P7805u Hard Drive Temperatures

I was thinking of upgrading (or adding) from the stock 320GB 7200rpm to a WD Scorpio Blue 1TB 5400RPM (2.5", of course).

(Buying likely from CanadaComputers as I live on University of Waterloo campus, and there is a CC nearby -- $79 ish for another Scorpio Black, should I choose to get it...)

How would I set up an internal RAID0? I see it has two HDD bays (hooray!) -- but what do I do, unscrew the HDD panel and just plug in the second hard drive? Do I need a RAID kit or something to install it? Where would i get it?

I'm also worried about a few things though.

One, what will be affected in terms of HDD temperatures and other temperatures?

Two, will upgrading increase or decrease the HDD on idle/load? If so, by how much? (Does it make a difference if it's 5400RPM --> 7200RPM or the other way around?)

Three, will having two hard disks affect anything in a major way? (Especially in terms of HDD temperatures - I'd rather not lose all of my data)

I'm not using anything other than the laptop itself, no coolers, haven't really cleaned it out much, but it's running idly at around 48-53C, on load (usually gaming) anywhere from 70 - 91C.

I don't really know enough about this laptop or laptops in general (up until I bought this P7805u FX last year, I was more of a desktop guy), so speaking to me as if I'm a 5 year old may be useful in helping me understand what the frig is useful.

Also, I'm not really sure what the normal temperatures are on this thing, and as of right now I'm at my home (on the crappy desktop I put up with for this long!!!), so if you want specific temperatures it will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

Ok. So first of all, if you want RAID 0, you want two of the same hard drive. Second, RAID 0 will make a large improvement in tasks that use large files (like transferring them, loading videos...) but for boot time, game load time, and application load time there isn't much improvement, and actually there will be some amount of extra drain on the CPU. The risk of losing data with RAID 0 is a little more than double than if you had 1 drive. If you want speed, the best thing you could do is get a 3.5" eSATA (external) HD.

As for hard drive temperatures, yours can't possibly get to 70-91C. That would probably be your GPU. The Hitachi 7K320 can safely get up to only 55C. Mine usually idles at around 40C and gets up to 47C in the winter when the temp inside is 68F. 2 hard drives would raise the temperature, but as long as you have air conditioning, you should be fine.

In my opinion, getting a second internal drive is only worth it if one is starting to get full, because the inner parts of the hard drive are slow.

 

Well I've already decided that it's not going to be RAID0, (therefore probably AHCI) because of bad past experiences I've both had and heard about them.

I was thinking of loading a 1TB 5400RPM in place of the 320, or else just putting it in the extra HDD slot... I don't mind the slow speed for transfer between the two as I only have ~100GB left on both the internal 320 and my 750GB external eSATA (therefore NO MORE eSATA!!!).

So... what are my options for cooling?

(Yeah, before I meant GPU, but the HDD was uncomfortably warm when running CoD:WaW or L4D, so I need to either find a way to cost-effectively cool it down or else find an alternative internal HDD)

What are the normal temperature differences between a 5400RPM and a 7200RPM - and what are the power consumption differences?

 

You'd be surprised that the Hitachi 7K320 only uses 1W idle and 3W load. Basically there is no cooling for it, which is why it gets hot. 5400 RPM drives would be less than this, but not significantly. You could look up the specs if you wanted to: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-2.5-mobile-hard-drive-charts/benchmarks,53.html

As for cooling, I have a laptop cooler, and I am thinking about cutting slits in the plastic and placing the fan under them. The air would blow in and out the vents that are already there. I just need to ask someone if dust would be an issue.

 

Not really sure what you mean...
5400RPMs < 7200RPMs (in terms of temperatures under load / idle?)??

I was thinking of just creating an image of my 320GB HD and then importing it onto a 640GB Scorpio Blue 5400RPM and using the 640 as my main hard drive.

 

Yes slower drives in general have lower temperatures. If I would you I would get the second hard drive, keep both, and if you notice the temperature ever goes above 55C for either drive, then you could take the 320gig one out. But for most people it isn't a problem.

 

I just opened up SIW (System Info for Windows) and it showed me that I was running the HD at 49 idle... .

Max temperature is 60, right?

How do I lower it?! -- no exhaust fans are covered and last night I opened everything up and sprayed it all with air!!!

I'm so confused... the area above where the HD is is really warm right now and it's scaring meeeee.

 

I found that if I blow air on the hard drive bay with my laptop cooler, even with the plastic cover, it reduces the temperature a few degrees.

