Is airflow on an HDD ok?

[MGWT1981]

I am building my 4th rig but there are some things I am running into that are unique to this build. I bought a 5000D Airflow case. MY PSU is big and so I have to move my HDD tray over. Where it sits is in front of the bottom side fan of the case. This will probably come across as a stupid question, but I just want to know for peace of mind. Is it safe to mount the bottom fan and have air flowing directly into the HDD?

[Dukesilver27-]

I'm no expert, but wouldn't it be better? The drive will run cooler, no wind or air would get into the drive anyway.

A lot of case has front mounted 2.5' drive mounts, which gets hit by air flow all the time, can't imagine how it would be bad.

[OhioYJ]

Perfectly OK. In fact HD coolers used to be a thing to mount fans directly to your HDs. A little warm for a drive is fine, too hot is a problem. So some air flow is a good thing. I actually add fans to my cases for my hard drives as most cases put drives in locations where there is basically no air flow. (Under PSU shrouds)

[Arika]

Yes, you want HDDs to be cool.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

2 hours ago, Dukesilver27- said:

I'm no expert, but wouldn't it be better? The drive will run cooler, no wind or air would get into the drive anyway.

A lot of case has front mounted 2.5' drive mounts, which gets hit by air flow all the time, can't imagine how it would be bad.

I'm sure having a HDD right behind a front intake fan would introduce turbulence but to what extent that affects thermals would be something interesting for GN to explore. They should probably also include HDD temperatures in their case testing. While SSDs are only getting cheaper... having a 2+TB HDD is just good economics. So it would be good to know for cases like the H510 where there is zero airflow to the basement where the HDD sits, how hot can it get? 

 

It won't be the end of the world because HDDs historically have been placed in zero airflow areas in the past. But having keeping things cool will always be better. 

[Bombastinator]

14 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I'm sure having a HDD right behind a front intake fan would introduce turbulence but to what extent that affects thermals would be something interesting for GN to explore. They should probably also include HDD temperatures in their case testing. While SSDs are only getting cheaper... having a 2+TB HDD is just good economics. So it would be good to know for cases like the H510 where there is zero airflow to the basement where the HDD sits, how hot can it get? 

 

It won't be the end of the world because HDDs historically have been placed in zero airflow areas in the past. But having keeping things cool will always be better. 

My memory was HDD heat was only really a thing for fast HDDs which aren’t really a consumer thing any more.  I’d say the device in the most danger in that scenario is the fan which may have its life ever so slightly shortened by the vibration of the hard drive.  Kind of a nothing burger

Edited August 19, 2022 by Bombastinator