[Gooserider]

I have NEVER seen a pointer to a drive manufacturer stating that cooling was intended to be via the drive sides. My own experience examining the sides of drives suggests that cooling that way isn't a major design factor since they seem to be designing to minimize contact between the drive and other hardware. (I.e. milling out the sides of the casting except where the screw holes are)

In some of the discussion of drive cooling that I've seen on Storage Review and other such places, the implication is that cooling ANY part of the drive will rapidly cool the entire drive both from conduction through the Al drive body, and by convection of the air inside the drive itself - note that the biggest source of heat in a drive is the air friction and turbulence caused by the platters spinning inside the drive.

Air cooling is often applied to the top of the drives simply because it is the biggest single area available. Water cooling I've seen done by applying the cooling to ANY part of the drive. The only caution seems to be that one should avoid stressing the drive casting by fastening things to it in ways the manufacturer didn't design.

Gooserider