Does anyone know why the hard disk is upside down? This seems wrong for a couple of reasons and probably stresses the electrics with the rising heat. I was tempted to turn it over - may do later. There is also a space and vent for a fan there - but no fan. I have have noticed that the 250gb gets quite hot.
T816 - Inverted Hard Disk?
Care to say what those reasons might be?
I swapped over disks and put the new one in the same way without a thought.
Surely the heat is going to come from the board so that is uppermost.
Never tried the other way, but looking at the disk taken out, the screw holes would not align with the cage otherwise.
I swapped over disks and put the new one in the same way without a thought.
Surely the heat is going to come from the board so that is uppermost.
Never tried the other way, but looking at the disk taken out, the screw holes would not align with the cage otherwise.
Originally Posted by paul90:
“Does anyone know why the hard disk is upside down? This seems wrong for a couple of reasons and probably stresses the electrics with the rising heat. I was tempted to turn it over - may do later. There is also a space and vent for a fan there - but no fan. I have have noticed that the 250gb gets quite hot.”
“Does anyone know why the hard disk is upside down? This seems wrong for a couple of reasons and probably stresses the electrics with the rising heat. I was tempted to turn it over - may do later. There is also a space and vent for a fan there - but no fan. I have have noticed that the 250gb gets quite hot.”
The HDD chips can cope. HDDs are designed to be fully capable of running either way up. It really does not matter.
If you're unhappy with the heat, stick an electronic processor themometer on the HDD for a night and keep checking it during differing usage. If it gets anywhere near the max temp for the drive (see tolerances on the drive manufacturer's web site, likely in the drive manual) get a fan. Otherwise, don't worry.
Personally, I won't be bothering to measure this with my 160gig T816.
If you're unhappy with the heat, stick an electronic processor themometer on the HDD for a night and keep checking it during differing usage. If it gets anywhere near the max temp for the drive (see tolerances on the drive manufacturer's web site, likely in the drive manual) get a fan. Otherwise, don't worry.
Personally, I won't be bothering to measure this with my 160gig T816.
Originally Posted by psteel:
“Never tried the other way, but looking at the disk taken out, the screw holes would not align with the cage otherwise.”
“Never tried the other way, but looking at the disk taken out, the screw holes would not align with the cage otherwise.”
They do, there are holes to mount the drive either upside down as they are, or the 'right' way up.
Modern hard drives aren't fussed which way they are mounted, be it upside down, on their sides or the conventional way. In fact, there's something to be said for mounting them upside down as it allows the heat from the electronics to rise.
But that said, most of the heat of a modern drive is caused by the air resistance inside the drive - the electronics only contribute a small fraction.
Originally Posted by psteel:
“Care to say what those reasons might be?
I swapped over disks and put the new one in the same way without a thought.
Surely the heat is going to come from the board so that is uppermost.
Never tried the other way, but looking at the disk taken out, the screw holes would not align with the cage otherwise.”
“Care to say what those reasons might be?
I swapped over disks and put the new one in the same way without a thought.
Surely the heat is going to come from the board so that is uppermost.
Never tried the other way, but looking at the disk taken out, the screw holes would not align with the cage otherwise.”
I believe that the heat is more likely to be generated internally in the hd rather than from the circuit board. I was therefore concerned that the electronics are sitting directly above the hottest point. I have never seen a drive mounted this way before. I notice that there are 2 heat spots: above the drive and above the psu. The PVR processing board seems fairly cool.
However I am reassured by the replies and will not rush to change it.
My thoughts are that heat rises 
. With the drive upside down, the electronics being on top will get much hotter than if they were on the underside (when the drive is the "right way up"), since the electronics themselves really don't get hot at all on their own and therefore get heated up by the by the heat rising from the drive. Especially when you consider the lack of air flow in the PVR casing - even PC's with little cooling have better air flow. Hence why I turned my drive around - heat escapes from the top of the drive, whereas the electronics stay cool on the underside. Haven't gotten around to any scientific tests - just fingertip tests on the HD chips with the drive upside down and not 
.
. With the drive upside down, the electronics being on top will get much hotter than if they were on the underside (when the drive is the "right way up"), since the electronics themselves really don't get hot at all on their own and therefore get heated up by the by the heat rising from the drive. Especially when you consider the lack of air flow in the PVR casing - even PC's with little cooling have better air flow. Hence why I turned my drive around - heat escapes from the top of the drive, whereas the electronics stay cool on the underside. Haven't gotten around to any scientific tests - just fingertip tests on the HD chips with the drive upside down and not .
Originally Posted by futaura:
“My thoughts are that heat rises. With the drive upside down, the electronics being on top will get much hotter than if they were on the underside (when the drive is the "right way up"), since the electronics themselves really don't get hot at all on their own and therefore get heated up by the by the heat rising from the drive. Especially when you consider the lack of air flow in the PVR casing - even PC's with little cooling have better air flow. Hence why I turned my drive around - heat escapes from the top of the drive, whereas the electronics stay cool on the underside. Haven't gotten around to any scientific tests - just fingertip tests on the HD chips with the drive upside down and not .”
