Power Consumption / Cabinet Installation

[tekram]

WD considers some of these consumers units as dispensable or consumables, putting a 2 year warranty on the MC Home and 1 or 2 years on the WD Elements. It should easily last that long but as a consumer, you will be better off trying to cool the unit as much as you can and I have always tred to cool the HDDs when there is no automatic way to put them in power saving mode which in the case of WD Elements you could but not the MCH. Picture below is a simple set up with a 80mm USB powered fan blowing up to draw air from the bottom of the units and notice that the HDDs are elevated slightly to enhance air flow. The result is at least a 10 degree C reduction in temperature which could be measured on the WD Elements using Crystal Diskinfo but not the MCH, however given the similar size and age of the HDDs, it is reasonable to assume they have similar effects in cooling
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