[SunRescue] Re: expensive paperweights

[Dave Reader]

On Wed, 30 May 2001, jeff borisch wrote:

> Hi Dave,
> 
> Dave Reader wrote:
> 
> > 
> > They run cooler than modern 3.5" drives. Modern 3.5" drives /require/
> > forced-air cooling.
> 
> Are the new 10K+ drives that hot? I was running a few IBM 9G 7200 rpm drives
> and they stayed cool with no special cooling.

I have 7200rpm drives which do need forced air cooling. The paperwork with
them said so IIRC. Anyway - I did try them without .. they got too hot (in
my SS5) to touch comfortably. They're brand new drives, so it's not an age
thing. These were fujitsu SCA drives. I've had to buy some older sca
drives for the pizzaboxes - i don't like disks getting hot (if the case is
that hot to touch, think about how hot some of the components must be -
such at the motor control IC which uses the case as a heatsink).

I also have some seagate narrow drives which get very hot even when
running in open air. Basically, if it's more than 5400rpm it's safer to
assume it wants cooling.

The seagates (i forget the model .. but theyre the silver ones with the
white label over the entire to surface) came from someone with the
warning "they're not very old, but most of those that we bought failed in
a matter of months. they run very hot".

All recent 'professional' toys I've seen have forced-air cooling for the
drive arrays .. even the little fujitsu/icl p100 server I have at home has
a small fan blowing over the disks (i have two of the aforementioned
seagates in there .. and it blows out very warm air).

> The WDs the IBMs replaced were mini fry grills, however. Nasty Nasty Drives.

It seems that all modern 3.5" scsi drives get far too hot. I'm not sure
about EIDE stuff as I haven't bought any for .. hmm .. must be a couple of
years now. Someone at work bought a 75Gb IBM IDE for a box recently, but
I've no idea how warm it gets.

> > IME good quality 5.25" drives easily out-last 3.5" drives.
> 
> That is nice to hear, since I'm running one. I also heard these were some of
> the first 9GB drives and were engineered for high performance/reliability
> applications. Before 9 Gigs became a commodity on its way to an anachronism.
> 
> They are only 5400 rpm but the performance on the outer cylinders is more
> like a 3.5 in. 7200 rpm. At least that's what They tell me. Seems pretty
> fast to me.

I don't really do anything to cause me to notice this TBH .. but they work
nicely and I like them :)

In any case, you can do the maths. You know the platter size, you know the
rotational speed, you know how many platters, you know the capacity, etc
etc.

dave.