SCSI Bus Problem?

From: Jerome Fine <jhfine_at_postoffice.idirect.com>
Date: Mon Feb 11 23:14:11 2002

>Zane H. Healy wrote:

> >> On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Jerome Fine wrote:
> > > Sellam - this one is racked in a tower box as well with TEN 5 1/4"
> > > half height drive bays - is that what you are using? I can't begin
> > No, I have 10 half-height 5.25" drive bays. 10 full height would actually
> > be 20 half-height, which would be insane :)
> Where are you two finding cases with 10 half-height 5.25" drive bays?!?! I
> had a nightmarish time a little over a year ago finding one with just 6
> bays! The other question is, how tall are these cases? My 6 bay one barely
> fits under the desk.

Jerome Fine replies:

Get a BA123 box - joke!!

I can't answer for Sellam, but son#3 found my box over 4 1/2 years ago
when I finally went on the internet with the "older" system - Pentium 166 MMX
and all of 24 MBytes of memory with W95. I used a number of old (even at
the time) ESDI full height 5 1/4" hard disk drives which took 2 bays alone out
of the 5. I also had both the 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" floppies (each half height) for
another full bay and a CDROM plus eventually an Iomega SCSI internal
Zip 100 drive for a 4th full bay. That left only 1 full height bay left which
I had designs on until recently. Now ALL bays are full - 10 drives inside
and 2 outside.

Only one minor problem - the Pentium III 750 motherboard is a vastly
different design and did not install correctly in such an old case. The
metal around the mouse and keyboard does not fit properly. Plus the
USB connectors are sort of hanging. But the case is left open in any
case, so it does not really matter or actually affect the air flow. Only
the three SCSI hard drives might get a bit hot, but since they are only
3 1/2" drives, there is ample room inside the bay to add a fan which
is what I have done. They are bolted to only one side leaving space
on the other side.

As for the other 7 drives in their bays, I don't think that the two floppy
drives, four CDROM drives or the Zip drive should overheat, but
perhaps someone can comment on at least this aspect who has ever
had a problem with a lack of air circulation for these seven.

And finally, if the 2 (perhaps latter 4) EIDE drives get too warm, I can
also put another fan on them as well. However, once they are completely
out in the open outside the box, I an confident room circulation should
take care of any problems.

Perhaps it was luck or just foresight that both Sellam and I have these
boxes. As for size, 26 1/2" high (I left off the casters, so it would fit
under a desk without a keyboard drawer), 17 1/2" deep (OK so it
will be tight on a small 20" desk) and 8 1/2" wide. So a BA23 box
without the plastic skin is much smaller - although perhaps that is not
a fair comparison.
Received on Mon Feb 11 2002 - 23:14:11 GMT