Is it possible for a PC fan to reduce the RPM of an external enclosure’s drive?

November 24, 2009 - 11:50 pm

I have an internal drive that I made into an external one by an enclosure. The enclosure itself is aluminum. I try to put a fan right over it in order to keep the drive very healthy. Is it going to be a counteracting force to the drive’s spin if I put a PC fan right over it? I notice sometimes a transfer speed decrease when I put a fan over it.
Edit:
I actually didn’t "see" it decrease. I was using WBFS manager to transfer Wii iso’s to my external drive, and it didn’t show me a transfer speed. I just guessed by my sense of time.

Electric motors work by rotating a coil of wire in an electric feild. So i guess in theory that that field could interfere with another motors field.

In practice though I think the strength of the field reduces in proportion of the distance squared. And as it was a very weak field in the first palce i think its unlikely.

Run a few HDTune benchmarks without the fan, then put a fan on top and run them again. If it is causing a problem you should only need to move them apart a tiny bit for the interference to stop. Just try a few benchmarks until your sure its ok.

2 Responses to “Is it possible for a PC fan to reduce the RPM of an external enclosure’s drive?”

  1. drJackel Says:

    What? There is no way that having a fan near a drive will influence the transfer speed. It must be something else.
    References :

  2. Simon P Says:

    Electric motors work by rotating a coil of wire in an electric feild. So i guess in theory that that field could interfere with another motors field.

    In practice though I think the strength of the field reduces in proportion of the distance squared. And as it was a very weak field in the first palce i think its unlikely.

    Run a few HDTune benchmarks without the fan, then put a fan on top and run them again. If it is causing a problem you should only need to move them apart a tiny bit for the interference to stop. Just try a few benchmarks until your sure its ok.
    References :

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