custom wood HTPC case, HDD's getting too hot

[Eyor]

Ok, so I've nearly finished the HTPC wood case I've been working on. After having run this for about 5 hours, the HDD's are getting very hot to the touch so I think I'll need to increase the airflow somewhere.

Here's what's in the case

PSU - SeaSonic SS-300SFD 300W

MOBO - ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G

CPU - AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz

CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U9B

HDD 1 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb

HDD 2 - Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EADS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5

Memory - 2x1GB Crucial DDR3 PC3-10600

Soundcard - Asus Xonar D2x

Multimedia 5.25" Bay - Antec Mult-Station Premier Deluxe IR receiver and remote

The design on paper



Photos coming soon

[Eyor]

Front



Above front



Left Side



Right Side



Inside Center Divider



HDD slats



Back

[RoGuE]

the HDD's are getting very hot to the touch

This is super vague...can you get a temp reading from Speedfan? this will help us know if you're subjective measurement is legitimate or not. Trust me, you wont fry them in the process of checking..modern HDD's can operate safely (perhaps slightly too warm) without any active cooling.

[Eyor]

Front



Inside Above Front



Brass Column Fastener



Left Side Open



Right Side



Back

I still need to finish cutting the aluminum mesh for this, need to order a new metal cutting blade for the Dremel.



HDD's way too enclosed, need to add airflow somehow



I'm thinking I may just have to cut a space on the left side for a 120mm fan but, I'm worried the HDD noise will be too loud with this opening. Also, this will force me to modify the way I've mounted the HDD between the wood slats.

Any suggestions?

As always, much appreciated.

[Eyor]

I was also thinking of cutting a hole in front of the HDD's. This space is 100 mm so I could put in a smaller fan. Again, the main consideration here is how much additional noise a hole would create vs providing the required cooling capacity.

The fan on the side is a 120 mm Noctua NF-S12B.

Incidentally, is anyone aware of a software HDD temp monitoring app?

[JamieG]

SpeedFan should be able to monitor your HDD temperatures. If you are not getting temps for your HDDs, check if SMART is enabled in your BIOS.

I'm curious about your airflow direction - is the side 120mm Noctua acting as an intake or exhaust (I am assuming the latter). Either way, you shouldn't need two fans on the CPU heatsink given how close the side 120mm fan is.

Having all your air in the main chamber either come in from or exit via the PCI slots probably isn't the greatest idea. (I can't see any other holes for airflow from your pics).

As for your HDDs, having a direct opening on the front or side of the case to push some air at the HDDs may add to your noise levels, as the seek noise from the HDDs would have a direct path to the outside of the case.

I would consider putting some feet on the case and cutting a hole in the bottom of the case under the HDDs to let some air in and have one of the Noctua 92mm fans from your heatsink mounted 'behind' the HDDs between the PSU to pull some air over the HDDs. Put whichever of your two HDDs is hotter (I'm guessing the Caviar Black) on the bottom, as it will benefit from more of the cooling but stagger the HDDs and maybe use a baffle so some of the air will be pulled over the top HDD as well.

I hope that makes sense!

Alternatively, just drill some holes in the side of the case and use the 92mm fan as above to pull air through these holes and over the HDDs.

Incidentally, it is usually the sides of the HDDs that are the hottest, which is the part of the HDDs that you have effectively encased in foam or rubber from the looks of it (presumably to dampen vibrations) on your HDD 'rails'.

You might want to consider the aluminium HDD heatsink idea documented here to help reduce HDD temperatures. Using this idea in combination with one of the increased airflow mods I mentioned above might help.

[Jay_S]

Since your PSU draws fresh air directly from the side of the case, you don't really need a separate, sealed HDD/PSU chamber. So what about cutting a large hole in the partition wall? Combined with some intake hole(s) in front / beneath the HDD's, and closing up the PCI slot area, the 120MM case fan on the other side would pull in fresh air under the HDD's.

Or, if you can fit a regular ATX psu in there, you could get a SS-300ES (80mm straight-through fan) PSU. Combined with intake hole(s) by the HDD's the PSU fan would draw fresh air across the drives.

I wasn't sure where the design was going at first, but I like how it turned out!

[NeilBlanchard]

Yes, you need to have air flowing through the hard drive/PSU section! The hard drives are in a totally stagnant area.

[Eyor]

Couldn't get SpeedFan to register the hard drives for some reason. However, I installed a free version of Active Hard Disk monitor (also uses SMART) and this found the HDD's and read the temps no problem. Formatting the WD Green 2TB temps got close to 60 C, this is pushing it so I definitely want to increase the airflow there.

JamieG, I love the idea of making a hole in the bottom and putting one of the 92mm Noctua's behind the HDD's. I'm going to go ahead and do this, will post the pics in the next day or two.

The heatsinks may be a good idea as well but will likely be difficult to install as there is very little clearance. I'll check out the local hardware store and see if I can find some suitable aluminum for this.

[Eyor]

Drilled two 1" holes underneath the HDD's and added the 92mm fan behind them. Average temps lowered by 15 C bringing them to around 40.