15k HDD cooling...

TruckStuff · Post by **TruckStuff** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 12:25 am

I just got a X15-36lp SCSI drive and have been reading a lot that they require tons of cooling. My full tower case has a nice little HDD rack at the top right in front of a couple of fan vents. That is where the X15 will be mounted. Basically, I have 2x 80mm fans (with air filters) blowing in from the rear of the case then a 92mm fan blowing out at the top of the case (a few cm's above it). It looks something like this:

8.............................92MM Out
0.................................../\
M...................................|
M...................................|
-------> HDD Rack ----->|
F....................................|
A....................................|
N....................................|
S....................................|

For now the X15 will be the only drive in the rack, but I may add a 10k drive in there two if I find myself strapped fro storage space. Thoughts?

DocSilly · Post by **DocSilly** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 7:50 am

Should be sufficent.
I got a Cheetah X15, a Cheetah 9LP and an old IBM SCSI drive sandwitched in the drivecage in my Lian-Li PC60, cooled with 2x 80mm fans and I have no heat problems. Just try to keep some space between the HDDs so the air can move between them and cool them.

TruckStuff · Post by **TruckStuff** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 10:13 am

Thanks for the reply. How is your 9LP, Doc? That's the drive I am thinking about picking up. You can get a 9gig drive for only about $70 now. That would be nice for games, etc.

DocSilly · Post by **DocSilly** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 12:16 pm

Uhm, yer better of with a newer IDE drive, you won't see the SCSI performance some would expect, it's an old drive and it maxes out at under 20MB/s max transfer rate.

Drives like the WD1000BB has almost the same low random access time as the 9LP ( 1ms slower) and easily double the transfer rate ... and the 9LP is a HOT drive.

I got my 9LP like 3.5 years ago, back then it was pretty much the fastest drive on the planet ... but that was almost 4 years ago.

I suggest that you keep yer X15-36LP with a small partition for OS (3-4GB) and the rest in a second partition for your favourite games. Get a second huge new IDE drive for apps and storage, the WD1000JB or the WD1200JB, they're a lil more expensive for IDE drives but they have a HUGE cache (8MB) rivaling today's top SCSI drives when it comes to single-user desktop performance, at least the 10K SCSI drives.
Or get the cheaper WD1200BB or the IBM Deskstar 120GXP

Check the reviews at http://www.storagereview.com/ ... that's what I'll most likely get with my next system.