WD Raptor question

roaf85 · Post by **roaf85** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 3:22 pm

Thinking about putting 2 raptors in a sonata witout a front fan. Would they overheat? would this be a bad idea?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 3:59 pm

roaf85 wrote:Thinking about putting 2 raptors in a sonata witout a front fan. Would they overheat?

They'll certainly run hot. How hot depends on your specific enviornmental circumstances.

roaf85 wrote:would this be a bad idea?

"Raptor" + "quiet" are mutually exclusive. If you're looking for a quiet computer, putting Raptors in it isn't going to cut it. Putting hot Raptors in it is even worse.

JimK · Post by **JimK** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 5:00 pm

"Two Raptors" usually means the smaller, older, LOUDER ones.

The "Second Generation" 74GB ones have fluid bearings and are quiter than the 36GB versions. There is supposed to be a "Second Generation" smaller drive on the way but nobody has seen any around yet.

Search on Raptor in this forum or just page down. Some folks were satisfied with their Raptors after working on the way they mounted them. Check Ralf's "Sorbothane on a Sled" method and Joe's long thread.

Since the Sonata "HDD cooling fan" mounts in the center of the case you may get by with a slow moving 92mm fan that does not add much noise. But the Sonata is not one of the best breathers around so you would have some work to do if you went with the Raptor.

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 5:31 pm

Ralf, are you sure the 74G raptors run that hot?

spinpoint:
Seek(typical) 4.5W
Read/Write On - Track 7.1W
Seek2 (typ) 8.6W
Idle (typ) 7.0W
Standby(typ) 0.5W
Sleep (typ) 0.5W

raptor: Read/Write 8.40 Watts
Idle 7.90 Watts
Standby 1.76 Watts
Sleep 1.11 Watts

Not too much more of a power draw than 80GB spinpoint

Would a raptor really add that much heat to a case? the Sonata's internal fan should keep the raptor cool. The front intake of the Sonata is restrictive - the case isn't the best choice for a hot system. Check the article section on the main page for Ralf's review of the 2 SLK3700 cases by Antec.

Talz · Post by **Talz** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 6:19 pm

Raptors run cooler than some 7200 rpm drives, you are likely to notice a quiet but high pitched idle whine (still quieter than many non seagate/samsung 7200 rpm drives) if you have a quiet environment though. Acoustipack took care of this, but my system is placed near the floor, and the hdd's are in the very bottom so it is 5-6 feet from my ears. The seeks are loud though, something I kind of like in my main system but you may hate.

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 9:28 am

Any idea why Silentmaxx's HDD enclosure isn't compatible with the Raptor then? could it be the HDD design or must it be temperature?

See: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 9464#89464

Fat Bunny · Post by **Fat Bunny** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 10:07 am

My experience with two early model 36GB Raptors is that you have to have a suspension mount before you can consider the 'seeks' to be quiet. It may be dimensions that effect the Silentmaxx enclosure as they seem to be a little deeper than some other drives I have seen?

IMOM · Post by **IMOM** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 11:38 am

I have a 74GB Raptor and a ANTEC BQE case...idle it is pretty quiet, similar to the 200GB 7200.7 Seagate drive I have. But when you are accessing files, it's got a low noise rumble. If I was to do it again...would I get a Raptor...no. I think the Seagate drive is close in performance, though it's not Raptor for sure...so it's a trade off.

I'm thinking of getting the 8mb/160GB drive from Samsung...though don't know if I need one or if it justifies the cost for a little less noise compare to the Seagate.

As far as temp goes...I have a thermistor mounted on bought my drives where the motor is at and both goes to about 98 to 100F at most transferring several gigabyte files for about four or five minutes. I do have a 120mm Antec fan that came with the case running @ 5V. I think ambient temperature at the time was 80F at the time...don't remember. So Cal temps changes a lot lately.

IMOM · Post by **IMOM** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 11:44 am

Forgot to mention, both the 7200.7 and the Raptor drives are mounted on 2 blocks of Sorbothane per drive...I believe Ralf was the one the mentioned this to everyone in the past...I don't remember...just wanted to give credit where it's due. Mounting on on Sorbothane makes an improve in noise...though will not completely solve the problem.

If you run it without a fan...I can't answer you until the summer time when it's about 95 - 105F ambient(I don't have air conditioning when I at right now)...but I wouldn't feel comfortable running any hard drive hot if your data is important to you...just a precaution.

roaf85 · Post by **roaf85** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 3:28 pm

Alright guys I know this is a silent pc forum but and I know raptors are louder than the Samsung and some seagate drives but you can not beat the performance. I am asking about the cooling because the Sonata and WaveMaster cases etc can be air intake restricted and I was wondering if the Raptor runs really hot but seeing at how it is around 100 F that isnt that bad. What temps should I look out for? Anything past what? 60C? Even if they ran some what warm/cool I would probably get a fan running 5 volts just to make sure the hard drives are cool espically with raid 0.