“My thoughts are that heat rises
. With the drive upside down, the electronics being on top will get much hotter than if they were on the underside (when the drive is the "right way up"), since the electronics themselves really don't get hot at all on their own and therefore get heated up by the by the heat rising from the drive. Especially when you consider the lack of air flow in the PVR casing - even PC's with little cooling have better air flow. Hence why I turned my drive around - heat escapes from the top of the drive, whereas the electronics stay cool on the underside. Haven't gotten around to any scientific tests - just fingertip tests on the HD chips with the drive upside down and not .”
That is precisely what I was thinking when I raised this. Nobody would mount a drive like this in a pc and every other PVR that I have seen mounts the hd the other way up. I wondered what the reason was for doing it this way in this design. The circuit board is almost a barrier to the heat escaping from the hd case out of the array of holes above it.
Originally Posted by paul90:
“That is precisely what I was thinking when I raised this. Nobody would mount a drive like this in a pc and every other PVR that I have seen mounts the hd the other way up. I wondered what the reason was for doing it this way in this design. The circuit board is almost a barrier to the heat escaping from the hd case out of the array of holes above it.”
“That is precisely what I was thinking when I raised this. Nobody would mount a drive like this in a pc and every other PVR that I have seen mounts the hd the other way up. I wondered what the reason was for doing it this way in this design. The circuit board is almost a barrier to the heat escaping from the hd case out of the array of holes above it.”
I dunno, I wouldn't be surprised if Dell fit them upside down
. I don't think it matters so much in a PC since there is usually better air flow. Maybe I'll try again to get an answer from Vestel on the reason for the drive being mounted this way.
If memory serves, I think the earlier boxes did have the drives mounted "the right way up". Later build variants then placed them upside down.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was because it made the IDE cable shorter and therefore saved a few pennies on production costs
I wouldn't be surprised if it was because it made the IDE cable shorter and therefore saved a few pennies on production costs
Originally Posted by farpoint:
“If memory serves, I think the earlier boxes did have the drives mounted "the right way up". Later build variants then placed them upside down.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was because it made the IDE cable shorter and therefore saved a few pennies on production costs”
“If memory serves, I think the earlier boxes did have the drives mounted "the right way up". Later build variants then placed them upside down.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was because it made the IDE cable shorter and therefore saved a few pennies on production costs”
Shorter cables are more data friendly though.
Hi.
Some have already added a fan to the underside of the HDD, since the vents are indeed present for a fan. There is a link to an adaption which has be detailed on the web - I will try to hunt for this.
If a HDD is used which is not a PVR based drive, this can get hot (due to the drive having to extra work to handle the vast quantities of video data - a PVR drive doesn't do as much error checking, and hence less work involved). I have not seen a 250GB PVR drive available yet. Is Evesham just using a normal HDD?
Tim P.
Some have already added a fan to the underside of the HDD, since the vents are indeed present for a fan. There is a link to an adaption which has be detailed on the web - I will try to hunt for this.
If a HDD is used which is not a PVR based drive, this can get hot (due to the drive having to extra work to handle the vast quantities of video data - a PVR drive doesn't do as much error checking, and hence less work involved). I have not seen a 250GB PVR drive available yet. Is Evesham just using a normal HDD?
Tim P.
Originally Posted by Nutty Timbo:
“Hi.
Some have already added a fan to the underside of the HDD, since the vents are indeed present for a fan. There is a link to an adaption which has be detailed on the web - I will try to hunt for this.
If a HDD is used which is not a PVR based drive, this can get hot (due to the drive having to extra work to handle the vast quantities of video data - a PVR drive doesn't do as much error checking, and hence less work involved). I have not seen a 250GB PVR drive available yet. Is Evesham just using a normal HDD?
Tim P.”
“Hi.
Some have already added a fan to the underside of the HDD, since the vents are indeed present for a fan. There is a link to an adaption which has be detailed on the web - I will try to hunt for this.
If a HDD is used which is not a PVR based drive, this can get hot (due to the drive having to extra work to handle the vast quantities of video data - a PVR drive doesn't do as much error checking, and hence less work involved). I have not seen a 250GB PVR drive available yet. Is Evesham just using a normal HDD?
Tim P.”
From memory, I believe that the Evesham uses a Western Digital 2500BB. This series of HDs seems to be common to other PVRs - eg the Tevion, etc. I know that the power ratings are the same as that for the smaller WD hd in the 1620. Again from memory, these are 0.65 - 5v / 0.9 - 12v.
I have found that these drives do not work in the Digifusion, so maybe they are just standard pc drives that demand too much from the Digifusion.
If the hdd mounting brackets are too small/thin then they won't be able to conduct the heat away to the case. I don't know what the brackets look like, but it may be worth trying to buy/beg/steal/make something thicker and sturdier.
Also, thermal conduction will be lowered if the mounting screws are not done up. No need to really gorilla them, you risk stripping the threads, but they should be tightened firmly.
Also, thermal conduction will be lowered if the mounting screws are not done up. No need to really gorilla them, you risk stripping the threads, but they should be tightened firmly.
