Need more cooling?

I bought a Dell Optiplex 600MHz off eBay. It came with a 6GB disk. I want to add a 100 GB disk.

Will that require more cooling capacity? If so, how would I accomplish that? A bigger/more powerful (volume of air) fan? I would I know if another fan "pumps" more air than the one I have? How would I know if the power supply can handle it?

Thanks.

 

Shouldn't be a problem. As the new drive will be an IDE drive the heat factor will be maybe slightly higher. If you were installing an SATA drive (requires a newer motherboard) then the increase in heat may/would be a problem.
If you currently have a cooling fan other than the one in the PSU then this should be enough. Generally hard drives that run a bit hot will benefit from a fan mounted in front of them behind the front panel (if the box allows for it) blowing air across the HD towards the rear of the box.
The increase in power consumption from an old 6GB an a newer 100GB will be measured in only a few watts at most, so your existing PSU should be fine.
Downloading Everest Home Edition v1.10 may give you the ability to monitor the HD temp via the storage|Smart tab if you Motherboard/BIOS allows?
http://www.lavalys.com/index.php?page=products_index

 

About the only problem I foresee is your BIOS recognizing the full capacity of the 100gb drive. Dell has several models with the Optiplex name, so I could not look that up for you. Perhaps if you could identify the motherboard. Everest [free] from the link below can help you with this.
http://www.lavalys.com/index.php?page=product&view=1

 

Thanks for all the info. One question. How would I know if the Motherboard/BIOS supports temperature monitoring? Is there something specific to look for when you go into the BIOS?

 

IIRC, if the BIOS allows S.M.A.R.T (Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) to be turned on then this will support functions like HD temp monititoring which your new 100MB HD should support. Apparently S.M.A.R.T also can predict a future HD failure. I have yet to see or hear of how this is reported.

 

If your motherboars supports temperature monitoring, you'll be able to see the temps with the Everest program. You'll find it under Computer\Sensors.

 

Check if S.M.A.R.T is available in BIOS as I think it's usually off by default.

 

Yes, I see that Everest does show the temperatures. I downloaded it, and installed it on 3 of my PCs. All 3 showed temps for the CPU and motherboard, and 1 or 2 of them showed an "AUX" temp. But none showed temps for the disk drives. I've always noticed on one of my PCs very early on in the boot up, soon after it detects the hard drive, "S.M.A.R.T" is displayed next to the disk drive. I poked around in the BIOS on that PC, but I didn't find any mention of S.M.A.R.T. Would the HD have a temp sensor built into it, but do you have to attach some additional cable, or what?

BTW, do have any comments on what would be considered upper limits for the CPU, motherboard, and hard drive temps?

Thanks

 

The temp for CPU depends on whether AMD or Intel, AMD runs warmer.
The AUX is probably the video card.
You would need to enable SMART in the BIOS, it is off by default.

 

Normal CPU (non intensive gaming) temperature as Mark says will vary, but Mid 30's to mid (or higher) 40's in celcius is fairly normal. They will often be well above this and I believe the critical temperature for a CPU is somewhere up above 60-70+?

Hard drives should be kept reasonably cool. My SATA runs in the mid 30's with plenty of cooling, but it's upper operating temperature is 60C. Too hot for me. ATA drives will run cooler and I guess their upper limit will be less.

The motherboard (case temp) should be kept as cool as practical which will help the temps of the CPU and HD. Summer temp of my case is around mid 30's. Winter temp in an unheated room is early to late 20's.

Extra case cooling is the go. I have an 80mm fan in front of the HD blowing air across it to the rear of the case. This drops the idle (little use) temp of the HD by around 10C. I also run a side fan and a top blower fan. Having both of those is a bit of an overkill, but that's what came with the case.

 

That looks like very useful info, thanks.

I guess my PCs must be much older (P-IIIs) than yours. My HDs mount right up against the front of the case (either horizontally or standing on their heads, but in any case right at the front of the PC), so I can't put a fan in front of them. I think I might see if I can place a fan below the HDs, so I can at least blow some are over them.