How to easily lower hard drive temperatures in an external HDD enclosure (by a few degrees)

In this video, I test the “tin foil” method of improving heat transfer from the hard drive to the aluminum case.

I’d read about this method online, but wasn’t able to find any details on performance, so I thought I’d try it out. I was able to reduce temperatures by 3°C to 4°C in my first attempt.  This video explains why and shows how I did it with just aluminum foil and tape.

My initial temperatures weren’t bad, but I try to keep temperatures as low as possible. I’m using a WD Purple drive (draws ~6W), this would be much more important if using a higher power consumption drive – for reference, my HGST 7200rpm drives draw ~11W – therefore producing almost twice as much heat.

Products discussed/shown in the video:

Vantec NexStar TX hard drive enclosure (shown in video) Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Vantec NexStar HX hard drive enclosure (mentioned – this enclosure has a built-in fan) Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

I also have a “toaster style” hard drive docking station – this leaves most of the drive exposed to the air, a great set up if you want to cool with a small fan. Mine is a Wavlink, here are some examples: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca