Is 41 degrees C too hot?

[ingeborgdot]

I am debating on whether to place my NAS in a closed cabinet. The temp goes from Disk 1 - 37, Disk 2 - 39, Disk 3 - 39 to 1 - 40, 2 - 41, 3 - 41. Is that too hot. The reason why the cabinet is because the area it will be in outside the cabinet is a dusty area and that is beyond my control. I think the little heat difference and saving it from dust will be the best choice but I really want to know what others that know about this think. Thanks.

 

[sfx2000]

I worry about ventilation and heat soak - as long as the cabinet has ventilation you might be ok...

heat is a drive killer... not usage - once ambient teams get above 100F, things tend to run away...

 

[L&LD]

I would say it's too hot, particularly if that is just idle temperatures.

Use a filter system for the intake (or be creative and make your own) and regularly clean it.

 

[TonyH]

I am debating on whether to place my NAS in a closed cabinet. The temp goes from Disk 1 - 37, Disk 2 - 39, Disk 3 - 39 to 1 - 40, 2 - 41, 3 - 41. Is that too hot. The reason why the cabinet is because the area it will be in outside the cabinet is a dusty area and that is beyond my control. I think the little heat difference and saving it from dust will be the best choice but I really want to know what others that know about this think. Thanks.

Does cabinet have louvered door? Air has to move(ventilate). Otherwise you are going to cook the drives.

 

[ingeborgdot]

So you guys are saying that the difference of 3 degrees makes a big difference.

 

[sfx2000]

What I'm saying, and some would agree - it's a bit too warm...

 

[RMerlin]

Those temperatures don't look too unusual to me. My own NAS disks are at 38C and 39C.

45C would be where I would start to be uncomfortable. 50C is where you need to start worrying about cooling.

Typical max operating temperature for a HDD is 60C.

 

[L&LD]

So you guys are saying that the difference of 3 degrees makes a big difference.

3 degrees C by itself is not the issue.

Are those numbers when the NAS is idle? If you are hitting 40+ C when idle, it will surely go over the 50 or even 55C critical point of most hdd's when actually being used.

My NAS drives are idling at 31C with an ambient temperature of 24C right now. If they were 10 degrees warmer, I would be looking at ways to cool them more effectively.

I am not saying you cannot use the drives at warmer temperatures, but to have them last as long as possible (and with some reliability too) 41C idle is much too warm, ime and with all the information I have read about this topic (36 to 40C is the best temperature to keep a working, non-idle, hdd at).

 

[ingeborgdot]

There is no way to cool them any better than what is going on right now. The owner keeps his rooms at 80 degrees or so. I can't keep this any cooler than this.

 

[L&LD]

There is no way to cool them any better than what is going on right now. The owner keeps his rooms at 80 degrees or so. I can't keep this any cooler than this.

And you're still not letting us know if these are idle temperatures or temperatures under load.

An easy way to get up to 10C difference in temperatures, at idle, is to have the NAS as low to the floor as possible (but not right on the floor), but with 27C ambient temperatures, it may still not be enough.

 

[sfx2000]

OP didn't mention the NAS vendor - but they would be the authoritative source of information regarding heat management, esp. as far as Maximum temps are concerned - as it is not just drive temps, but the system temps that can be problematic.

 

[L&LD]

The system temperature range may vary by a little, manufacturer to manufacturer. The drive temps are a known fact for many decades. These haven't changed in a very long time.

Less than ~40C (while actually being used) is the best temperature for any hdd available. Idling at that or higher is a sure sign that those drives will wear out faster and/or be less reliable for a far shorter time.

 

[ingeborgdot]

It is all under idle conditions. It is a QNAP 451+ with WD Red 3TB HDD. There is not much I can do about temp outside of the cabinet as they tend to keep their office fairly warm. Right now the idle temps are 37, 38, 39.

 

[L&LD]

If you can check what the drive's temps are at load (so we're not guessing), that will be the most useful info, now.

Agreed ambient temperatures are not usually controllable to a high degree. But keeping it out of an enclosed space breathing it's own how air is (or should be, 'controllable').

 

[System Error Message]

If your ambient temperature is 41C that would be bad but its not impossible as the ambient temperature in a case can be much higher than outside especially for sandwhiched metal cases.
For hard drives 41C is alright but the nominal temperature i see for hard drives are usually around 35C when its been running. Hard drives will work fine up to 50C so if your peak measurement is 41C than it is fine. I wouldnt push though with running the drives well above 40C for long periods of time.

A few ways you can cool your drives down would be fan cooling with a vent on the other side, a hard drive heatsink (you must check this first as if this makes the drive fit tight that it cant vibrate freely it will slow significantly and get errors). Hard drive heatsinks do exist and i have 2 but i would suggest against using them with WD blacks especially if they arent allowed to vibrate.

If its a closet or you have multiple devices, just a large general fan blocking from an angle from front with space at the back for the air to escape does help but the case must not be airtight. If it is an airtight case to be waterproof than the case should've had a heatsink design with the drive next to the metal.

If those temperatures are your peak temperatures than they are fine even 41C.

 

[ingeborgdot]

We're just going to leave it out of the cabinet and run the risk of a little excess dust. I'll just clean it for them more often. The temps of 38-39 at idle will be what it is at this point.

 

[sfx2000]

You can set up QTS to email you for alerts - and in this case, I would.

The closer you get to max temp limits, the faster things can happen.

as @L&LD says - 40C and below is optimal - if the ambient temp goes from 80F to 100F (not unreasonable to expect), then you can get into a thermal runaway condition inside the machine and this can happen very quickly.

It'll likely survive, but the device and drive lifespan will be reduced.

Real world situation - we had three data centers - DEN, ORD, IAD - all three are configured pretty much the same - and DEN had a chiller failure, and air ambient went to 100+F for about a day - less than three months later we started seeing much higher drive and equipment faults/failures in that DC compared to ORD and IAD... on the order of 35 to 40 percent higher.

 

[L&LD]

There is no way to cool them any better than what is going on right now. The owner keeps his rooms at 80 degrees or so. I can't keep this any cooler than this.

I think you're mistaken. The ambient temperatures may be at 80F, but that doesn't mean the drives can't be better cooled.

As sfx2000 states with an excellent example, heat is the enemy of electronics. Fight it as well as you can to ensure the best long term success of all equipment involved.

I would not be satisfied with a 40C idle drive temperature.

 

[ingeborgdot]

I can't cool the room any better than what they have it at is what I meant. Unless it is a 10 minute fix it ain't going to happen.

 

[L&LD]

3, 2, 1...

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$12 and done.