 

It still idles at anywhere from 48 to 51...
On load it can go from 55 to 58...
It's dangerously close to overheating and I have no means by which to cool it down.

I did a full disassembly and blew out every single vent I could, blowing air towards the GPU, both cores, the HDD, EVERYWHERE.

Does anybody know a cheap alternative to cooling for this laptop?

 

My guess is that the hard drive is faulty. What is your room temp? For cooling, I use the Coolermaster Notepal U2. It isn't great (only$15), but it works. One of the two fans is slowly breaking and there has always been this humming noise, but I tilt the front of it up and that makes it go away. It also is meant to fit 14" laptops but ours fit ok on them.

A lot of coolers will blow air out of the laptop, which doesn't do anything, and even the ones that blow air into the laptop don't have place-able fans, except for the Notepal U2.

 

Drives have been running hot in the Gateways for last two years. Mine average 49 degrees when gaming.

I raise laptop, larger rubber feet, and use ceiling fan to keep temps under control. No drive failures yet...

 

If I were to change the hard drive, though, would it make it any cooler?
Is it the build of the laptop itself and the lack of fans underneath or is it the hard drive?

 

Depends on drive but lack of air flow plus surrounding main board components has these things running warm.

Idling all night keeps my drives 45 and 40C between the two.

 

Would having two hard drives make it necessarily hotter due to an extra hard drive?
It doesn't seem as if the proximity would be a problem - I was thinking of loading up a 640GB or another 500GB (non-RAID, I hate it, who cares if it's slow) in the other HDD bay -- would this change anything significantly? (besides weight / power consumption) -- I mean in terms of hard drive temperatures...

On load right now (I have music and a bunch of instant messaging programs open), it's 50C. Usually when I boot up BF:BC2 It gets as high as 57 but doesn't go above that.

Would having two hard drives necessarily increase either / both of the hard drive temperatures?

 

I'm guessing it would raise the temp of both drives a couple degrees. But like I said earlier, get a laptop cooler. Mine makes the difference of at least 3 degrees just blowing on the plastic cover, and with the GPU it works super well.

 

having another drive in the laptop does raise the temps by a few degrees only when idle and given proper air flow other wise it is much hotter but still doesnt really go over you current max. Although it will make more of the surround components hot because of an added heat source. changing the drive to a slower rpm drive will make it cooler but it will depend on the drive itself (wont make much of a difference anyway)

Realistically there are only two ways to reduce the temps.
1. buy a SSD instead of a Hdd (you can still use number 2 for lower temps)
2. use a cooler that has the highest Cfm rating you can stand (noise levels)

ive always wondered why it always done with conductive cooling in a laptop. i can understand space limitations but i bet a very small crossflow fan would work.

 

I've already hit 55c during long encodes before using fan. I can't stand notebook cooler noise so use ceiling fan to do the same.

My Asus has drive venting when single fan runs which never exceeds 30C. The Gateway with two drive bays plus surrounding electronics has no cross flow ventilation.

Any type of external fan(s) and maybe drilled drive cover plate should help keep drives happy.

 

sorry for bumping this but does the 1TB fit in the 7805u? it is 12.5 mm compared to the standard size of 9.5mm

 

Wow $79 for 1TB 2.5 drive? Great deal.

One does need to be careful on thickness. For example I don't believe this one would fit: Newegg.com - Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10TPVT 1TB 5200 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive

 

These are 9.5mm drives. We are out of luck with the 12mm ones.........

 

Hi guys:

Sorry for re-bumping this, but I've been using a WD Scorpio Blue 640GB 5400RPM HDD with a WD Scorpio Black 320GB 7200RPM HDD in the second drive bay, and it seems to work OK.

Definitely a little hotter than it should be (SIW was reporting temperatures as high as 59C on both drives) when playing SC2, BF:BC2 or even a smaller game like League of Legends, but I was wondering...

What's the lifespan on the cooling between the CPU / GPU?
When does it need to be replaced and what should I use to re-coat it...?

I've noticed my CPU / GPU, as well as hard drive temperatures are a little higher than normal (maybe it's because I'm at home rather than at my school residence?), without any elevation on the laptop or "central cooling" (my residence did not have this either, but at least I had more room on my desk...).

I sprayed out some areas for dust, but I'm not sure where else I should be looking in terms of what to spray and what to replace / remove.

The dual hard drive thing was working cool, even under load (cool meaning 55 or lower) for about two months or so...

So what changed?