Just coming into this thread recently.

 

1. I've had seagate drives for years.  The older drives ran hot.

I've had baracudda 7200 RPM Full Height SCSI drives that would burn you.

Could this higher temperature of the 160GB drive be age. I.E. friction of the older bearings?

 

2. The chenbro case is adequately cooled. You could try moving the suspect drive to different slots.

I was amazed how well the case was cooled. Also there are top and side vents. You could try covering one or two or moving the case so they are unblocked to see where the issue may be.

 

3. Try leaving he door open.

 

4. Samsung drives do seem to run cooler then others. What I have noticed recently is there is a vent hole on the Samsung F3 1TB drives. I wonder if that has something to do with it. I would still question the accuracy of temperature reading if it is less them ambient. The only time I would expect that is if there is a flow of cool air or something to cause evaporation somewhere.

They may be getting their info from here and why shouldn't they? This is one of the most informed user base out there. I was showing how it was confirmed by yet another user. It seemed like you were stating that 2 users have an ax to grind with Samsung, when there are at least 5 reports of the same situation occurring.

 

You are absolutely correct in at least one regards, as with all things in life believe what you want. Most of us are here to help people make an informed decision.

 

Would you prefer that no one here shares their experiences? If that's really what you want, then why did you ever bother coming to a community discussion center?

 

What I loved about the links... "all the unRAID guys"

heh look. we got clout!

KYThrill, you make some valid points, but the way you phrase them is rather combative.  This is not the way to get your point across; it is grating to read, even if you turn out to be right.  There's no reason to start drama over this, let's just discuss it calmly.

 

Users on these and other forums have reported Samsung drives reporting temperatures below ambient.  Since this is obviously an impossible situation (or at least highly improbable), many of us now distrust Samsung temp readings.  For some people that may be a reason to RMA a drive as defective, for others it may not.  That's a matter of personal preference and how much one's time and data is worth to them.

 

I have two Samsung drives in my server, and both appear to report temperatures accurately (or at least they are within 2-5C of all my other HDDs, and always above ambient).  Therefore, I trust those two drives.  Still, every time I add a new Samsung drive I will keep an eye on the temperature to see if it is trustworthy.  I've formed a bias against them, due to the bad reports I've read (even though I've never seen the problem personally).  In my opinion, this is just human nature - we generalize.  In the same vein, I'm wary of firmware problems with Seagates, and the need for jumpers with WD drives.  I'm also biased against Hitachi due to their poor past performance (in the 'Deathstar' years)...that and the fact that Hitachi doesn't make any green drives at the moment.

 

I have similar biases when it comes to laptop hard drives.  In the 5 or so years that I've been servicing laptops as a hobby and as a side job, I have seen a disproportionate number of Hitachi and Fujitsu drives die early deaths.  Therefore, I avoid them.  Instead I recommend WD, Samsung, and Seagate (in that order).

 

I also have biases in all areas of hardware components.  I love Gigabyte for their quality and reliability, and I would choose them without hesitation for desktop builds.  However, I am biased against them for unRAID and other server applications due to past issues with HPA.  I'm fully aware that modern Gigabyte boards usually have HPA disabled by default and that it is not a problem, but it still seems prudent to me to just avoid the brand altogether and thus avoid the potential problem altogether, especially when there are other good alternatives (such as Biostar and Asus).

 

I could keep going on like this, but I think I've made my point.  I've been working with hardware for many years, and over that time I've noticed trends and developed biases and generalizations that guide my hardware choices.  Are my sample sizes statistically significant?  Definitely not.  Five bad drives out of millions is irrelevant, as you have said.  However, five bad drives out of the ten I've personally encountered in the past few years is something that is going to stick out in my mind, and I am very likely to avoid that brand in the future; again, that's just human nature.  To ignore it would seem silly.  This type of generalization saves me time, and sometimes money as well.  I know other unRAID forum members operate on the same principles.  Collectively we have biases that guide our decisions, and this saves us time, money, and helps prevent premature hair loss.

 

I have come to trust this community and it's respected members.  If a well-respected member here told me today that I should not buy Samsung hard drives for x, y, and z reasons, I would take their word for it.  Why?  Because there are other alternatives, namely WD and Seagate.  If a new member, such as yourself, came along with contrary evidence suggesting that Samsung drives are perfectly safe and that x, y, and z are all fallacies, I would take that advice with a grain of salt.  In all likelihood, I would still avoid Samsung drives for a while, again since there are other good alternatives.  Maybe that means I miss out on a great sale, such as the current 2 TB samsung sale on the good deals forum.  So be it.  The other advantages of saved time (from having to do my own research) and prevented hair loss (if the respected forum member actually turned out to be right) still trump the few dollars I may have saved.

They may be getting their info from here and why shouldn't they? This is one of the most informed user base out there. I was showing how it was confirmed by yet another user. It seemed like you were stating that 2 users have an ax to grind with Samsung, when there are at least 5 reports of the same situation occurring.

 

You are absolutely correct in at least one regards, as with all things in life believe what you want. Most of us are here to help people make an informed decision.

 

Would you prefer that no one here shares their experiences? If that's really what you want, then why did you ever bother coming to a community discussion center?

 

 

It's actually 4 users in 5 reports.  You link mcs posting the same problem on another forum.  I'm just trying to understand how you can take the position that "Samsung temps are utter crap", based on 4 users.  So you think that out of the hundreds of forum members here, that only a handful use Samsung drives, thus a couple of reports are significant?  Or that 4 different reports that you could find on the web, that there aren't millions of users not having the problem.

 

And from what I can gather, you weren't sharing your experience.  I've never seen you state anywhere that you have used a Samsung drive and had it read below ambient.  Your statements come across as propaganda because you are parroting the experience of one or two others, and promoting that as a systemic problem with all Samsung drives, even though their experiences are atypical.

KYThrill, you make some valid points, but the way you phrase them is rather combative.  This is not the way to get your point across; it is grating to read, even if you turn out to be right.  There's no reason to start drama over this, let's just discuss it calmly.

 

Of course I'm combative.  I simply made the statement that in my experience Samsung drives run the coolest, so if temperature is a concern, he might want to consider replacing the Seagate with a Samsung.  That position was attacked.  When you are attacked, you become combative.

That wasn't an attack.

 

If it was an attack I'd say something about your inferiority complex or delusions of grandeur or Your Mother Was a Hamster and Your Father Smelt of Elderberries! I did not say such things.

 

Stop reading your combative intent into what everyone else says, and I am only saying this because I care - there are a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market today that are just as tasty as the real thing.