Shuttle with two hard drives--possible, or too hot?

[davidicus]

hi all!

i have an SS51g and love it, but it's just general duty and doesn't get pushed hard. quiet, stable, it's been just great. i'd like to get an SB61G2 for audio production, and put two hard drives in (maybe one SATA, one slower and cooler?).

i'm told by some that this would be dangerously hot, but by others that if there's room and power i can go for it. there should be room in the floppy bay, and it looks like there's power enough in the Shuttles, so should i worry?

is anyone else running a dual drive configuration?

[mattsteg]

By all means, go for it. Worst case, you cut the life of the drives a tad, but you should be backing anything important up anyway I don't have any experience with SFF stuff, but any normal drive should be fine.

[derFunkenstein]

By all means, go for it. Worst case, you cut the life of the drives a tad, but you should be backing anything important up anyway I don't have any experience with SFF stuff, but any normal drive should be fine.

Some HDD's run hotter than others...and no one brand is even the "coolest"...I've got an 80 GB Maxtor that's very nice and cool, and a 40GB from the same generation, even, that's quite warm...I've got two seagate 80GB SATA Barracudas now, though, and they're both pretty decent...just be careful what drives you choose.

[David]

Well, I've seen some with 2hdds in 'em, so why not go for it? Put another fan in there somewhere to blow on the drives and you should be OK.

[davidicus]

i know my SS51g is cool as a cucumber, but have been worried about a Shuttle handling the heat of an extra hard drive, bigger CPU, and more powerful video card too. it's tight in there!

[Blahpony]

Use laptop HDs. They won't be as fast, but they take up less room and generate less heat. You most likely can get bay adapters and I know you can get interface adapters. Plus a small system needs small drives.

[TheEmrys]

I use two HD's in my SN41G2. I have a 7200rpm 80 gig Maxtor for a primary and a 7200rpm 200gig WD... I have no real problems. I did add an 80 mm fan that blows right on them, just to be sure, but I didn't really need them, so I took them off. I just make sure that I have HD's set to power off when needed. But I ran as a Kazaa server for so long, it never kicked in. Long and short of it, don't worry about it as long as you have quality HD's. But if it worries you, and as long as you have the right Shuttle, make or buy an external firewire/usb2.0 enclosure. I'm getting one for my 200 just for the convenience.

[davidicus]

hmm...laptop drives...hadn't considered that idea!

[mstrmold]

I've got an SN45G with two hard disks in it. It does tend to run on the hot side, but only by a few degrees from what the thermistor reports for inside case temp. I've got a WD 200JB 200Gb 7200RPM 8Mb model, and a WD 100BB 100Gb 7200RPM drive 2Mb and it seems to run quite nicely together. Try running it for a few days to see what changes it brings to your box. It's the only way you will find out 100% if it is ok for you.

Regards

-E

[davidicus]

thanks everyone.
for the record, Shuttle agrees, saying the units are designed to safely support two HDD, as long as they're not touching; they have been tested with all slots filled with high end stuff and two large, fast, SATA drives. the heat pipe goes a long way, apparently. in a worst case, they recommended a replacement cover that they offer with a large grill on both sides to allow more air to move.