[mythtv-users] harddrive suggestions?

[Jeff Williams]

I think there is a bit of misinformation going on about 7200 RPM drives in general.  No hard drive should require cooling on its own - if you have one that does, it's either defective or just a poor quality drive.  I have a Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 (same as the one listed below, which is also the same one that failed for the original guy in this thread) and it does not even get noticeably warm to the touch in use.  That's the way it should be.  I do have another one in another machine that gets slightly warm, but not to the point that I'm concerned about it - this drive also vibrates a bit, which is way more alarming to me.

All machines generate a certain amount of excess energy that is dissipated as heat, so all drives will get at least slightly warm.  If you have several of them, and a poorly-ventilated case, you would probably want to consider some way of cooling them - but it's always better to cool the case than cool the drives directly (otherwise you're just blowing hot air into your case, which will heat up everything else).

Unless you can create a little air circuit just for the drives (say, blowing cool air in to take the heat away from the drives, then blowing that air directly out of the case via a duct or some other method), I don't think hard drive fans are a very good idea.  It's better to ventilate your case properly - better to suck the hot air out of the case rather than blowing it *into* the case.

btw, even though the original poster had a problem with his, I'd still highly recommend the DiamondMax Plus 9 series (there's a new line that's supposed to be replacing it... I don't have any experience with this line, though).  They're very quiet, they're very cool (at least mine are) and mine didn't die on me out of the box like my last two Western Digital drives did.  Some people have brought up large, slower 5400 RPM drives, and if you could really get one for cheaper I'd say go with that, but in my checking around they're really not any less expensive per GB so you may as well go for the faster drive.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: mark.carline [mailto:mark.carline at btinternet.com]
> Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 5:26 PM
> To: 'Discussion about mythtv'
> Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] harddrive suggestions?
> 
> 
> Hmmmm..
> 
> Main problem is that all these hard drives need FANS !
> 
> I would love my hard disk recorder to make no sound at all.
> 
> I am looking at getting one of these hard drives:
> 
> http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=46537
> or:
> http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=44375
> 
> With one of these hard drives cases:
> 
> http://www.quietpc.com/uk/harddrive.php
> 
> Not sure if this will overheat though????
> 
> Mark.Carline at btinternet.com
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of and
> Sent: 25 August 2003 22:15
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] harddrive suggestions?
> 
> They all require a 5 inch bay and I only have an 3 inch bay  
> available....
> 
> Have anyone seen/used/heard anything about one that sits directly on  
> top of the drive?
> 
> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item- 
> details.asp?EdpNo=561084
> or
> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item- 
> details.asp?EdpNo=561082
> 
> rgds
> anders
> 
> On Monday, August 25, 2003, at 12:32 PM, Dane Kantner wrote:
> 
> >> do you have a link to this cooler?
> >
> > http://www.casecooler.com/ulhardrivcoo.html
> >
> >
> > http://www.casecooler.com/blaculhardri.html
> >
> >
> > http://www.thetechzone.com/reviews/cooler/ultimate_hd_cooler/
> >
> > http://www.trianglecables.com/ulhardrivcoo.html
> >
> > There are a lot of sites selling them.  Also, I've seen 
> them at the  
> > local
> > CompUSA and Microcenter....
> > -dane
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
> 
> 
>