This question is for those who are somewhat familiar with burning optical media and/or computer parts and drives in general.
I've started using optical a few years ago and have recently bought a blu-ray reader/burner alongside some other optical readers to burn BDRs, CDs and DVDs, all used except for an USB external DVD drive I use sometimes.
However none of these have been installed internally on my computer, i use them externally with a SATA to USB adapter and additional energy supply from the outlet. They are internal drives, bulky and with that traditional metallic box around it, but being used externally, so far all results of their use are pretty good. I know the SATA to SATA connecting is ideal but it's not possible with my current PC case, it has no place to install an internal drive in and the front has no exit for a drive, only fans, it's a roughly strong PC used in gaming and work as well.
However I have noticed, especially with the BDR drive more than others, that they can get pretty hot when burning discs, the BDR drive probably reaches around +35⁰C or 95F or more when burning a BDR to its full extent, usually a 20min work of constant burning and verification.
The temperatures on the drives have started to concern me because if they got in any trouble because of the temperature affecting the components it would be really hard for me to replace them, especially the BDR drive, they are becoming more rare everyday and more expensive and I might not have the extra cash to buy another one if this one breaks due to long term high temperature.
Has anyone here ever come across this issue? Is it something that I should be concerned about or are the drives perfectly capable of being used like this long term without issues?
To mitigate this issue I bought a somewhat big USB fan directed towards the drives, that are sitting on top of each other and I put some small plastic pieces in between them so that air can reach in between, they aren't touching each other and this the air from the fan can actually cool them down very well, however it cools the external structure of the drive, i have no idea if it actually has any positive effective impact on the internal mechanisms when it comes to the heat inside. Basically the USB fan has become their cooler, but I'm not sure it's an effective solution to this.
I apologize if this is not the right sub for this but I assume some people here might have interesting opinions or insight/experience with optical drives...
