Roxanne Pierce said:
>2. Your new 4GB drive will definitely be much hotter than the old 800MB drive
>under any circumstances.<snip>
>If you have an additional 5.25" drive bay open, this would be a good time
to put
>a removable hard drive bay in it and install your new 4GB hard drive there.

For the same mechanical parameters, a 4GB drive should generate
the same or less* heat than an 800MB drive.
(* less because the motors may be more efficient in the later drive)

However, it is likely that your 4GB drive has a higher spindle speed
than the old drive (7,500-10,000RPM versus 3,600-5,400RPM).
Hence it will generate much more heat due to windage losses and
cooling should be given special attention.

And now the removable drive bay...
These vary a lot in their cooling performance:
* plastic frame, no fan - cheap, poor cooling
* plastic frame, fan - slightly dearer, good cooling
* metal frame, fan? - expensive (3x), fair cooling by conduction,
  excellent with fan.

If you have a spare 5.25" bay, unless you need the removable feature,
I would go for metal 3.5 to 5.25 mounting brackets allowing
lots of space for ventilation.

Wherever you mount it, if the drive is too hot to touch comfortably
it is getting to a temperature which may shorten its life.
You might consider a small fan (perhaps from a CPU cooler with a
drive power connector) mounted to force air around the drive.

Len Warner <[log in to unmask]> WWW Pager http://wwp.mirabilis.com/10120933