Internal Cooling

[halfelite]

(04-22-2009 08:56 AM)RaptorZX3 Wrote:  what bothers me right now is the fact the "hddtemp" tool doesn't work for me, for some reason it doesn't show the model and temperature at all...so it doesn't give me an idea on the hard disk and general internal temperature...

i did asked Sigma Designs, by email, about the maximum temperatures, if the SMP8635 have a very high temperature tolerance.

even if my EGreat EG-M32B have a small (30mm?) fan, i'm still worried a bit, they can still improve the cooling on this one...

That's a bit why i ordered a USB 2.0/eSATA external enclosure (Vantec NexStar 3 3.5" SATA enclosure, model NST-360SU-BK)

Most hardrives can withstand up to 60C before failure. And that is more on the IC side of the drive. Since the IC side faces down most of the heat is towards the top of the drive were it should be.

[RaptorZX3]

well yes, the way my NMT is made, the connectors are facing down and the platters part is up

[pakyaw]

In my experience with personal computers as well as servers, heating is one major factor on breakdown of components specially in servers where one chassis is loaded up to the hilt with hard drives that are on top of each other without cooling, but recently computers specially servers even have dedicated large fans for the hard drives which is ok but quite noisy. Irregardless, common advantage of all these cooling systems, is they cost a lot less than the breakdown of hardware components and data loss.

In addition to this, cold soldering is one of the main reasons of electronic failures on the PCB boards, also happened to me on old crt TVs and video cards/IDE/PCI Cards on computers. though the tolerance of the chip is quite high in terms of temperature, components that they are built around on are not that tolerant, that's why over time i've learned that anything that generates heat specially electronic components, it helps alot on cooling down the system for better performance and longevity of components.

Just my thought.

[blake2415]

Allow me to enlighten you!

THe PCH A110 is inadequately cooled, in my humble opinion. I'm not even sure a small fan added to the case will do the trick. Working in a network mode, the unit, as it, seems to stay within tolorence. However the true test is how long the unit can run in a worst case scenereo, and in this case, at least for me, is trying to get my data of the unit hard drive. After 10 to 30 minutes, the unit locks up. I've got the cover off now and running an full blown people fan to keep it cool. Apparently my original overheating issue must now be more severe as now I can only get a few gigs off before the unit locks. It is heat related no doubt but may also be related to some other internal failure.

My advice is not to put a hard drive in this unit. I'm sorry I did. It was always warm and the PCH doesn't seem to have workable resting modes because even with no activiity, the drive seems to usually be hot and running and this is the "GREEN" drive from WD, it's low energy and low noise.

I'm probably going to send my PCH back for replacement or repair.

[halfelite]

I still run a hardrive. Last time i rebooted my PCH was maybe a month ago to test a new librarcy. Didnt even need it. NO heat problems. No fans just like it should be. It has been getting about 3+ hours a day steady use for the past 2 weeks.

[Peppin]

Same here, it's no need.

[BuddyBoy]

FWIW: My PCH-A100 consistently hangs after about five or six hours of continuous ftp transfers. When it does this the heat sink is smoking hot. Since fitting it with a fan, I can now ftp to it for ten hours straight or longer with no problems. I haven't had any problems with playback at all. The fan is there to make overnight ftp transfers reliable.

[iamloco724@aol.com]

for those looking for something but dont want mod the case much i just found this product http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Mobile...B00080G0BK it has flawless reviews i figure i could use the back usb port and just place it on the side of the vent near the chip since my hd isnt the problem and it should cool things down

[KlingKlang]

Hello there people.

I´m a new member, who´s just popping by.
I just wanted to tip you people of with a simple solution to the heat problem, for those of you who has it.
How about this puppy? http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv19/...8332_1.jpg

[kenrippy]

My PCH was getting hot to the touch, and became unstable after a couple hours of use with the internal hdd.
I put active cooling in and it's never given any problems since. That's all the proof I need. See sig for my method.

[hackztor]

I put a 80gb 7200 rpm hd in it (only one i had extra) and the unit became very very hot. I plugged in a laptop cooling pad and set the popcorn on that, and the temperatures became touchable. The laptop cooling pad was drawing too much power though, causing my movies to skip even at the menu selection for dvds. So i got an external usb to wall socket adapter and that worked fine. I finally switched from hd to a 4gb cf to sata because I was only using it for the apps. When i feel like putting one of my 1.5tb or hopefully someday theyll have a 3tb drive then ill switch back to hd.

[RaptorZX3]

...or a nice 1tb SDXC card, that will litterally blast HDDs, with a nice and fast transfer rate similar to SATA drives!, but that will take a few years still i think...

[alexdonc]

Here's my real problem: As I was using it the PCH just died on the middle of a movie. Turned it off immediately and jumped the conclusions. The smell was the first sign. As I tried to apply the power again and turned it on, some little smoke raised from a passive SMD - very next to the Sigma proc. But even so, after another auto shutdown and some time the proc has cooled down the PCH was OK and no smoke again. Probably a capacitor not so important burned inside.

So? A heating problem or just bad luck?

[RaptorZX3]

hey, i really think that Scythe Mini-Kama 40mm can work in the M32B, it's 10mm thick too, slimmer than the stock fan in it, and also use 2-pins, including a 3-pins adapter with it, also very silent!

check this link:
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/01...etail.html

but about cooling, yes, some companies won't even put in a fan, not thinking that most of us doesn't live in a freezer or in a cooler area. For example, those who live in Florida, no heat-pump or anything to cool down the house, they will surely need a fan to take the heat out of their NMT, if there's none in it.

[dh2005]

The fact that even some users report this problem means that better cooling should've been provided.

I initially used a Seagate Barracuda as my internal drive, and it became so hot that I could smell the adhesive on the sticky labels burning. And when I touched the drive, it gave me a mild burn on my fingertip. I took the view that this would eventually lead to failure, so I removed the lid from my A-110's case and pointed a desk-fan at the drive. Later I replaced this drive with a WD Caviar Green, and the problem disappeared... but all the same, I think an internal fan might've been a good idea - one that could be switched-off if the user decided that he/she didn't need it.