External hard drive enclosure: does it require cooling?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eleanor Fudd
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Eleanor Fudd

Eleanor Fudd

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I just fired up a 7200 RPM Seagate Barracuda and after a bit, it runs fairly warm. The UBS 2.0 enclosure is solid aluminum, with no vents. Hmmmm..... Do I want an enclosure with vents, or one with a fan? I don't see many with fans listed for sale, by the way.

:confused:

Thank you.
 
The aluminum acts as a heat radiator; no fans needed.
Dont worry about it, just dont pile a bunch of stuff on it.
 
So aluminum conducts heat well? I know it conducts electricity well. Perhaps a little fan blowing over the enclosure.......
 
It is about 60% effective in both electric and heat transfer compared to copper. So yeah it's pretty good. Plus it's lightweight. Plus about a third the strength of steel, whilst being a lot bestter at resisting oxidisation. Makes a good material to make things out of. If you are really worried, you may be able to get a different case for it, but like the comment said above, as long as you're actually giving it space to let off the heat, it should work effectively.
 
Hard drives don't tend to generate a whole lot of heat. They are not using alot of processing power like a CPU or GPU, however they do spin which causes friction. However, in all my experience with computers, I have never seen an external drive that has overheated.
 
phriq said:
however they do spin which causes friction.
Click to expand...

If you had friction in a 5400rpm or 7200rpm spinning drive, you'd soon have sparks, fire and a puddle of melted components.

The heat comes from the motors and electronics and is nothing to worry about.
(I used to work for a drive manufacturer in Boca Raton)
 
Mine cased Cuda gets a bit warm too. I just turn it off when I'm not actually using it. :)
 
TimOBrien said:
If you had friction in a 5400rpm or 7200rpm spinning drive, you'd soon have sparks, fire and a puddle of melted components.

The heat comes from the motors and electronics and is nothing to worry about.
(I used to work for a drive manufacturer in Boca Raton)
Click to expand...

If you don't mind how about a little side trip then? (A few actually :)
I have a little 'EZ-Dock setting here doing 3rd audio drive back-up duty (quite a while now). Rather recently I noticed when I shut down it doesn't stop the drive. (Not sure now if I should have expected it to, I just presumed it did.)
I've read some say it's even better not to stop drives, let them run full time. I'm skeptical on that. (there's days I'm not even on my audio rig)
What about additional bump' risk being powered up?
Last- Are there any normally controlled shut-down routines that are being missed with simply killing he power switch?
 
I don't see why leaving any electrically powered device running constantly would be better. Well, unless it made my wife happy. lol
 
jimmys69 said:
I don't see why leaving any electrically powered device running constantly would be better. Well, unless it made my wife happy. lol
Click to expand...

Somethimg along the lines of starts-stops are the hardest on them/most fails happen at ...

I don't defrag.
There, i said it.

:D

Nah, I pretty much want to turn it off (-that'd be assuming i fricken remember!) if nothing but for the 'oops-bump factor, pending i hear otherwise.
 
TimOBrien said:
If you had friction in a 5400rpm or 7200rpm spinning drive, you'd soon have sparks, fire and a puddle of melted components.

The heat comes from the motors and electronics and is nothing to worry about.
(I used to work for a drive manufacturer in Boca Raton)
Click to expand...

I am not saying that it is going to cause alot of heat, however, any molecule on molecule action causes friction. A spinning plate through air still has friction. the pin the plate spins on will have friction. To say there is no friction is wrong. yes, it is not much and yes it will not create a puddle of melted components, but there IS friction with ANY moving parts.
 
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