Andrew J. Rozsa wrote:
> At 8/30/2006 06:39 AM, Thomas wrote:
>  >My only recommendation for drives is to go for the units with at least
>  >3-year warranties.  I'm using a lot of Seagate drives lately because
>  >they're the only ones using Perpendicular Recording.  (Their 7200.10
>  >Barracuda series drives.)
> 
> Seagate seems to be on the top of everyone's list. How about Samsung and 
> Hitachi? Any direct experiences or second-hand info?

I haven't used Samsung (yet) but have owned a lot of IBM/Hitachi 
DeskStars along with Maxtors and Western Digitals.  I haven't had any 
specific problems with any of the brands as long as I kept the drives 
cooled with good power.

> 
>  >around 50C.  Way too warm.  Moving the parts into an early Antec Sonata
>  >case resulted in significant temperature drops across the board.  Other,
>  >larger, cases would've resulted in even better temperature drops.
> 
> I'll come back for some recommendations later. There already is an Antec 
> Sonata II, but it's a midtower. I am pretty sure I will want a full tower.
> 

Yes, if you're having heat issues in the smaller Sonata case, moving to 
a bigger tower is probably required.  I moved my dual-CPU Opteron 246 
case with (4) drives from a Sonata to an Antec p180b because the drives 
were in the 45-50C range all the time.  There was simply too much heat 
in too small of a volume and the numerous cables inside weren't helping 
the situation.

Cooling on the newer Sonata II seemed to be better then the older 
Sonata.  I built a 2-drive unit this week in a Sonata II case and even 
without a front 120mm fan installed, the drives were staying around 40C. 
    That was an M2NPV-VM motherboard (integrated graphics, AM2 socket) 
with a X2 3800+.

I might switch to an Overture II case for any single-drive builds come 
November, but I still have 2 Sonata cases and 2 other cases left to use 
up before then.  The Overture II case looks like a good size for a 
desktop PC, but since most of these units are placed on the floor, I may 
stick with the Sonata II case for durability.

>  >putting (2) 3.5" drives in it; with a 0.5" gap between the two drives.
>  >MWave carries this one under part# BA21364.
> 
> Nifty little package for $24... wow. It won't fit in my present case, 
> but will definitely go into my next (from scratch) project.

I've used that little 3:2 unit in at least 3 projects.  I still have the 
original one that I bought back in 1998 and it's been in at least 4 
different cases over the years.  At the time, it was made by someone 
else and I couldn't find it online for a few years.  It seems to be one 
of those items made by a no-name shop somewhere and re-packaged by 
various manufacturers under their own brand.

There's also a 120mm fan unit made by CoolerMaster and carried at a few 
stores.  It fits into (3) 5.25" bays and holds (4) 3.5" drives.  I have 
these in my Antec p180b towers and my Antec p160 towers.

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/Products.aspx?pid=807

However, since I'm packing the (4) drives close together in such a unit, 
I run the risk of frying the drives if the 120mm fan should fail.  Which 
is a common risk for any situation where the drives are sandwiched 
together.  The Coolermaster unit really doesn't work well with trying to 
put only 3 drives in it, but spacing the drives away from each other. So 
I can't hedge my bets like I can with the smaller 3:2 BA21364 unit.

The 4:3 unit does alright, but the design leaves a little bit to be 
desired and having to disconnect all 4 drives to swap one out is a bit 
tiresome.

> 
>  >The other trick is to make sure air comes in the front of the case via
>  >optional intake fans and that all of the rear fans are set to exhaust
>  >the hot air from the case.
> 
> Can I just drill a couple of holes in the back of the case and mount two 
> exhaust fans?

Depends on the case.  Noise starts to become an issue as you add more 
fans.  There's also intake fans that you can put in drive bays, and 
exhaust fans that fit into the rear expansion slots.  And the Sonata II 
has that ductwork for a 92mm(???) fan to put air directly onto the 
graphics card or CPU fan.

I generally move to a newer larger case and use the old case for 
not-as-demanding projects.  I'm not one for drilling and cutting.

> Looking at MWave.com I feel like a kid in a candy shop. I have used 
> Pricewatch for price comparisons, but for some reason I have never 
> stumbled on MWave. Is this a reputable source? Prices seem excellent.

I use PriceScan for most of my price comparisons, but make almost all of 
my purchases from either MWave or NewEgg.  With TheNerds.net being a 
distant third.  I haven't tested out their return policy so can't vouch 
for that.

(I think I stumbled upon MWave, NewEgg and TheNerds via PriceScan in the 
first place.  Now I often go direct to their websites.)

MWave, I've done business with them for 5 years now?  They're on the 
west coast, so I have to plan on 3-day shipping to the east coast where 
I'm located.  Their prices are generally close to the lowest from other 
stores, shipping rates are reasonable, and they have a good selection. 
Their biggest draw is the motherboard bundles, but this sometimes adds 
1-2 days to the order process.  (At least, I suspect this is why those 
orders didn't ship immediately.  I haven't felt the need to inquire.)

NewEgg has probably the best website setup that I've seen in a while. 
Lots of drill-down options allows me to fine tune a search to find 
specific products.  A lot of times, it's faster for me to use NewEgg's 
site rather then PriceScan to find a component.  They also have lots of 
user reviews for most products, and I'll sometimes base a purchase 
decision off of those reviews.  Plus they usually have multiple pictures 
showing details of the components.  Even better (for me) is that they 
have 2 facilities on the east coast (NJ and TN) so I can often get parts 
within 1-2 days instead of waiting on UPS 3day from the CA facility.

TheNerds.net and CDW are also what I would consider good companies. 
Unfortunately, TheNerds.net has a very rudimentary website with very 
little product information.  CDW is more interested in corporate sales 
and their prices are a bit higher then their competitors.  I've done a 
little business with TigerDirect, Memory4Less and a few other shops, but 
only if MWave/NewEgg don't have what I want.

As always, buyer-beware and make sure you know what you're ordering. 
Some places have restocking fees or difficult return policies.  I do 
enough business with NewEgg/MWave that I can probably lean on them a bit 
if I run into trouble.  (We order parts at least once a month from them.)

...

In case you can't tell, I like building my own systems.  I've had a few 
that didn't work out quite right (wrong memory type, parts that fail 
early, a CPU upgrade that didn't work out) but I've gotten better over 
the years.  I tend to ramble on about the subject because there's a lot 
of first-time mistakes that can easily be avoided.

Prior to my first home-build, I had an AT&T 286, then a no-name 286 with 
a larger hard drive.  Then a Zeos 386SX laptop.  Then a Vectron Pentium 
133MHz.

My first build back in 1998, I made a lot of the usual mistakes and ran 
into the usual issues.  The initial PSU was bad, so I had to deal with 
that.  I didn't cool my hard drives properly at first, so I cooked a 
drive (and it was a SCSI).  Which is why I bought that first 3:2 unit. 
Noise wasn't much of a concern at first, until I had 4 units in the 
office making a terrible racket.

Plus I always have spare parts laying around so building a new system 
often involves merely purchasing a new motherboard bundle.

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