I just purchased a G-Drive 4TB Thunderbolt 3 external HDD and it runs very hot. I can feel the heat from 12-15 inches away from the enclosure. I am using this HDD on my 2017 MacBook Pro to edit video at rates up to 4k/30. This HDD is also very loud when conducting read/write operations. Never had a HDD that clicks this loud. Anyone else using the 4TB Thunderbolt 3 G-Drive and experiencing the same characteristics ?
The way the drives are designed now offer airflow cooling so they will run warmer than the previous generation of drives but still within their specs. Do you have any warnings or temperature readings about the drive?
The noise of the drives can be different from drive to drive, some might be louder than others and you will definitely hear them going if working on 4K footage, but it is not indicative of failure.
No warnings. It just runs hot. I called G-Technology and customer support said the drive is rated to 60c. Wow!
the same symptoms) looks like very hot, about 60-70 C temperature
Today I’ve got a record of temperature G-Drive Thunderbolt 3 - 67 C (look screen of iStat)! Is it normal when I’m using it with project for Final Cut pro X?
It is quite possible to hit those ranges, depending on environment and under heavy load like video editing. Make sure there is proper air flow in front and behind the drive.
The REAL reason these drives don’t cool down is that the are actually sitting inside a plastic tray on 5 of the 6 sides of the drive. Even the front and back are plastic and there are NO ventilation holes. The holes you see at the front are purely for aesthetics unlike older G Tech designs.
If you don’t mind voiding your warranty you can open up the case and find out! I did, on both my G-Drives (4 & 6TB USB models same case design though). The drives inside are actually really really good, they are sometimes branded HGST or WD Enterprise Class Data Centre drives. So they are very decent. However putting them inside the plastic tray makes them run really hot and keep them really hot. Before I opened mine up I had SMART readouts where the drives were getting sustained temps of 60-70’C and some short temperature peaks at 84’C!!!
I had placed an external fan blasting at the case of the G Drive and there is little to no temperature drop as the drive just has no physical way to transfer the heat buildup. The only part inside the drive housing that has metal to metal contact is the shroud that is mounted to the drive controller. Although I doubt this is there for any kind of temperature control. It’s probably electrical shielding and or grounding.
I still own a few older G Tech drives, 2 earlier model GRaids and the previous design G Drive. Both those designs are all aluminium so the disk can conduct heat to the case and then dissipate the heat with either a nice big heatsink that was directly mounted to the disk or a fan in the back of the case that pulled air through the REAL ventilation holes at the front all the way though and out, keeping the units plenty cool.
As for the noise, yes there are pretty loud compared to consumer drives as they are professional/ enterprise class disks and typically users would prefer performance over noise. And mostly the enterprise class disks would be used in data centres where noise is not an issue. Lots of consumer grade hard drives have technologies built into them to reduce operating noise by controlling the speed of the R/W head and how it moves around, this of course sacrifices performance for quietness.
I Love love love the drives from G Tech and I’m still using their drives after 12 years with no issues (older models) however I think the new design to wrap the disks in plastic is going to be a long term bad decision. I wish they would reconsider their cooling design.
