*BSD News Article 79657


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
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From: tomh@metrics.com (Tom Haapanen)
Subject: Re: Recommended SCSI hard drive for BSD system
Organization: Software Metrics Inc.
Message-ID: <DyLD7t.2II@metrics.com>
References: <324703FC.41C6@austin.ibm.com> <3249A04D.41C67EA6@cisco.com> <vw20fn92ks.fsf@mina.sr.hp.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 10:02:17 GMT
Lines: 40
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:5026 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:28345


Darryl Okahata <darrylo@sr.hp.com> writes:
> * Quantum: I've got an Atlas, Fireball, and Lightning, and I like them
>   all, although the Lightning isn't exactly a stellar performer.  The
>   Atlas is noisy, but fast; it's not a drive that you want to get if you
>   want a quiet drive.  I'd avoid the Quantum Empire and, maybe, the
>   Grand Prix.  I don't know about the Fireball TM (it might be good),
>   but I've seen a few complaints about the IDE version.  Don't know
>   about the Traiilblazer.  I'd recommend the Atlas and Fireball to
>   others.  However, the Atlas (and some other fast Quantum drives) can
>   respond too quickly for some older/slower SCSI adapters to handle
>   (which causes the controller to hang); in this case you have to slow
>   down the drive to make it work with the controller (real solution: buy
>   a newer/decent controller).

We have about 40-50 Quantum SCSI drives in our workstations and servers
here, with a mixture of Empires, Fireballs, Lightnings, Trailblazers,
Atlases and Grands Prix. We've had four failures to date: two early Empire
730S died for reasons unknown, and two Atlas 2GB drives died from over-
heating (until we realized that desktop cases need a second fan to cool
them properly).  Our local PC dealer has sold thousands of Quantum SCSIs
over the past few years, and his returns are on the order of 1-2%.

I'd also be happy with Conner, but, alas, they are no longer.  I have had
too many bad experiences with Seagate to be comfortable with their drives,
but I don't really have statistical evidence to back that up.

That pretty much leaves IBM and HP, but they tend to have only limited
availability, a fairly small selection of drive types, and relatively
higher prices.  I did just order a whack of slightly older IBM 730 MB
drives for RAID use at an excellent price, though ...

Homebrew RAID is getting to be a pain, since sub-2 GB SCSI drives are 
pretty hard to find now, and you don't always need to have an 8 GB RAID
subsystem.

-- 
[ /tom haapanen -- tomh@metrics.com -- software metrics inc -- waterloo, ont ]
[ "everything that can be invented has been invented."                       ]
[                        -- charles h. duell, u.s. patent commissioner, 1899 ]