Hitachi Hard Drive

Does anyone have the Hitachi Travelstar 5k160 for their notebook? I'm curious as to see what everyone else's temps are because mine run at around 52C. Is this normal?

 

They do run a little hotter than some, that is in the normal range. But what are you doing if HDD is mostly idle on hard flat surface might be a little high. 131F/55C is what you want to stay away from. will get about there sometimes, right noe at idle 113F/45C.

 

I see. For the HP the hard drive is located right underneath the left palm rest making it uncomfortable for gaming. Is there a HDD that runs cooler? Maybe I could switch it out with a HDD that doesn't run so warm.

 

I can't tell you yes or no because I don't absolutely know. But let me throw a couple of opinions your way for thought. I believe we are talking a temp diff of 2C, I am not sure that would make a great difference. When dissipating heat the laptop functions as a unit so even though gaming is not considered HDD intensive when the entire unit heats up it will effect the HDD ability to dissipate thereby likely increasing it's temps. Gaming could be taxing your units cooling capabilities. I believe I have heard others complain of this left hand rest problem and I thought the thought was unit design vs HDD brand was the suspicion. What are other temps, CPU, GPU? Make sure vents are not blocked and cleaning out dust inside could help, maybe a cooler might help. Like I said I don't know it could be only because of the Hitachi.

 

My 5k160 in my lenovo runs around 35-45C, it does not get too hot. The harddrive will get much hotter if you are running vista, because Vista continually caches and accesses the hard disk much more than xp would. I run xp.

K-TRON

 

52C is quite warm but the temperature depends on (a) usage, (b) notebook design, (c) HDD make/model and (d) ambient temperature.

If you turn off Vista's indexing then this might reduce the HDD activity, but this should not be the issue. Some years back I had an Asus W3A and high HDD temperature seemed to be a feature of the design. When I moved to a another notebook and swapped the HDD then the temperature dropped about 10C. some notebooks have air vents around the HDD so the CPU fan effectively provides some cooling, but other notebooks have the HDD without any cooling but they don't get hot.

Samsung and Fujitsu HDDs tend to be the coolest while the Hitachi HDDs are hotter than average. You can get a good idea of relative temperatures by comparing the idle and maximum power drains on the Tom's Hardware 2.5" HDD charts (more power = more heat). These show the 5k160 to be below average.

John

 

So according to your replies, I'm guessing outside factors are affecting the HDD temps. My CPU runs at 50-51 idle and I'm using the notebook on a hard flat surface so as to not block the vents. I'm guessing its the design of the notebook that might be causing the HDD temps to rise.

I've tried various cooling pads and none seem to work efficiently because the hard drive is located at the bottom and most of the fans on the cooling pads are at the top. So it looks like I'm out of options, other than the possibilty of replacing the HDD, and am stuck with a notebook that will run hotter.

 

That CPU temp is not very good for your CPU. 45C is more normal. That goes back to a likely thermal problem. How old is this notebook? And have cleaned the inside? That can drop the temp more than changing HDD. Even if you can't see "dust" grease and grime are inefficient conductors of heat. So give it a shot.

I suspect and would hate to see you throw good money after bad.

Location is not as important as you think, trust me on this. I don't have time to explain thermal dynamics and cooling properties to you (as I don't even really understand) but that does not matter.

In closing none of the numbers are out of specs but your notebook does run hot for your tastes (and mine) but likely bad design, weak cooling system. Replacing HDD without fixing the underline problem likely ineffective.

Good luck.

 

Fujitsu HDD you say run cool, mine runs at 51/52, in my hp pavilion dv2000, that because there is no cooling for the drive, the temperature goes up and up until it peeks at the drives maximum heat that it can create, from then on the hotter the room is, or if you leave it on your bed you’re looking at 55, not good at all,

I try to turn my notebook off sometimes when it gets too hot, for 10 min then come back to use it again, and if say you leave it on overnight to download something, just turn it upside-down it stays nice and cool that way!

dell's are good for hd temps! Does anybody know of a notebook which actuary cools the harddrive?

 

My Hitachi 7200rpm...IDE is running at 29C right now here.

 

how long have u been running 4, what notebook, using a cool pad ect!

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=162820

Have a read. Compaq Presario B3800, hdd upgraded back in August 07, computer have been on for 10hrs+ except for a few quick restarts. Runs alot cooler than my old Toshiba 4200rpm O.O



EDIT: my cooler is not on at the moment actually, but I am in a very cold room with no heating

 

i don’t think i would have a cooler, defeats the point of having a notebook, would be better off with a desktop!,

cold rooms will help a bit - minus whatever the difference in room temp is from average say 22,23, but if your notebook has been running without the cooler for a hour or so, sounds like your notebook can handle itself without overheating the hdd, at least you will know that your files will be safe I always keep backup every day in case my notebook decides to kill its hardrive!

the only way to have a cool notebook it to have liquid cooled one, they just have to run some pipes round it and then back to the heat sink + expansion chamber, pump!, and have all major elements cooled, like cpu, gpu, motherboard and hdd, dont know why the drive is not cooled in most machines, all it would need is a heat pipe connected to it, the thing is if you lose your harddrive you lose everything!, and i have a very hot left palm on my hp pavillion dv2000

 

hehe I only us the cooler when I game which is when I am at a desk Otherwise I do carry my notebook round quite abit. But my notebook's hdd placement is no way near any of the hot components...GPU, CPU...etc...so that might be a reason.

 

Well for me!!
X cpu, gpu hot
--------------
X harddrive on the other side of some metal, good one!

well i have watched it before on some of the software i have had before!, on an intensive session, having virus scans running, watching videos, Photoshop, and within 10 min the harddrive was at 51, you could watch the cpu go up in temp like 17,,, 17 the hhd would follow 18,,,18 hhd would follow, until the hhd was hotter than the cpu, just such a poor design, like most notebooks that are just built for looks. You must have bought a good notebook, I just ran in and bought mine, didn’t know what a gpu was then!

 

haha...mine...probably the best compaq ever build The B3800 is also called the HP/Compaq NX7100 business notebook in western countries...the B3800 was Asia pacific only. I even have a dedicated GPU in my notebook...