320GB, 7200rpm, 16MB cache, SATA was chosen as a test subject.

After installing the cooling system, appearance the assembly began to resemble some kind of clearly integral block of an intergalactic liner.

The HDD was installed in a Foxconn 3GTS-002 case. Temperature readings were taken when installing both in 3.5" and 5.25" bays in order to establish the temperature difference when the HDD was in different parts of the case.

The ambient temperature was maintained at 20-21 degrees. The case covers were closed, no additional fans were installed in the case.

For maximum warm-up, operations were used to copy large amounts of data from one partition to another, in particular:

• copying small files, total 24GB
• copying 35GB of data, each file is at least 500MB
• and finally, in order to make the "rustling" of the heads even stronger, the two above operations were launched simultaneously.

Head temperatures were taken using the HDDLife program. In principle, you can use any such program (HDD Thermometer , HDD Temperature), since they all receive data based on S.M.A.R.T information.

In addition to the temperature of the heads, the temperature of the hard disk case was also measured. This was done using a conventional multimeter tester with an external temperature sensor. Of course, relying on the readings of such a device does not make sense, however, we were primarily interested in the temperature difference, and not their exact readings.

When installed in a 5.25" bay, two rails were used:

The first thing that was done was to check the temperature difference in the two compartments without installing a cooler. The mentioned file operations took about an hour and a half. As a result, the maximum temperature reached by S.M.A.R.T. was 56°C and the HDD case temperature was 46°C. Moreover, the indicators for different compartments were identical.

The time has come for the Zalman ZM-2HC2. The cooler was attached to the hard drive and the whole structure was installed in the case. Here a problem arose. The fact is that the case has a slide system and, in addition, one of the sides does not have mounting holes. Considering that the entire structure is attached to the case on flexible rubber holders, it is not possible to install a cooling system in such a case without preliminary preparation.

What did the tests show? Oddly enough, but Zalman disappointed. The temperature did not change a single degree and also amounted to 56 and 46°C for the HDD heads and case, respectively. Radiators and heat pipes heated up in much the same way as the hard drive itself. It was possible to notice only that the warming up to the maximum temperature took longer than 10-15 minutes. And one more pleasant moment - the noise of head positioning on an already not very noisy hard disk has become almost inaudible.

Frankly, after such results, there was no desire to conduct any further testing. But still we will continue.

The next test was vibration and noise isolation. To get a greater effect, another drive was taken, namely ST360021A - 60GB, 7200rpm IDE (all further tests were already performed on this drive), which, when installed in the KME CX-5759 case, rumbled like a real tractor.

Temperature measurements were also taken. True, now the hard drive did not warm up to the fullest, but only worked in its usual, so to speak, "office" mode. In the 3-inch bay, the temperature of the heads was kept at 42°C. But after installing it in a 5.25 "-bay, the temperature increased by 6 ° C. Now Zalman is still the same 48 ° C. But the rubber racks coped with sound insulation with a bang. The hard drive could only be heard in complete silence, and even then listening - to determine what the computer is doing by the noise of the HDD as before, it was no longer possible.

But still, the device is called Heatpipe HDD Cooler, therefore, first of all, it should be engaged in cooling. What is wrong?

Taking into account the fact that hard disk without a cooler, it had direct contact with the metal parts of the case, and, accordingly, dissipated part of the heat through them, another experiment was carried out.

The hard drive lost contact with the case - it was suspended in a 5.25 "-bay with rubber bands, and thus hung in the air. And here it is! Zalman's little "triumph" - the temperature in this mode rose and stayed at around 50 ° C, sometimes jumping up to 51 (although, if desired, these 2-3 degrees can generally be attributed to errors. It was also hard not to notice that the HDD reached its maximum temperature in a period of time twice as short. This suggests that with the heat absorption of the Zalman cooler just everything is in order, but there are problems with its dispersion into the environment.

For the next experiment, a 12mm fan manufactured by the same eminent company was installed in the case and powered from 12V. He was extracting warm air from the inside of a PC. It was hard to call such a computer quiet.

After allowing air to circulate in the computer case, temperatures dropped an average of 8°C. The temperature difference between HDD heads with and without a cooling system fluctuated in the range of 1-2°C, which also cannot be called something extraordinary.

In the end, in order to somehow justify the developers of this seemingly wonderful cooler, the last test was carried out - installing the drive on the bottom of the case. By the way, with this installation, the noise was absorbed even better.

However, the temperature regime remained unchanged - 42°C, as in the case of installation in a 3.5" bay. Once again, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in this case there is no direct contact between the HDD and the iron elements of the case.

