Bubba 2 - HDD Temp question.

[kfudd]

What is an: AMTXROS MT832051SA

I was using hddtemp to check the temperature of my internal disk in my Bubba 2 an it came up with this:

/dev/sda: AMTXROS MT832051SA: 50°C

What is an AMTXROS hard disk? I thought Bubba 2 came shipped with an 80gb Segate.
How can I check the disk model installed in my Bubba?

sfdisk does not tell the the model.

Thanks!

- Kris

[johannes]

Hi,

You are seeing a driver bug/incompatibility that swaps bytes in the model number readout. If you swap every two letters, it will read MAXTOR STM380215AS. But yes, it actually is a Seagate disk (if you bought it from us at least, we can't guarantee what's inside if resellers assemble the disks), since Seagate aquired Maxtor they share the same disks, at least for the smaller sizes.

[kfudd]

Okay makes sense, no for the next question:

I installed 'smartmontools' to use smartctl to check if my disk was indeed running at 53c.
According to the smartctl, this is correct and it peeked at 57c.

Now from what I read 60c this is near danger zone, but what more can I do when it is 30c in my appartment?
I moved the Bubba 2 into the open air, and it is now 26c in my appartment, but the disk is still running at 50c. Is it safe to be running at these temperatures?

I use my Bubba as a web server, so it is on 24/7.

What are your thoughts on this?

[kfudd]

Okay after some monitoring, it seems the disk in the B2 is running about 22.5c warmer than the ambient temperature of the surroundings.

1. Is this normal? Should I be worried?

On a hot summer day (30c) this leaves your pour HDD running at 53c or more, mine hit 57c yesterday.

2. What can be done to keep temps down other than ice packs or putting the B2 in the fridge.

I noticed standing the B2 up on its side give more cooling surface area and therefore a slightly (2c) cooler HDD.

Thanks!

[johannes]

kfudd,

57° is over our recommendations, that's correct even if it's within the manufacturer specs. There is no specific danger temperature, but generally a higher temperature wears more on the disk than a lower. Peaking at over 50° during a few hot summer weeks is no big issue, but we recommend trying to keep it below 50°C for most parts of the year. I recommend the following:

* If you bought a Bubba Two without disk and assembled yourself, make sure that the heat pads are properly attached.
* During the hottest time of year, make sure to keep the Bubba Two in a not-so-hot environment (server racks etc.) to keep it below 60.
* Make sure the temperature stays in the 40's during the normally tempered time of year.

Then you should have no issues with this.

[johannes]

And for your next post, this is normal, nothing to worry about.

To keep it cooler it's just to move it away from other hot equipment, don't close the door on your server cabinet etc. There are no magic shortcuts I'm afraid.

[asparak]

Or buy yourself a cheap laptop cooler from ebay for a couple of pounds/euros and sit it on top

[kfudd]

Thanks for the great suggestions.

I got my bubba from Excito with an 80gig disk pre-installed.

If I move my B2 around, I can hear a clunking sound like something is loose inside. Could this suggest the heat pads are not installed correctly? Is it easy to open the B2 to check things out?

It would be a nice feature if we could have some temperature readings inside the B2 on the web gui home page, and some basic system metrics like memory usage and average CPU load, network traffic info.

Thanks for the help guys, and just want to say great job on the B2. Excellent product.

[asparak]

Sounds like something is loose. You need to unscrew the back plate and then it all just slides out, so you can check if something is loose. Certainly would explain your temperature issues.

As to stats etc, look up phpsysinfo. It shows all the data you could want and if you have hddtemp installed, will give you disk temps as well. It takes about 2 minutes to install from the web and is fantastic

[johannes]

kfudd,

The clonking sound is normal, nothing to worry about. We are optimizing the production process to minimize it, but it comes from the disk attachement in the case, the sliding metal disk holders are a few tenths of a millimeter too small.

If you would like to open it it's quite simple, just remove the three screws in the back (torx T10 or hex 2mm depending on age) and pull the stuff out.