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Most hard drives have a S.M.A.R.T threshold of 55 °C (maximal operating temperature), but it is generally advised to keep temperatures below 40 °C.

Now I have a Seagate SkyHawk 8TB (ST8000VX0022) which gets consistently around 5 °C hotter than my Seagate Desktop 4TB (ST4000DM000). Swapping position in the case doesn't make a difference, so it's not the airflow. But the threshhold for the Skyhawk is also increased to 60 °C while for the Desktop it's the usual 55 °C.

Does it mean anything that Seagate Technology increased the threshhold for the Skyhawk? Does it handle higher temperatures better (around 45 °C) in the sense that a reduced lifetime does not occur?

Because even with the front fan disabled, the Desktop was always under 40 °C. I have to live with the noise if I want to keep the Skyhawk below 40 °C.

viuser
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    I don't understand your question... by your own admission, your drive is within normal operating range, what is the problem? It is not unusual for different drives to run at different temperatures depending on what they do and how they are engineered. – acejavelin Jun 19 '17 at 16:49
  • @acejavelin It's known that higher temperature reduces lifetime, first answer [here](https://superuser.com/questions/367346/what-is-the-safe-temperature-limit-for-a-consumer-sata-hard-drive). From my own experience operating hard drives consistently at 50 °C is a bad idea, but those drives were rated with maximal 55 °C. So it really pushed the limit. I wonder if reduced lifetime might not occur at over 45 °C with such more modern and expensive drives (compared to the mainstream Desktop variant) which are also rated higher (60 °C). – viuser Jun 19 '17 at 17:09
  • Perhaps, but you are also referencing an answer that is 6 years old that is using as its reference a study that was published over 10 years ago (meaning the actual study was prior to that). Although I am sure it still applies somewhat, your own admission shows this drive operating at 45C is well below it's operating limit of 60C, it could still operate at a full 33% temperature increase over sustained periods of time before any real concern. Remember that these specs are typically under-rated and for worst case scenarios. I think your concern regarding your specific situation is unwarranted. – acejavelin Jun 19 '17 at 17:15
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    @acejavelin Yes, it's true the research is old and this is really bad. But from my own experience 50 °C doubled annual failure rate (small sample of 5 drives) and this was around 4 years ago. Maybe a few degrees less and the failure rate would have been much smaller. But I've got a bit paranoid about hard drive temperatures since then. Probably only a Seagate engineer or someone with the time and money for new research could _definitely_ answer this question. Anyway, the Skyhawk already get's hotter by design than the smaller Desktop so one would expect it to be more robust. – viuser Jun 19 '17 at 17:27

2 Answers2

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There is nothing about SMART particularly relevant to this topic. SMART is just a monitoring system that involves certain communication between your hard drive and the computer.

If a hard drive has a higher acceptable operating temperature, then that means that the hard drive has a higher acceptable operating temperature.

There are other things it can mean too, but that's the basic bit, and everything else stems from it or varies based on other factors.

music2myear
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The answer to your first question is yes.

"Each drive manufacturer defines a set of attributes,[18][19] and sets threshold values beyond which attributes should not pass under normal operation."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

The second question could only be answered by Seagate. It's certainly a good sign that they rated this drive higher than a previous drive you've inspected but I am not confident that would translate directly in to higher MTBF. I'm afraid that without a statement from Seagate this is a "matter of opinion" and can't be answered by a forum member who is not a Seagate engineer.

HackSlash
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