Hard Drive Cooling for 10 Cents

Hard Drive Cooling for 10 Cents

I have purchased almost every hard drive cooling device on the market, some costing as much as $50 or more. I have systems that place fans in front of the drive that suck air from the outside, and fans that mount underneath. The problem with these setups are that they tend to be expensive, the airflow tends to be quite low, and in general they just don't cool down the drives by more than 1 - 5 degrees. I even own one that claims an 80cfm airflow. But alas I was never satisfied with any of these cooling methods.

For over a year now I have been able to achieve a 10 - 15 degree Celsius temperature drop on my hard drives simply by using a 10 cent bracket from a local hardware store.

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- 1/2" bracket
- 80mm fan
- 3.5" hard drive

I use 3 hard drives in every one of my 20 servers, 2 running as a RAID-1 and the third as a spare in case the raid goes down. I use a mounted cooling fan blowing directly onto the circuit board of every drive, using an 80mm fan, with the air blowing in the direction of the drive surface. Any speed fan will have a dramatic affect on cooling. Please note that in some cases I suspected that the drive temperature was not being reported properly, as some drives showed no change in temperature via software but were clearly cooler to the touch.

Simply mount a standard 1/2" bracket available from your local hardware store. The bracket must fit one machine screw to mount to the rear of the hard drive, and it must also fit a screw capable of mounting the fan. I have been able to do it using the standard screws although you may need a matching nut & bolt for your fan depending on your bracket.

Before removing your drive and fan, make sure you get a test reading of the temperature reported by your hard drive, if your drive supports it.

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Mount the fan to the bracket as shown above. Make sure you mount it with the airflow arrow directed to the drive. Also ensure that the power cable for the fan is mounted at the back end of your setup. A second bracket can optionally be used on the other side of the fan, but keep in mind that in some cases you may have a slight warping effect on your fan if the holes do not line up accurately enough.

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After mounting the bracket to the fan, mount it to one of the rear screw holes on the drive. Mount it on the side facing your open case panel if you want to be able to replace the fan without removing the drive.

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Connect all the power cables and take a sampling of your temperature sensor on your hard drive, using tools such as SMART software. You should notice a dramatic change in temperature such that other cooling methods will no longer be necessary.