I have 2 relatively new Seagate 160gb hard drives and both run extremely hot...by hot I mean when I touch them the heat burns me!

They are very close together but that is the design of the case. The bottom hard drive is hotter than the top. Both are hot to touch but the bottom one actually forces me to pull my finger away.

Is this temperature normal? I also notice my new PSU (400W) runs very hot too...infact my case is just generally far too hot and I don't know why.

I have an old Asus A7S333 motherboard and old IDE cables connecting the hard drives. Can old/faulty hardware/cables be causing all this heat?

Sometimes my pc won't even start. The fans whiz round untill I take my finger off the power button. I then whack the psu and the pc starts and I am greeted with a blue screen telling me the CPU hung for an improper cpu speed. Maybe I need a new mobo/cpu.

Sorry for the long post but I don't really know what to do and what the heck is causing all this heat!

Thanks,
Funkyhitman.

Hi,
wow it's tooo hot if you cant touch the hard drives. Not enough cooling going on. Make sure all the fans are working, also you maybe overclocking your cpu, the big hard drives will generate alot of heat especially if they are running at 7200 rpm. Try to space them apart if you can. Sounds like a faulty connection or power switch and or power supply if you have to whack it to get it to come on. I wouldnt reccomend hitting it as you may actually cuase more damage by jarring things like your new hard drives.

Thanks for the reply.

I do not overclock anything in my system.

Unfortunately I cannot space my hdd apart and they are really close together! Like mm apart.

Maybe I have a crap case. I don't appear to have any case fans. All I have is dual 80mm fans on the PSU, CPU fan and a crappy stock fan on my ATI Radeon 9800pro (but I'm upgrading to a Zalman VF700-AlCu http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=150&code=013).

Is it worth getting this?: http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=74&code=019

Thanks for your help.

What are you doing with the HDDs?

I've got 160GB and 200GB Seagate HDDs in external enclosures and the enclosures don't even get warm.

Is the heat coming from somewhere else? Like maybe your CPU, PSU, or display adapter?

I have speedfan and with my case closed here are my idle(!) temps:

CPU: 62c
HD0: 56c
CASE: 51c
MOBO: 40c
HD1: 59c

Under the SMART section it shows the highest temps as follows:

HD0: 65c
HD1: 67c - these are probably when I've got my pc working hard.

Of course it is possible these values are incorrect...how do I know if speedfan is monitoring correctly?

As you can see if these values are correct my case gets extremely hot...I have noticed in hot weather ie when it is summer my CPU temp has risen to 80c!!!!!!!!!

Where is all his heat coming from!?

yep you are running to hot, I would reccomend a new case that has better cooling and better spacing for your drives. The cooling devices you listed above is nice but I would start with a better case. Also maybe a new cooler for the cpu.

Yeah I think it is time I upgraded. Urgh, more money.

Can you reccommend any decent (not too expensive) cases?

You don't need a PSU but this is a great case at a great price. I've been using it for 4 years on several PC builds:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811116166

Other things: this case provides separate air flow for your CPU and display adapter. Your ATI 9800 runs very hot and I bet it is a huge part of the problem

Hey that is a nice case - just pull out the power supply ( sell it on ebay ) for the price you cant go wrong. Or you can look at the list without power supplies. NewEgg is a good place to buy.
here is the link
http://www.newegg.com

I didn't see it without the PSU at Newegg. I've bought a couple of these from them and it was no hassle/good service.

I've used Antec cases but don't like them as much and they can be more expensive. Thermaltake makes great cases but they too are a lot more.

I should have said I live in the UK...I will look around for that case.

Thanks for all your help guys.

Hi, if you wasnt cheap cases normally all ith good cooling use www.ebuyer.com they have major cheap prices and some excellent cases usuall with cooling fans and PSU's.

Well worth a look.

AMD Athlon 3000+ 64bit OC-3400
Asus A8N-SLI MB
1GB DDR 32002X 512MB
2X SLI Asus 6600GT Cards
200GB SATA Hard Drive

Doesn't Newegg ship to the UK?

If you have an open 5" bay, there are inexpensive adapters you can use to install a hard drive in one.

Get a DC voltmeter and check the voltages between the yellow to black wires and red to black wires on one of the unused drive power connections. Red to black should be around 5 volts and yellow to black should be 12.

Good point ham30, also you might try looking for a case on ebay.