Does anyone have any experience with HDD cooling on this case? Since the drives are on the back of the motherboard mounting plate (although not directly behind the mother board) they are not in the path of where the fans blow air.
How much action do you intend your hdds to see?
I honestly wouldn’t bother
I had 3 ssds in an area with no cooling at all, never was an issue.
1 Like
Not much action but mechanical drives can still generate a bit of heat and are prone to breaking if they get hot. Maybe the passive cooling would suffice.
It would depend on the type of drive as well. Storage type drives of today that have rotation speeds around 5400 RPM don’t generate a whole lot of heat, while some 7200 RPM drives with many platters might be both warmer and more sensitive. The latter kind combined with a large front mounted radiator might be something to avoid. And personally I’d avoid 7200 RPM drives for the noise factor anyway.
If you have just one or two 3,5" mechanical drives, mount them in the lower positions as the lower part of a case is likely to be at least a little bit cooler.
1 Like
I dont have the define s but I have made a plate for my case thats holds the hdds in the same position as the define.
I also have a large rad on the front of the case. These are 7200 rpm wd black drives and I can say that they regularly reach into the 50c area.
If you are air cooling they will probably be warmer there than in front of the fans but I probably wouldnt worry much about them.
1 Like
I have define S with 2 x sata SSD and 3 x HDD. never seems to go higher than 32 C on crystaldiskinfo. for cooling I have 3 x 120mm front fans and 1 x 140mm fan all running at absolute minimum. (manual fan controller)
1 Like
I have a Define C, where the 7200 rpm Barracuda is attached to the bottom of the case below the PSU shroud, and I have never had any noise or thermal issues.
Also, I just have to say, someone a few posts ago said they would avoid 7200 rpm for the noise… this makes my brain hurt… Even if hard drive noise was a real issue is most cases, it certainly isn’t an issue in a Fractal case. And even more importantly, you’d have to be aqua man to think that the speed of 7200 vs 5400 is not worth it because of the noise. There’s no reason to ever buy a 5400 rpm drive unless you’re building an array, maybe, and the certainly, back of a Define S does not a NAS make.
1 Like
Thanks guys! Solid feedback and numbers here.