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Hi In the Power Options settings of Display Properties, do you ever Turn off hard disks? I usually leave my PC on during the weekend and I was wondering if leaving the hard disks on all the time, is acceptable. Stelios


Stelios Christofides

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Guest CargoMun

Well generally speaking, it isnt very good to use that power save function on IDE harddrives. It wears them out faster then normal use becos of the spin up/down.Especially if one makes it power up and down every 20 minutes like regular sreensavers :D

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Ok, but what about the heat/power generated? I have 2 hard disks one for the operating system and programs and one for filing, especially video filing. Since they are on top of each other I think that shutting them off, if not in use, might be a good idea. What is your, or anyone else, opinion?Stelios


Stelios Christofides

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Stelios - It's better for the drives to leave them running. The surge currents encountered when starting the drive motors are worse for the life of the drive than just letting them turn. If the case is adequately cooled there shouldn't be a heat problem with two drives. I have five HDD's stacked right on top of each other and have never had a heating problem. It gets a little warm at times, :-) , but nothing I'd worry about.Doug


Intel 10700K @ 5.1Ghz, Asus Hero Maximus motherboard, Noctua NH-U12A cooler, Corsair Vengeance Pro 32GB 3200 MHz RAM, RTX 2060 Super GPU, Cooler Master HAF 932 Tower, Thermaltake 1000W Toughpower PSU, Windows 10 Professional 64-Bit, 100TB of disk storage. Klaatu barada nickto.

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Guest byoung

I purchased some hard drive fans for about $7 USD per drive and they really cool off the drives..A pretty cheep investment if you ask me..Barry

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Guest oyvindhansen

Most computer gear is built to withstand years of always-on operation, so you shouldn't be afraid to leave the HD running. Special HD cooling (an extra source of noise btw) is seldom necessary, though some HDs tend to produce moderate heat. Just make sure that plenty of air is blown into the cabinet.- Oyvind

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Guest byoung

I disagree... Heat is a factor and contributes significantly to accelerating the wear and tear life cycle of a hard drive.I can touch my drive and it is basically room temp.. Prior to installing the fan, it was hot to the touch...Whether it will extend its life is another question.. I will say heat is a contributing factor to a computer's operational problems.. That is why I leave the cover off my system unit case for maximum air circulation and cooling.

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Guest oyvindhansen

Unless you have a poorly designed HD a dedicated cooler is (IMHO) pure snake oil. Most PC manufacturers seem happy to give a three year warranty for computers without any dedicated HD cooling. They wouldn't do that if it meant they would have to replace drives all the time. Of course a HD fan will make you feel better on behalf of your system, just like an expensive but essentially unneccessary water cooling system would, and that is just what the fan manufaturers have realised.Also I think a closed case with good fans blowing air from the outside onto the motherboard and components does in fact give better air circulation than an open case with nothing driving air circulation.

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I switch my PC on and off during the day ... it doesn't have any special cooling (quite the opposite!), and it has given 100% reliability for five years :). Leaving a PC switched on is a waste of energy! ;-)

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Hard Drive Dedicated Cooling:I've used high-RPM drives in some systems at work, and they were literally too hot to touch - but we never used any additional cooling. The drives lasted at least three years before we took them out of service to be replaced with larger units. (10 drives total, zero failures). I'm sure cooling them can't hurt, but it probably won't extend their lives too much. Additional airflow CAN, however, help get the heat generated from the drives out so it doesn't add to the overall heat the processor, GPU, mboard, and psu are creating.Hard Drive Power Saving:I keep my HD's spinning all the time. Not because of the cycling of spin-ups and spin-downs, but because I hate the little pause in access that comes about when it is spinning back up. :-) Open Case vs. Closed Case:I have always been a beliver that in most situations, a closed case with proper fans ventilates better than an open case. The closed case allows the airflow to be directed, whereas the open case relies on convection alone. My computer case shipped with two front fans sucking air in and straight over the hard drives, a rear fan exhausting air, and a top fan exhausting air. Air flows into the case, over the motherboard and addon cards, and then out the top and rear. Plus, the power supply is also exhausting air - a very patterned air flow designed to maximize the removal of heat. An open case would be sufficient if your ambient air temps are low, and if you have your case lying on it's side - allowing the heat to rise out unobstructed by the case. But there is always the chance that a pocket of heat can develop - you're fine if that pocket isn't around any heat sensitive components. :) In the end:In the end, I am sure that all of our preferred practices won't considerably change the lifespan of any of our equipment. Common sense plays out well here, and unless you live in the Sahara most of our cooling ideas are enough for our systems... for now. :)

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Guest FPSFREAK

>Unless you have a poorly designed HD a dedicated cooler is>(IMHO) pure snake oil. Most PC manufacturers seem happy to>give a three year warranty for computers without any dedicated>HD cooling. They wouldn't do that if it meant they would have>to replace drives all the time.Most Manufacturers don't include dual High RPM HD's in their systems either. Your right most manufacturers don't as drives have become so reliable lately. They also don't want to invest more into a machine than they have to. It's called profit margin. >Of course a HD fan will make you feel better on behalf of your>system, just like an expensive but essentially unneccessary>water cooling system would, and that is just what the fan>manufaturers have realised.On a stock system an H2O system is not needed and pure overkill but you make a pretty blank, generic uninformed statement. And what has either to do with fan munufacturers. You do realize than almost all of your Extreme high end computers are water cooled in some form or another. So I geuss I can run my 3.2 P4C at 4Ghz with just some fans cooling the system in a good case? How about my 9800 at 450+Core? Got a fan that can cool that 100% stable as it is? I like to fly jets, not have my case sound like one :). 3.7 and 420Core yes but after that Water cooling or Phase Change is the only way to accomplish it.>Also I think a closed case with good fans blowing air from the>outside onto the motherboard and components does in fact give>better air circulation than an open case with nothing driving>air circulation.Now on this we agree. Unless your pointing a nice sized fan at the side of the case you are actually defeating the purpose by leaving the side off unless your case is of poor design or lacks the correct amount of air movement in CFM.Bobby

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Guest oyvindhansen

>They also don't want to invest more into a machine than they have to. >It's called profit margin.Yes, but if a lot of HDs had to be replaced due to the lack of adequate cooling they would probably prefer to install HD cooling. The fact they don't suggests that no coling at all is adequate coling. The same goes for the drive manufactererers themselves, they don't bundle a fan as their products are perfectly realiable without one. I cannot see what multiple drives has to do with the whole thing. As long as there is a little space between them and good airflow in the case they should both have the same temperature as a single one, perhaps a little more as the air temperature within the case would be a little higher due to the presence of an extra heat source. As for CPU cooling: If we are talking about extreme oveclocking I suppose what you say is correct. For stock systems there are however tests (Tom's HW) that show the CPU bundled coolers are adequate, but still a lot of people who don't overclock seem to think they need Arctic Silver and copper coolers. You may be able to obtain a sligthly lower temperature with such equipment, but anyway you are likely to replace the CPU long before its worn out, so the investment is usually worthless.- Oyvind

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