[ale] USB External hard drives

[Randal Jarrett]

Instead of spending extra money on external USB drives which for the
most part
run very hot, unless you go for the high end external cases with fans,
which are
usually significantly more expensive.

Look at getting a 'cool' case for your system.  There are many on the
market.  

I purchased the "Antec Nine Hundred" case.  It has a 200mm(20cm) fan on
the 
top, a 120mm(12cm) fan on the back, provision for a 120mm(12cm) fan on
the
side panel.

There are drive modules that each hold 3 3-1/2" drives that each have a
120mm
(12cm) fan that is just inside the front cover of the module.

Lots of air flow to keep the drives cool, lots of fan but it is very
quiet.

The drives are not as easy to wire up as my Thermaltake cases are with
the
side loading drives that have all the wiring on the outside facing you
when
you open the case but they are quiet.

On Wed, 2007-08-01 at 18:06 -0400, David Corbin wrote:
> I've got a home file server that I run software raid on, because I'm lousy 
> about making backups. It's an older system with IDE drives.
> 
> I've had a recent failure, and  looking for a replacement. Some of the 
> USB-based external drives seem to be available at good prices.  I also wonder 
> if  they might do better in terms of survivabilty (instead  of being inside 
> a "hot PC").   
> 
> Are the USB (2.0) external drives "fast enough", or will the USB a tremendous 
> I/O limitation?
-- 
Randy Jarrett  K4RSJ
Randy's Ham Shack
<k4rsj at radio.org>  FT-2000 s/n 6L080406
FWD# 654871