After connecting an old friend, a 120mm fan, to the case, the temperature dropped, but only by 4-5°C. The temperature turned out to be even higher than when installed in a 3.5" bay (most likely, in this case this is due to the specific location of the fan and the drive itself).

After receiving such unintelligible results, attempts were nevertheless made to change the state of affairs. We also used a drive from another manufacturer - Samsung SP0842N, tests with which did not bring anything new (except that the average temperature for this drive was about 53°C), we also installed a regular Maxtron HDD fan cooler, with which the temperature still dropped degrees at 8-10...

Conclusion

Summing up, I would like to ask Zalman engineers: why does the word Cooler flaunt on the packaging? Heat pipes? Radiators? All this, of course, is very good, if the test results did not show what they showed. Rather, this device should have been called a vibration absorber. Judge for yourself. What we have? At the very beginning, the drive is installed in a 3.5" bay, where its temperature in some cases can be 5-10°C lower than in a 5" bay, and this is where you will have to move the drive when installing a cooler on it.

For ST360021A it is 42°C. Further, when this drive is transferred to a part of the case with a higher temperature, its temperature, in turn, rises to 50-51°C, and after installing the cooling system it drops by 2-3 degrees. In total, we get a total increase in temperature by about 6 ° C and complete silence ...

Of the minuses, we also note too high cost for such a device - about $ 25-30.

Of the benefits - an interesting design and appearance, as well as excellent vibration and sound insulation.

In the end, I got the impression that all this aluminum-copper construction serves to maintain the temperature of the drive at an acceptable level after depriving it of contact with the computer case, through which some of the heat could be dissipated, and using it as a cooler without additional airflow does not make sense .

Does your computer often "slow down" and tightly "hang"? Do you hear strange sounds that resemble the grinding of metal on glass and these sounds are heard from the bowels of your system unit?

Congratulations: you've started having problems with your hard drive!
Hard drive problems are by no means uncommon: several factors come into play. For example, time, the number of on-off "tin", as well as the temperature balance. The last factor is especially important and we will talk about it.

So!
What causes a hard drive to overheat? How than? Breakdown, of course. The heating of the disk body leads to the fact that some negative processes begin to occur on the surface of the rotating "blanks", in particular, the magnetic head begins to "fly off". This magnetic head is a very sensitive device, which is initially very finely tuned: the head transmits and receives information (files) that you write to your "tin".

As a result, if the head is subjected to daily overheating, your hard drive will fail very quickly. And keep in mind: the maximum allowable temperature of the hard drive is + 50 * C (and even then, at this temperature, the "tin" is already beginning to "squeeze out"). It's that simple!
Now consider the moment of cooling "tin". How can it be cooled down? Naturally, with the help of a cooler. Although, if you have a lot of time and energy, you can fan the hard drive with a fan!

And what: very effective. But if everything is in order with your head, then you don’t need to do this: they may not understand correctly. But how should it? Mechanical cooling is required, that is, a cooler. But there are "force majeure" circumstances. For example, your system unit is simply not equipped to install an additional cooler that you could supply to cool your hard drive. Also, you may not have an additional slot (socket) for connecting an additional cooler connector. And trying to solder something there on your own is a rather dangerous occupation.

So what? And leave the hard drive in a state of constant overheating? No, don't. There is a way out and it is so simple that you will be very surprised. Look here: the power supply is equipped with an internal and quite powerful cooler, right? And why don't you use the power of this cooler in the right direction, that is, to cool the hard drive?! This is done very simply. Remove the power supply from its usual place, put it on the floor, turn it "face" towards the hard drive. (Attention: you do not need to open the power supply and remove the cooler from there - everything must remain intact.

This information is for "complete dummies" who, sometimes, do not "catch up" with the essence of the advice and show stupid initiative). Naturally, not every cooler can just be picked up and turned around. But if you turn on your brains, then you will succeed. The main thing: pay attention to the wires that can interfere with the rotation and direction of the cooler. In fact, these wires are not a hindrance: they can just be tangled and therefore prevent you from deploying the power supply. Untangle the wires and select the angle of rotation of the PSU (PSU - power supply). How to install - do not forget to connect the power cable.

Everything, start the system. Now put your hand under the hard drive: can you feel the airflow? That's it!
As you can see, everything is simple and you do not need to buy or solder anything.
It is clear that this topic will not be interesting for rich users. But for the more modest - this is what you need!
All the best to you and see you soon!