C90S Heat issue? Hard drive warnings

Hello,

I've built a C90S and it screams! But the Hitachi 100GB, 7200RPM drive is generating tons of heat in the lower, left side of the notbook and it is uncomfortable for the user to rest his wrist there. There is a think insulating pad between the top of the hard drive and the plastic case, but still too hot for the customers to whom I have demoed this computer. Today, I removed the bottom cover to ensure that the fans are working, and they do turn off and on, as required. Has anyone resolved the temperature issue of the hard disk? Is there a work-around? Is this an issue only with Hitachi drives? Overall, I really like this computer, but the heat issue could cause my customers to seek other notebooks.

Last night when I did metrics on it, HDTUNE caused Vista to report that the hard drive had reached critical temperature level of 55C. Today, with the bottom of the case off so I could work on a wiress adapter issue, the OS reported that the hard drive was again reaching critical temperatures. Is it reporting this issue because the bottom of the case is off and so there is no air being tunneled through the case to cool the hard disk? Its only cooling with the bottom off is radiant. Still, with the bottom on the case last night, while running HDTUNE, I receive this warning at the very end of the test. The next several hours, I did not receive any temperature warnings, but the top, left of the case was definitely to warm to be comfortable for typing.

Help!

Thanks,

Mike

 

Alex said something about vista running the hard drive a lot for the first week to determine how you use it or something like that. Maybe thats the problem.

 

i would not say 55 celcius is that hot for the hard drive because my hard drive is running at 58 right now, just got done playing a game though but still, its always in the 50s.

everyone has said that the hand rest on the left is warm cuz of the hard drive and i personally dont think its that bad but thats just me, im running the same hard drive as u by the way 100gb 7200rpm hitachi

 

Thanks for the replies! Here is a crazy idea inspired by NASA... What if... we take some aluminum foil and put it between the HD and case? I wonder if it would reflect more heat away from the case... Or, alternatively, if we could put some other kind of insulator there... Any ideas?

 

i think they should invent a super small liquid nitrogen device to keep a laptop cool. and that way, if you ever have a wart, u can just freeze it off with that and save a trip to a doctor! so many uses....

 

Well if you can have a camera/phone/music player why not a laptop cooler/wart remover?

 

a 100gb 7200rpm drive is one of the hottest running drives out there....

Alex has a 160gb 7200rpm drive wich is a generation newer tech and runs cooler than the 100gb models due to the increased data density and other invoations.

I personally run a 250gb 5400rpm drive and its not even warm to the touch, not even in that "first week" wich is totally made up if you ask me.

You know the hdd is in use by the hdd light, my first week had no extra activity vs how much it has now.

 

hey is there any kind of noticiable difference from 5400rpm to 7200rpm? because i was thinking of upgrading to 160gb 7200rpm but 250gb sounds much better.


i dnt care for heat at all, i just care about speed

 

Well the 250gb 5400 is pretty much equal to a 160gb 7200rpm in terms of speed. Slightly lower random seek time/access time but nearly identical data transfer speeds and much cheaper in terms of dollar per gig of space.

 

which brand is your 250gb?

 

As long as you have a quality 5400 rpm and you have it defragged there is no quality difference in terms of visual difference to me. Sure in benchies there is some but visually none really.

 

Hi Guys... Well, I definitely would like to look into the 160GB, 7200RPM drive that you mentioned. Is it a Seagate? Thanks for the ideas!

 

Western Digital Scorpio.

I got it for just over 200$ when it was new and nobody carried it, now however newegg has it for like 180-190$ its a steal.

Search the forums for it "250gb western digital" or something along those lines and you can find my benchmarks I posted. Its very speedy, seriously gives a 160gb 7200rpm drive a run for its money.

 

you might be a bit mad vicious but i found it for $145 + $15 shipping - plus an external case

no idea why this guy was selling it this cheap on ebay. especially with a case cuz the drive alone is cheaper - but have emailed him about it and other feedback shows theres no joke.

has 6 left if anyone is interested http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-250GB-USB-P...yZ116258QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Minor word of caution: by applying any kind of isolation between the HD and the case, you may lower the temperature of the palmrest area a bit, but this would increase the temperature of the HD even further. The HD most likely dissipates heat to the palmrest area by design.

 

Maybe a C90 owner will post a picture of the area around the hdd and see if a user mod is possible.

