Unrecoverable error

[lyle]

How accurate do you think those temp readings are? I have this case in a cool room. The temp on the outside of the case is 18C and there are two case fans.

???

 

[joeschmuck]

To start off, I doubt the temps are causing you a problem, but they can shorten the overall life of your drives. The temps should be accurate. You probably have poor air flow across the drives. Without a few photos of the inside of your case it's difficult to determine.

Getting back to your drives, nothing you posted looks to be of alarm to me. Check the SATA cables, possibly replace them with nice locking cables. Or simply swap them around.

 

[lyle]

OK, great. That's a relief. I'll get some better cables and see if that stops the problem.

 

[lyle]

Regarding the drive temps, below is a pic of my rig. the four drives are on the left and the case fan on the right. Seems like a standard setup, but any suggestions to get my temps down?

 

[cyberjock]

You should have a fan in front of those disk blowing air into the case and directly over the disks. Otherwise that would explain the high temps.

 

[joeschmuck]

Also you have a tiny 80mm fan for an exhaust fan plus whatever your power supply fan is. That just isn't enough air flow. Like Cyberjock said, if you can place a fan in the front of the case directly before the drives to bring air into the case, that is optimal. If you cannot fit a fan in the front of the case as indicated then my advice is to replace the 80mm fan with a 120mm fan if it will fit that area. Another thing you can try, if you can spread your drives out, maybe you have another drive cage for the bottom of the case. The way the drives are installed now doesn't allow the heat to dissipate for the two center drives at all and this also keeps the outer two drives hotter than they should be.

 

[lyle]

Great, thanks for the advice. It doesn't look like there is a way to add a fan to the front of the case. But I will definitely invest in a bigger fan and see if I can space the drives. Thanks!

 

[joeschmuck]

And the only other thing you can do is to install a circulating fan inside the case which will force air across the drives. This typically requires some ingenuity in order to mount the fan. For me it's a last ditch effort to cool down the drives and other system components. You really want to get the drive temps down to 40C or lower (38 is what I'd shoot for a maximum under normal conditions).

 

[lyle]

I found a 100cm fan lying around and installed that. In fact, it looks like that space on the right will accept 100cm max, I don't think a 120cm will physically fit. I also moved the 80cm fan and put in the top left of the pic below (you can't see it, but it's there). Still not blowing on the drives, but I guess a second exhaust fan can't hurt.

I removed the dvd drive (bottom left) and that gave me the room to space out the drives.

What a difference! With these three changes I am now reporting average temps of a cool 35C!

The only downside, and it's pretty major for me, is the noise. Much louder now with a second, bigger fan. I might have to move the rig as it's currently right beside me. It will be hard to move it because my router is right here. Maybe there are quieter fans out there?

Any suggestions?

 

[joeschmuck]

Try replacing the 100mm fan with a new quiet model. You may have to order one. Spacing out the drives was probably the best thing you could do!

 

[lyle]

Hey, joeschmuck- just for giggles, I took out the 100cm fan completely and moved the 80cm back to the original location. I wanted to isolate how much of the temp drop was due to spacing the drives vs the bigger fan. I was surprised to find that the temps went back to the low 40's. In other words, the spacing out of the drives had very little effect. I thought it would have been the main contributor to the lower temps.

Just sharin' !

 

[joeschmuck]

I'm surprised as well. It would still be a factor but I guess you just don't have enough air flow through the case.

 

[lyle]

I went to my local computer store and they must have had a dozen fans to choose from. The staff was totally unhelpful, but I finally decided on this one. What a waste of money! It was totally silent, but I could feel only a breath of air coming out of it and it had only about a -2C affect on my drive temps. Taking it back tomorrow. Back to the drawing board!

 

[joeschmuck]

40CFM isn't bad at all. It's quiet because it's only a 1000RPM fan, nothing wrong with that.

Let's try a little test... With the fan not mounted and still plugged in, how much air flow is there? Now using the 4-pin molex adapter (hopefully it came with one) power the fan. Does it make a difference?

If Yes, then either run using the Molex power connector or change a BIOS setting for the fan.
If No, then determine if you need to make the following case modification...

Case Modification: Your case has a huge air restriction with the metal grill and you need to remove the metal grill. Take your 120mm fan and mount it. Draw a circle around the fan area. Remove the fan and using a cutting wheel (like a dremel) cut out the metal circle. Mount your fan and ensure there is no restriction, if so clean it up. Purchase a 120mm wire fan screen and mount it on the outside of the case to protect against finger damage. I have done this to all my cases that have this type of metal screen. It's popular in cheaper cases.

 

[Yatti420]

I'm not so sure about that PSU.. Also no ECC ram so it's a risk..

 

[lyle]

The fan came with a molex adapter, but only a female one. All my molex connectors in the computer are female, so I guess I need a male/male adapter before I can try the test. Or maybe just go straight to the bios and see if I can adjust the voltage to the SYS_FAN connector?

 

[Ericloewe]

The fan came with a molex adapter, but only a female one. All my molex connectors in the computer are female, so I guess I need a male/male adapter before I can try the test. Or maybe just go straight to the bios and see if I can adjust the voltage to the SYS_FAN connector?

Check the other end of the connector. I bet it has a male connector. Of course, check the BIOS and set the fan to run at max. If not option is available, it's already at max, most likely.

 

[lyle]

Double checked and there are definitely no male connectors available. Darn! :(

Went into the bios. In System Fan Control I had four options: Normal, Silent, Manual, and Disabled. It was in Normal by default. Speed was about 750 rpm. I tried Disabled, but was only able to get it up to 850 rpm.

In Manual mode I had the choices of "0.75 PWM value/ Temp C" all the way up to 2.5 PWM. Not sure what this all means, but I figured the bigger number was better, so dialed 'er up to 2.5. Still couldn't get past the 850 rpm barrier. I guess a molex adapter is the only way I will get to the advertised 1,000 rpm?

 

[Ericloewe]

Double checked and there are definitely no male connectors available. Darn! :(

Went into the bios. In System Fan Control I had four options: Normal, Silent, Manual, and Disabled. It was in Normal by default. Speed was about 750 rpm. I tried Disabled, but was only able to get it up to 850 rpm.

In Manual mode I had the choices of "0.75 PWM value/ Temp C" all the way up to 2.5 PWM. Not sure what this all means, but I figured the bigger number was better, so dialed 'er up to 2.5. Still couldn't get past the 850 rpm barrier. I guess a molex adapter is the only way I will get to the advertised 1,000 rpm?

No, it just means your particular fan won't do more than 850RPM. On the low side given what they advertise, but not very surprising. Most fans are crap.