Dell OptiPlex 9020 - SSD Temperature and Fan Questions

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  DarthAntz on 26/09/2018 - 17:39

  really doesnt sound like an issue. you should just use the computer as a computer, and not as a potential for concern.

  whats the temperature outside?

  • 

    DeafMutePretender on 26/09/2018 - 17:43

    whats the temperature outside?

    It was a nice warm but not hot Spring day but the evening will get cold fast. The SSD averages 45 degrees regardless of the temperature outside.

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  scrimshaw on 26/09/2018 - 17:46

  SSDs run significantly cooler than the typical hard drive, and a temperature range of 40~60 is normal for idle and perhaps 60~80 when it's under full load.

  When you put your hand on your SSD, you're not actually touching any of the memory chips or memory controllers. That's well covered and protected underneath the plastic shroud. The plastic is transferring the heat slowly to your hand so it's definitely going to feel colder on the outside than it is on the inside.

  Consumer SSD's definitely do not need any air cooling, laptops have no way of cooling internal drives and yet nobody has really worried about the longevity of SSD's that are packed inside a notebook.

  • 

    DeafMutePretender on 26/09/2018 - 17:53

    I'm not too familiar with SSD so 60~80 sounds crazy hot to me. I'm coming from a IDE/SATA perspective where my preferred temperature range is 25~40 degrees. Approaching 50 (like during summer time) then my hand starts burning. Also 50 degrees is the default degree when CrystalDiscInfo gives me a warning.

    Fair point about laptop SSDs and the lack of fan cooling. Maybe my worries are unfounded in this case,

    • 

      scrimshaw on 26/09/2018 - 18:04

      Mechanical drives prefer to stay cool, they have a mechanical spindle that operates at a very high speed. If your HDD is operating within range of normal operating temps stated by the manufacturer, which by Seagate is 5 to 50 degrees C, you should be fine.

      A study done by Backblaze noted that as long as your drives aren't running super hot, the lifespan of mechanical disks don't really matter either. Another data center study shows that high humidity is actually what causes disk failures

      As for SSD's, you don't even need to worry about heat since their range of tolerances are much higher. While yours idles at 50 degrees, my WD Black PCIE drive idles at 60 to 70…

      • 

        DeafMutePretender on 26/09/2018 - 18:34

        Regarding your first link, it says 5 to 50 degrees is the "normal operating temperature" which I think is different to "optimal operating temperature." 5 degrees isn't very good for a HDD, and neither is 50+. To use an analogy, you shouldn't drink no water a day, but you shouldn't drink 50 liters a day either.

        http://research.google.com/archive/disk_failures.pdf
        Although the study concludes that "failures do not increase when the average temperature increases", it nevertheless suggests that extreme temps (both sides) are bad and that 37~46 degrees is optimal.

        Regarding the second link, the commentators seem to have pointed out a few flaws with the methodology, namely, the article offers a question: "Hard Drive Temperature – Does It Matter?" implying the answer to that question is "no" and then they proceed to not allow the temperature of their HDDS to go above 38 degrees, which just so happens to be within the optimal temp range.

        So if your collection of hard drives all remain within the "optimal temp range", then of course, the answer to the questions "Hard Drive Temperature – Does It Matter?" is probably no. But if the hard drives are increasingly tested at high temps, then the answer to the same question would be "probably yes" at a proportional rate.

        The closest "optimal temp" for SSDs I could find is in the 40s so that's good enough for me. I think SSDs have an less an issue with temperature and mechanical moving parts though and more "too many writes" but I need to read a bit more on that (like I said, I'm relatively new to SSDs). If I remember correctly, larger capacity SSDs have a longer life span than smaller ones.

        • 

          HighAndDry on 26/09/2018 - 18:48

          @DeafMutePretender: When SSDs were new, read and write cycles were a big deal (and so turning on TRIM in windows etc was important). These days, they have enough read and write cycles that under even moderately heavy use they'll last 10+ years no problems, and if you can find someone using a 10 year old SSD as a daily drive then I'll be worried.

          It's all very consumer friendly these days, I wouldn't worry about it.

• 

  HighAndDry on 26/09/2018 - 18:00

  the temperature for the SSD drive is 40 degrees.

  That's perfectly fine. SSDs can work at far higher temps (generally up to (it's not a challenge) 70 degrees).

  CDI could be playing up re "Hours ON", or the refurb part could've involved swapping in a SSD.

  At fast fan speed, the SSD temp goes below 40 degrees. At this loudness though, I expect it to be subzero ice cold. The temperature scanner must be inaccurate, I'm sure of it.

  Eh. Loudness is not necessarily that cool - I doubt Optiplexes have great fans. Custom fan-curves is a (slightly) premium feature that the Optiplex might just not have. But ~40 degrees is very decent temps for a PC, I wouldn't sweat it.

  • 

    DeafMutePretender on 26/09/2018 - 18:37

    That's perfectly fine. SSDs can work at far higher temps (generally up to (it's not a challenge) 70 degrees).

    Yeah seems like 40~ is a good range for SSDs though I think it's still a good idea not get to 70 or over.

    Eh. Loudness is not necessarily that cool - I doubt Optiplexes have great fans. Custom fan-curves is a (slightly) premium feature that the Optiplex might just not have. But ~40 degrees is very decent temps for a PC, I wouldn't sweat it.

    I was joking when I said I wanted my SSD ice cold. I just wanted to stress the point that the fans are loud as hell (at max speed).

    • 

      HighAndDry on 26/09/2018 - 18:49

      I just wanted to stress the point that the fans are loud as hell

      Hahah yeah. You can see if it's worth the trouble (and money) to swap in some better quality/quieter fans if you want, but the real limit is your motherboard not having a greater range of fan curves options.

      It might also be the CPU cooler fan and not the case fans making most of the noise, and I wouldn't recommend going to the trouble of swapping the CPU cooler.

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  ShannonN on 27/09/2018 - 01:53

  My brand new crucial 500 GB ssd drive reads as 35 idle and 40 under load with highest temp achieved of 49

  The shitty Ramsta I got from a deal here (with horrendous write speeds) always shows 40 as it seems it has a unusual sensor that many hdd testing software cannot properly detect

  Both my Intel 120 GB SSD that still goes strong after 6 yrs and Sanddisk 240 Gb Ultra II (both now retired) always sat at 35 to 40 degrees

  The blurb on the Intel drive specs says the drives Operating Temperature Range
  0°C to 70°C

  So don't sweat it (Pun intended) and get on with life

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  theHMASfriendship on 27/09/2018 - 07:49

  SSD temp perfectly fine.