 

Well, based on the fact that I couldn't put my wrists even near the left palm rest and the keyboard was hot to type on, within the fist week, plus the fact that I know that vista runs a ton of diagnostics for a the few days of use before settling in and becoming quicker, and now I can use both palm rests all day with no problems and Vista is a lot more smooth, I'm sorry if I just ASSUMED there was a correlation there.

 

Not mad, that seems like a good deal there on ebay, its not the same drive tho, its 250gb but its not the scorpio. The cache is 4mb vs 8mb so it may be abit slower, probably not enough to notice tho.

Somebody had posted about the same drive the other day thats how I know.

 

Not mad, that seems like a good deal there on ebay, its not the same drive tho, its 250gb but its not the scorpio. The cache is 4mb vs 8mb so it may be abit slower, probably not enough to notice tho.

Somebody had posted about the same drive the other day thats how I know.

 

I've got a 80Gb Hitachi 7200rpm. I had a few laptops already that were getting really hot so I'm used to some heat but let's see how it turns out when I receive my C90 hopefully tomorrow

 

just confirmed with the seller, the drive is infact the wd2500bevs like thought

i was gonna say because upon looking at western digital website, they didnt make a 4mb 250gb drive

 

should be this one here, only 4mg cache, but they dont say on any of the documentation. However somebody had found it when the subject came up o0n a different website. Its not the same drive tho as the ebay sale.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=317#jump11

 

oh this is just the wd2500bevs inside a external case, not specifially made together by western digital. which is exciting because its the same 250GB 8mb cache scorpio

anyone else that wants to pick up the deal, just click the link!

 

I'm betting it's a western digital, of which I no longer use due to hard drive
physical deaths, WD hard drives as per my experience only last up to 4 years
before running a risk of dying on me.

I'm sticking with seagate, I'll just go to home depot and investigate thin
layers of things I might be able to insulate the hard drive with.. theres got
to be something there >.>

It also seems theres no real means of keeping that laptop cool without
inventing something, oh japan.. you can miniaturize all kinds of devices
but WHY haven't you done so for an AC?

I'm getting off topic..

 

WD is really slow and suck for me ever.

 

Thank you 10ten92. That really adds to the discussion.

 

My C90S has also a WD 250GB 5400rpm which is generating too much heat on the touchpad and on the left hand position.
Using HDTune I see the temperature rise to 60ºC!!!! Is it normal?? I have some browser windows open and nothing more.....
Or can the notebook have some problem?

Does the IFL90 or the G1S have the same heating problem on that zone?

tx in advance!

 

I'm probably getting the 160GB 5400RPM. Is it anygood?

From gentech, the 7200 are Seagates, what brand are the 5400?

 

The real problem is that, if you have insulation around your hard drive, it will get too hot, and it WILL fail. Any heat leakage through the top of the case, as was pointed out somewhere above in this thread, is probably intentional. Now, if you insulated the top to prevent uncomfort, and then added some way to get the heat out the side of the laptop, now that'd be a real solution. A solution that is, unfortunately, not really doable in such a small space.

 

I have the seagate 5400 and never does it get too hot that I cant actually physically keep my hands on it. Look forward to it in the winter when it will keep my hands warm and cozy.

 

Hello everyone!

Just bought a C90S from GenTechPC. Got the 5400rpm 120GB internal hard drive. Common story: the left palm is uncomfortably hot.

I appreciate that there is so much feedback in this topic. My problem is that I'm still unclear as to specifically which drive/brand is a good option in terms of heat. Particularly ViciousXUSMC, since you seem to have a good situation regarding hard drive heat, what do you have/suggest?

Is it the 250GB WD Scorpio (WD2500BEVS) internal notebook drive?
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=314

Or the 250GB WD Passport (WDXMS2500) external drive?
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=317
Can an external drive be removed from its casing and installed into a notebook as an internal drive? Is this drive better only because of the price? Is there a 4mb/8mb cache difference?

Or is another drive known to run cooler?

Thank you so much for the help; I'm burning up over here.
Stuart

 

I've got the same Scorpio drive you listed there. Bought it off of Newegg. It does heat up, I won't lie, but it is definately not uncomfortable. The underside of the entire laptop on the other hand, felt like I was burning my hand when I was moving this monster to it's final resting place on my desk next to my other laptop.

But the palm rests, do get warm, but not uncomfortable. I could see it being rather nice when winter comes around actually.

