Originally Posted By: tfabris
leaving the drive open to the air like that means that it's as cool as it's gonna get.

Not really. There's nothing moving the hot air away from the drive, so the environment will approach equilibrium with the drive. If you had air moving over it, it would have a constant supply of cool air.

In other words, forced convection is a more efficient method of heat removal than natural diffusive convection.
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Bitt Faulk