IMOM · Post by **IMOM** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 4:44 pm

If the rumbling noise doesn't bother you when you are reading and writing to the hard disks...then you should be okay. Just make sure you have a fan to cool the drives...that's my experience. Personally if I were to do it again...and I needed raid0...I would go with two 200GB 7200.7 drives... I don't remember the sources...but there's a few reviews that compared the two...raptor vs 7200.7 and they were pretty close in performance. Raptor wins, but I wouldn't mind a slightly less performance for less noise. I have a BQE case...very close to Sonata...so that's what kind of temperature readings that I get from my fan master controller.

The other thing you can do is save the money from buying two raptors and get two 7200.7 drives or samsung drives and get more ram and make a ram disk...but that depends on your application.

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 8:01 pm

raptors should be kept below 55. I try and keep my Cuda V below 40, others aim for around 30 or lower. A single undervolted, low speed ADDA blowing fresh air across the drive gave me very good temperature reductions and I may put it back in. The Sonata, BQE, and AMD offer HDD fans. RAMsinks on the HDD may work well too. See Storage section under Articles from main page for HDD heatsinks article.

roaf85 · Post by **roaf85** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 10:24 am

alright guys I know this thread has not been updated in awhile but I was looking over at ABSPC.com. Knowing as how they have very good customer support I looked at a P4 config in a Antec Sonata with 2 WD raptors in a raid. I asked one of the live web support guys about the Sonata case coming with one exhaust fan in the rear. I asked him since the raptors are 10krpm drives if they put the optional front fan to pull heat away from the drive. The person said they only use one fan, the one that comes with the sonata and they test their systems before they ship and that the drives would run within safe operating limits. So can anyone confirm this? Thanks

roaf85 · Post by **roaf85** » Sat May 01, 2004 5:33 pm

bump. now that summer is here can some report with updated temps on this issue?

Phish · Post by **Phish** » Mon May 10, 2004 7:35 am

IMOM wrote:I have a 74GB Raptor and a ANTEC BQE case...idle it is pretty quiet, similar to the 200GB 7200.7 Seagate drive I have. But when you are accessing files, it's got a low noise rumble. If I was to do it again...would I get a Raptor...no. I think the Seagate drive is close in performance, though it's not Raptor for sure...so it's a trade off.

I'm thinking of getting the 8mb/160GB drive from Samsung...though don't know if I need one or if it justifies the cost for a little less noise compare to the Seagate.

As far as temp goes...I have a thermistor mounted on bought my drives where the motor is at and both goes to about 98 to 100F at most transferring several gigabyte files for about four or five minutes. I do have a 120mm Antec fan that came with the case running @ 5V. I think ambient temperature at the time was 80F at the time...don't remember. So Cal temps changes a lot lately.

I have a Sonata with an accessory 120mm fan attached to the front fan mount. I'm running 2 120gb 7200.7 Seagate drives in a RAID 1 configuration, as well as a 36gb Raptor. According to the SMART drive monitoring software, the case fan keeps all of the drives running right around 31-32C (room ambient is around 74 degrees), even during high stress operations (like degfrags)... I've verified this by getting into the case and physically touching the drives during hard use. They all stay cool to the touch, but ironically, the Raptor is the coolest running of them all, actually feeling quite frigid in comparison to the Seagates.. I purchased the Raptor in late march, and it has a build date of mid February, which, according to WD, indicates that this drive has the FDB bearings installed. The raptor is actually QUIETER at idle than either of my 7200.7 drives, and the seek noise is inaudible unless I have my ear within a few inches of the case. I love this drive.. I wish I could afford to buy a few more 72gb versions.

IMOM · Post by **IMOM** » Mon May 10, 2004 11:12 am

Phish...does your room have air conditioning? I don't...ambient is slightly less. I can't tell you right now, because my system is down...the video card went bad and I'm getting it RMA'd. That's pretty impressive that your drives stay that cool. The 120mm fan in the front is the Antec case fan and it's running @5 ~ 6V.

I don't know what program you used to read the SMART temp info or how fast you run your fans...other than that...I really can't explain the temperature difference...because I too have opened the case and touched them..and they seem to be about 100F or so...just warm and not boiling hot.

WD Raptor question

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