 

im using 5400RPM hitachi, 160GB. yip, its warm, but not hot. Give it a few days. You will probably get used to it....

 

Yeah just be carefull, aluminum foil conducts electricity, you dont want to short your drive!

I would look and see if there is anywhere in your chassis you could drill holes near the HDD (like the W3J has a vent on the front under the HDD that helps air flow over the drive)

Even then it still gets up to the upper 50's sometimes, I am even thinking of removing the metal grill to increase airflow over the drive.

It must be the confined space, because my HDD running in the optical bay always runs 10-15deg cooler than my main drive because it has more open space around the drive.

 

So I may grow accustomed to it... alright I'll try that. I just figure once I begin games, it won't be so pretty. Do you think there is any improvement in heat by moving to a brand name and going with a higher capacity (like 250GB)?

 

i have a seagate and it gets hot too so unless you go 5400 then the brand probably wont make a difference... anyway in the end i just bought a usb keyboard for gaming/long sessions and now i dont have to worry about it

i know its not the perfect solution but its cheaper and you wont wear down the notebook keys so much

 

I have a seagate 120gb 7200rpm and it gets hot, maybe just the drive...
I don't think c90 has problems gaming b/c exhaust fans kick in with cpu/gpu usuage. Why can't asus provide manual fan control?
Wondering if anyone who returned their c90s b/c heat issues or recently recvd back have different back panel than mine - got it couple weeks ago thru Gentech...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/alexvand/Pure Pwnage/asus_c90_hddvent.jpg


I am considering routing extra vent holes for the HD. But really, asus should fix things before shipping to resellers..

 

So the left palm is guaranteed to run hot, even with a 5400rpm? I'm disappointed: this computer is amazing, but that's a vile design flaw. Keep posting if you know of any other options =(

 

Took out the hardrive today and noticed black plastic piece between it and the motherboard.
I think the plastic is to block heat from left palm rest area.
In return it also traps heat inside = higher hd temps.



Running with express card slot holder removed made 3f or less difference.
I am really dissapointed with asus design b/c was planning on using sound card.
But if the temps are high now...ugh...

 

I have an 80 GB 7200 rpm hard drive, and while it does it get warm, I've never had a problem with it becoming uncomfortably hot.

 

Valex, just be careful, the W3J had a similar plastic layer between the HDD and the chassis (which had a copper lining) this was to insualate the drive from electrically shorting out on the copper not for heat.

In the W3J the sheet is installed to the HDD so if you installed a new HDD without the sheet the laptop would not boot bacause the drive was shorting out.

I think you will find this the same, I bet that sheet will be stopping your HDD touching any electrical parts under it, not a heat insulator, its a bit hard to tell maybe you could turn on the macro zoom on your camera, it might help with focus

 

based on the fact that we have Esata, I don't get why someone doesn't buy a sata internal HD, put it in an Esata enclosure (I found one on ebay for 15bucks ish)...and just run that way? Heck, you could get a 7200RPM that way standard. I've seen 500GB internal sata's for like 100 bucks in the first place.

Also of note:

http://bensbargains.net/deal/40744/ - 160GB WD Scorpio 91$ shipped (5400rpms) (laptop HD)
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=205541426 = 127$ 500GB Esata external (unfortunately we don't know what hard drive is inside though)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144450&CMP=AFC-Bensbargains - 100$ 500GB Esata HD/16MB cache from newegg
they also have a 400GB sata for 70$

so yeah, I think if for gaming, might not be bad to get a really fast internal and plug it through esata, not only for additional hard drive cache/speeds, but also since the hard drive won't be in use as much = better temps.

 

why - defeats purpose of having a notebook = portability.
esata port connections are faster than firewire or usb2.0 interfaces, but they need a wall adapter for power.
It wouldn't be practical for Primary/boot drive use to carry around an extra drive enclosure, esata cable, and power adapter.

Anyone with cool running hardrives in c90 please post your RPM, GB, Brand, Temps, and other info.
(didn't want to start a new thread)

 

hes probably talking for gaming. at least that was my first intention when i bought mine, also for video editing and playing-storage.

 

When I used my primary drive in esata enclosure (connects sata to esata)
HDtune no longer has temp readings. I have a Thermohawk 200 sensor to use instead, but didn't know if this is a soft/hardware issue.
I don't have time to mess around with this system anymore...
If someone wanted to buy it I can work a deal out.