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Tivo Cooling?
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Posted by: suedemonkey57

I'd like to add some extra cooling to my Tivo. Is there a fan or kit or some sort that is available that is relatively simple to install without any sort of hardware modification? I'm also looking for something quiet if that's not too much to ask for.

Posted by: weaknees

What model TiVo?

Michael

Posted by: suedemonkey57

it is a hdr212

Posted by: weaknees

That unit has a really good Pabst fan. Is yours not working well? How high is the temp?

Michael

Posted by: jtown

Why do you need extra cooling? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. :)

I'm paranoid about temperature but managed to keep my 2-drive SVR-2000 at a comfortable high-30s to mid-40s range just by adding an old, quiet CPU fan to the front of the case near the hard drives. It circulates the air in the case and keeps pockets of dead air from building up. The stock fan by the power supply moves enough air to keep the temperature under control and the whole thing makes less noise than my VCR.

Posted by: suedemonkey57

Interesting. I was hoping to extend the life of the hard drives. I was thinking of picking up those hard drive fans that cool the surface, are those any good?

Posted by: suedemonkey57

How do you check the temperature?

Posted by: jtown

Depends on your definition of "good". Unless you're also going to increase the airflow through the case, those things won't have any more effect than my scavenged CPU fan. It'll certainly be good for your drives but there's no reason to go spending lots of money on fancy hard drive fans. The net effect would be exactly the same since it just stirs the air inside the case. It'd probably get pretty loud, too.

Before you go spending a bunch of money on specialty cooling products, find one of these and just "mount" it in front of your drives, blowing between the drives towards the power supply. Use the power source for the existing fan. I just tapped into that and it turns both fans fine. I believe it's less than 12V so the fan will actually run slower and quieter than normal.

First, let your Tivo run as-is for a few hours to get good and warmed up then take off the cover and feel the drives. Mount the fan (don't forget the power), close the case, let it run for a few hours, then take off the cover and feel the drives again. They should feel much cooler.

Also check the system temperature before and after the modification. It's in the system status/messages/setup section. I forget exactly what it's called. It'll probably read higher after the modification but that's because the hot air that was previously building up around the hard drives is now being circulated throughout the case so the entire unit is a uniform termpeature. The drives themselves will actually be cooler than before while the rest of the unit is a bit warmer.

If you want to get really fancy, you can get an infrared thermometer and spot-check the temperatures of various components.

Adding that one little fan to draw the heat from the hard drives is probably the best thing you can do for them. Just a tiny bit of airflow makes all the difference. As long as your system stays in the mid 40s or lower after the modification, there isn't much point in doing additional work to bring the temperature down further. Mid 40s is fine for hard drives (most have a max operating temp of 55). To get the temperature down, you'd have to increase airflow through the case and that would add noise. You're not going to see any performance increase or significant increase in longevity by going from mid 40s to low 40s or even mid 30s so there isn't much point in adding to the amount of noise produced by the tivo at that point. Once you've got a tiny bit of airflow directed over the drives, you should be set.