well like i said

depends on the environment the computer is in
and the circulation of the whole computer

but usualy 7200rpm hdds should be cooled to be on the safe side as often bad sectors form because the hot air above the magnetic pin raises the arm or lower it

cooling
 

Put it this way.. i'm using it right now without any cooling. 8) .but i ran some tests and scores were a bit low so i have a fan on the way . so conclusion------ cooling not necessary but beneficial

hehe i guess

also if the air in the hdd gets really really hot
then there is some chance of the air disrupting the magnetic needle and can create some bad sectors...

I dont thinck that HDD cooling is necessary, it will probably give him a longer life but not much more.

Depends on the drive man, if you run one of the new WD 8mb versions your likley to start having errors because in an enclosed bay the thing can burn ya *LOL*

Does it really heat that much, my god, i have a seagate barracuda 4 40go and thats ok

yeah the WD 8mb cache drives get nasty hot with no venting, I had one in my removable hard drive bay and after about an hour of use took it out and it was blistering hot. So now I have it in an antec bay with it's own 80mm fan blowing accross top and bottom so it stay very cool.

My god thats got to be a bit noisy

:)
 

No it is very quiet, in fact bairly noticable. I cannot put up with an overly loud system.

Mine is a bit noisy, that must be the to 120cm fans i have at the back and front one of them blowes a bit of fresh air on the hard drive thats probably why hes never too hot