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From: razzell@cs.ubc.ca (Dan Razzell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun,comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Maxtor LXT-200S
Keywords: Hardware
Message-ID: <1990Aug9.022633.7690@rice.edu>
Date: 7 Aug 90 22:31:00 GMT
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X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 297, message 2

Thanks for the information on the Maxtor 200MB SCSI disk drive.  The
format.dat entry was especially useful because of the fudging required for
the variable disk geometry.  You commented that you had not tested this
entry, but I have just finished doing so and built filesystems on top, so
I can now confirm that it works.

				    -*-

Concerning heat problems, we needed a drive that would install in the
Sparcstation enclosure, and Maxtor had a product.  Consequently, we bought
these, and we'll just have to see how everything bears up.  I have since
heard that Hitachi, Connor, and perhaps HP also make similar drives.
Perhaps they might run a bit cooler, but who knows.  Anyone care to
comment?

I still hold that it would be valuable to get more air moving under the
Maxtor drive, one way for those not faint of heart being by drilling out
the ventilation holes to a larger cross section.  My earlier comments
about airflow were made with the idea that most of the air inside the
Sparcstation enclosure flows across the chassis from the vent holes on the
lefthand side and finds its way, more or less, over the frame buffers,
processor and memory.  Some also enters under the SCSI drives, but the
airway is considerably more restricted once a drive is in place.  The
point of changing the ventilation is to improve things for the controller
board which hangs under the drive, never mind the Head Disk Assembly
itself which is actually producing most of the heat.

I think we agree that the main threat to the Sparcstation is simply from
the heat radiated by the HDA, which is more or less sitting in still air
no matter what you do.  I've been trying to come up with a way of getting
Pop Tarts in through the unused floppy cutout and soak up some of the heat
that way, but I'm worried about the jam getting all over everything :-).