[adamfarden]

hi there,

i'm hopefully gonna be making up a box to store all my video and music files on to go with my TV, probably one of these SFF boxes from shuttle so its basically a media centre pc type thing. Since these are gonna be large files, it would make sense to use a really big HD.

from past experiences i've had hard drives get quite hot when reading these large files for a considerable ammount of time, so i was wondering, since a RAID0 can split files between two HD's this would obviously mean less reading of each disk. presumably this would make the disks run cooler as they are under less stress, but what about both together? i was thinking of using 2 high capacity 5400rpm disks, which should run cooler than the 7200rpm disks i currently have. Having not tried out RAID before, can anyone who's had experiences with RAID say if:

1. RAID hard drives do run cooler in similar situations as a single drive would
2. weather the overall temperature effect on a system from 2 RAID HD's is less than a single hotter HD
3. any other reccomendations if this would turn out not to be better?

another point is that i wouldnt need to worry about backing up as most of the files i've allready got backed up onto discs, its just the convenience of having them all in one place thats easily accessable.

cheers

Adam F

[professor_paradigm]

In my experience raid is a little cooler, but if Heat is really a concern for you get a HDD heatsink and Fan. These are great little mods that are often overlooked. As far as total effect, I would presume that two drives running cooler would also have more surface area producing and distributing heat, individually cooler or not, it may not make such a great difference in overall effect. Then again, raid is always nice if for no other reason than speed and redundancy. Sounds like your on the right track. Good luck.

[OsirisX]

I doubt RAID would make much of a difference in temp, just get a heat sink or fans to put infront of your hd. They're really cheap now.

[me2]

Wow. Installing raid to reduce heat is what I call a good example of lateral thinking. I'd agree with UDX though - I don't think it'll show a big difference. Get more fans.