My CD ROM seems to get very warm.  Upon removing the disk, I noticed it was really
very warm...     is this to be expected, or am I facing a bit of shopping
for a new CD Rom?   btw, it's a 24x, about a year old...

Frank B Smith

Russ and Drew have made great suggestions, so there is little left to say,
but for a point of reference, my 3600 rpm Maxtor IDE produces no heat to
speak of, my 4500 rpm Western Digital IDE gets really warm, and my 7200
rpm Micropolis SCSI gets too hot to touch.  I have seen on several sites
(including Seagate's) claims that the mounting hardware is a heatsink for
these high rpm drives.  My solution is to make sure they are not mounted
in dead air, and at least one empty bay away from other heat sensitive
components.  That way your cdrom drive is not the heatsink for your
hard drive!  I haven't needed to install auxilliary fans, just drill a few vent
holes in the plastic coverplates on the drivebays.  I would go to greater
lengths to cool a really high performance drive or a really expensive one,
although I have heard the latest models are not as hot as they ones sold
last year.  My Micropolis has been running 24x7 for 3 years now, if that's
an endorsement, and my cd's don't get hot anymore.
tom turak
tturak at ralgi dot com