Thank you, Thomas. I am learning as fast as I can. Until now I was a 
happy user, but I got bitten by the build-your-own bug.

I already printed out the manual for the MoBo, so I was following 
your reply looking at the picture of it.

You make perfect sense.

First, I won't run the externals full time.

Secondly, I think I will upgrade to 1, max 2, much larger drives to 
replace 4 or 5 of the 120 Gig ones, keeping the box cooler that way 
(I am told Samsungs run nice and quiet and cool).

Any experience with the round IDE/floppy cables? I feel tempted to 
replace all the ribbons to allow more air movement. I have had the 
box running  with the cover off and it sure feels like there is a lot 
of heat coming from the chip and the drives. Maybe it's my imagination.

Thanks, Thomas. I am grateful.

Andrew

At 8/27/2006 10:49 PM, you wrote:
 >
 >Andrew J. Rozsa wrote:
 >> I have 4 external (1394) enclosures with Maxtor drives in them (120GB)..
 >> My experience with external boxes has not been very good. Eventually
 >> they all seem to fail. The drives seem to be OK, once I remove them and
 >> put them inside a desktop box. Maybe I am buying cheap enclosures.
 >
 >The usual culprit in external USB/Firewire enclosures that kill drives
 >is heat.  They simply don't move enough air across the drive surface to
 >cool it properly.  Especially under extended use.
[......]


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