Should my Case Fan actually touch my Hard Drives ?

[SalemCat]

I prefer mounting my Hard Drives low in the Case, so as to keep the Center of Gravity of the machine low; I don't want my computers to be top-heavy.

On a new build I've just installed a Scythe S-Flex SFF21G 120mm Case Fan in the lower front of a Tower Case, blowing in. The bearings are supposed to be magnetic.

My concerns: The magnetic bearings in the fan may not be healthy for my hard drives. And with the fan actually touching the HD's the airflow may be severely affected.

I think I'm going to move the HD's into the empty bays above the fan. This way any possible magnetic interference will be reduced, and the airflow will head straight back into the case, unrestricted.

Thoughts ?

[delRhode]

Personally, I'd be more concerned about vibration from the fan than magnetic fields from the fan bearings... but in any case, yes, reducing air flow restriction for your case fan is a Good Thing, and well worth relocating hard drives for.

[Sterling_Aug]

I would expect the rare earth magnets in the hard drives that move the read/write heads would be stronger than the magnetic bearings in the fan.

[SalemCat]

Yes, I agree I should be more conerned with the Vibration than the Magnetism.

The fan is isolated from the case by a silicone rubber gasket. But that just brings the fan even closer to the HD's. It does not actually touch the HD's, but is separated by 1mm (maybe less). Too close.

[t34b4g5]

The magnets won't have any effect on the hard drives, simply because they are not strong enough.

Like others have mentioned your main issue over time would be effects appearing from "vibrations".

[Ol'Tunzafun]

Raising the drive so that the air moves over the PCB on the underside of the drive is the best because it is almost always some IC on that board that fails from running hot over long periods of time. The moving parts are not affected unless it gets very hot.

[SteveH64]

I have been running a twin 5400 or so rpm set of fans in front of 2 raptor drives for 4 years with no problem. The western digital drives run at 10,000 rpm so they are probably hotter than the 7200 guys. In any case staggering the drives so that you have an open drive bay between drives may not be a bad idea flow wise and thermally for the drives if you have the space to do that. I like the idea of having air flow over the drives to keep the ICs on the controller cool. My case was designed for that purpose as I'm sure yours was.