Hard Drive Temp. Diff.: Can You Explain This ?

[Seeker47]

Two Seagate 120G drives, same part #, same speed & buffer size. The only difference evident to me is that one was Made in China, the other Made in Thailand. The MIC one runs quite hot (to the touch), the MITh one runs relatively cool. Why ?

[redwudz]

That's not unusual. I have seen the same thing with Maxtor drives of the same model and series. The outside of the hard drive may look the same, but likely the internals are different. If they are in a PC and your case permits it, you might think about installing a front intake fan in front of the drives to blow air over them. That will reduce their surface temperature quite a bit.

I've seen different studies about hard drive longevity and heat, but I would prefer that they run cooler for longer life, even if I need to install a fan.

[edDV]

Also, one is probably churning the OS while the other is loafing.

[nic2k4]

The motor causes the heat, then if all the conditions (location and air flow) are the same, they must have different motors. This is usually indicated in the model number by a different letter. Drives with hydro-dynamic bearing motors run cooler and quietter than ball bearing motor drives.

[Seeker47]

"Also, one is probably churning the OS while the other is loafing."

I think they were doing very similar things when tested.

Forgot to mention -- they were both purchased within a few months of each other, and neither has seen any use to speak of until quite recently. This tends to reinforce my suspicions about the qc of Chinese manufacture on certain things. (I always check the box before purchase, and would never have bought that drive in the first place, had any of them been available at the time that were made in Thailand or Singapore instead. There must have been a really good sale going.)

Well, in that case, I'm gonna install the cooler running one. Thanks for your input.