Passive cooling and HDD suspension

[pete6032]

Came across this statement when searching about HDD suspending.

"You lose the passive cooling power of the case when mounting a HDD" (since the case is not touching the HDD any longer).

Do you need to have a fan blowing on a HDD that is suspended or is the passive cooling power of a metal case touching the HDD an overrated concept?

[b_rubenstein]

The operating temperature is the only thing that counts. If the temp of the HD goes above 60º C, then something should be done to get its operating temp below 60º C.

[speedkar9]

Something like this....
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article22-page1.html

Cheers

[tim851]

That might be true, but even the quiet Western Digital Green Power drives get obnoxiously loud once you screw them to your case, while a lone 120mm fan at ~500rpm will not only sufficiently cool it, but also add no noise to your system (unless you are a bat).

I have a Scythe Quiet Drive enclosure that very effectively muffles HDD noise and I have placed that on styrofoam to avoid any kind of vibrations. Still, even muffled like this, the "whoosh"-noise of a Green Power is the only thing I can hear in my system. When it goes to sleep (I have an SSD as my system drive), the PC is dead silent. I can stop all of the fans and it doesn't make any difference. Once the muffled Green Power spins up, you can hear a faint whoosh.

My point is: don't worry about adding a single, low speed fan.