W3V Hard-drive temperature

Hey, I'm just wondering, what's a normal operating temperature for my Fujitsu 100GB 4200rpm hard-drive in my W3V?

I didn't see many topics about hard-drive temperature on this forum... mostly only about CPU temp.. so... does hard-drive temperature matter that much?

I'm just a little worried because when I use my laptop on my lap in bed (on bedsheets), the hard-drive gets to about 55 celsius and the NHC warning goes on.

I just undervolted my CPU a bit... will that affect my hard-drive temperature?

 

my 5400 rpm HDD (western digital) idles at around 42-45 degrees Celsius.

on your bed, the underside of the laptop gets zero airflow. all the heat is trapped and gets bumped back into the machine.

undervolting only affects your processor, which probably idles at a cooler temp than your HDD on your bed. technically that would cause some of the hard drive heat to dissipate towards your processor and the fan there, but that's just thermodynamics.

i recommend putting your laptop on a hard, flat surface (textbook, binder) first if you really want to use it on your bed.

 

HDD temp isn't really that critical unless it goes into the 70s+

The warning temp of 55C that NHC assigns is too low, and the warning is annoying - I easily hit that consistently in the summer on my z63. I set the warning temp to 65; you'll never see a warning again, because the fan will keep the operating temp under 60 in nearly all situations - and 60 is still well within the operating range for that HDD.

CPU undervolting will not affect HDD temp - if anything, it allows the HDD to get into the high 40s/low 50s a bit quicker after startup because the fan won't come on as quickly; it seems like the Asus BIOS is tagged to the CPU temp to start up (at least on my z63, anyway). Once it comes on, however, it keeps the temps of the CPU and HDD under control as long as I'm not blocking the intake vents.

 

Really? That's really comforting! Right now it's at 48 celsius just sitting on my desk.. going to test out the bed temp. again.

Oh and, should I underclock my graphics card too? Will it automatically underclock when I'm just using firefox/email etc..? I don't understand how that works exactly. How do I underclock it in NHC?

Thanks!!

 

asus faq has a short tutorial on undervolting. CHC works about the same as NHC.

 

Don't know much about ATI graphics undervolt/clock in NHC, since mine has integrated, but here's the direct link to NHC's details on that feature.