Burly Cooling Question: Why does S.M.A.R.T. say drives are at > 100°?

[DamonNoisette]

(Other than the obvious answer "Because they are..." of course)

Here's the situation:

Running an Intel Mac Pro 2.66.
Sonnet E4P host card
8-Bay Burly PM
8 Seagate 7200.9 500 GB HDDs

Is the temperature of the 8-Bay Burly PM box really that high?
Is there a way to get additional cooling without putting a desk fan in front or behind the box?

We've had this configuration going for almost a year now and it's been doing well, but I recently had a Seagate failure inside the Mac Pro and I want to make sure I'm not running a sweatshop inside our boxes!

Thanks.

[kaye]

Somewhat greater than 100F would be normal. Greater than 100C would be very bad. Even 50-60C is about the upper limit for most hard drives. What utility are you using to check temps? k

[ricks]

I suspect that temperatures of the outer shell of the Seagate drives in the Burly are around 90 degrees since you have the drives in those superb drive trays. They act like a heatsink and with the individual cooling fans we always get under 100 degree f temperatures on the surface of the drives.

That said, I also believe that internal drive components will be warmer in use. Outside temperatures are useful measurement since it tells us how well we are doing maintaining airflow, but the inside reported temperatures will be higher no matter how cold we maintain externally.

I have absolutely no idea where SMART temperatures are taken inside a Seagate drive. They probably just put a thermistor in there at some point as a monitor. I doubt that it is very precise either. Something I have never read is a review of how well drives measure their own internal temperatures though, so my ignorance pretty much makes that a guess.

I do know I have never heard of a more efficient enclosure when it comes to keeping drives at low and stable temperatures than the Burly. As long as all the fans are turning your drives are about as cool as they will ever be in any enclosure available.

Rick

[ricks]

One other thing. the airflow inside a MacPro is considerably less than in a Burly. The Burly is really designed with best cooling and power stability that we could sustain. I expect that drives in a MacPro will run 30 or 40 degrees hotter all the time in the MacPro. Drive failures are part and parcel of having higher temperatures.

Rick

[DamonNoisette]

To be totally honest I wasn't really worried about the drives in the Burly 8-bay. We have been running a 4-bay with our G5 for the last two years and it's been rock-solid as well.

Inside the Mac Pro is another story.

Supposedly the drive bays are well cooled but in real life I think the bays are way hotter than Apple wants to admit. I pulled the stock 250 GB WD drive out and noticed the plastic had bubbled in certain areas on the top of the drive!

I have another thread in one of the MG forums regarding the possibility of adding another fan to the Mac Pro to alleviate the heat issues with the hard drive bay.


I also had to send a Seagate back to the factory for a replacement (lovely choice, btw: $20 or 4-6 weeks without... hmm...).

You guys are awesome. Keep up the good work.

[ricks]

Might have to look at how to maintain drive temps in the MacPro. A fan kit might be an answer. My test bench MacPro has a full set of drives including a pair of Raptors. I'll do some actual temperature reading tests and see if there is something to be done.

Rick