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    HD Enclosure Fan

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by sikidhart, Oct 22, 2006.

  1. sikidhart

    sikidhart Notebook Consultant

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    Do you really need a fan? I just want a backup 3.5 HD.
    I already bought one, but am now thinking "what if there are heat issues?"
     
    sikidhart, Oct 22, 2006
    #1
  2. burningrave101

    burningrave101 Notebook Deity

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    Unless your external enclosure has some other effective means of cooling the hard drive then you will need a fan to keep the hard drive cool.
     
    burningrave101, Oct 23, 2006
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  3. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    John Ratsey, Oct 23, 2006
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  4. ajfink

    ajfink Notebook Deity

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    I have an external 3.5" enclosure that doesn't have a fan and it runs fine, has for a few months now.
     
    ajfink, Oct 23, 2006
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  5. TedJ

    TedJ Asus fan in a can!

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    If you're only using the drive for backup purposes you'll be fine, especially if the enclosure is made from aluminium. Alumium makes an excellent passive heatsink.
     
    TedJ, Oct 24, 2006
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  6. Pitabred

    Pitabred Linux geek con rat flail!

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    What he said. If you run the drive all the time at high speed, you might need a fan. If you're just using it to store files, not a ton of info transfer, I wouldn't worry about it. Just don't put the external enclosure under the couch or in the exhaust air from your laptop, let it get airflow around it and it should be fine.
     
    Pitabred, Oct 24, 2006
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  7. ChangFest

    ChangFest Notebook Consultant

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    I have a 160GB 7200RPM SATA drive in an aluminum enclosure that doesn't have a fan. I've never had a problem. I do a lot of audio encoding with it between my computers and it has been fine. Previous to this enclosure, I had a plastic one, and the drive inside it failed. I attribute the failure to high heat (and the HD being a Maxtor). If you're looking to get an enclosure without a fan, make sure it's an aluminum enclosure with good heat dissipation.
     
    ChangFest, Oct 25, 2006
    #7
  8. Pitabred

    Pitabred Linux geek con rat flail!

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    audio is actually pretty low bandwidth all things considered ;) If you were doing video encoding, it might be a different story
     
    Pitabred, Oct 25, 2006
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  9. ajfink

    ajfink Notebook Deity

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    Yeah, my enclosure is aluminum.
     
    ajfink, Oct 25, 2006
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  10. ChangFest

    ChangFest Notebook Consultant

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    Ya, audio encoding is low bandwidth, but I use the HD in the enlcosure for recording and mixing with Sonar 4. Methinks 30+ multi-track audio mixing and down-mixing is a rather high bandwidth process.
     
    ChangFest, Oct 25, 2006
    #10