Thanks for the typically useful post on drive trays, ZP. This post reminds me of the yeoman service you did with the auxilliary.
Thought I'd add a couple of quick few remarks with new info since my last post on the subject.
I was pleasently surprised by the noticable difference in perceived performance between my new Maxtor 4320 drive (13.0 gig retail) and the 2880s I was using. It certainly make sense that the drive would often be the bottleneck in a 450 Oc'd celeron system with 256 meg ram, but I still wondered if I'd notice.
I'm tempted now to use two of them in a RAID 1 fasttrak boot, per our exchange on this around 6 months back. I'm pretty interested in trying some of the techniques you reported on from "Dr. (? can't recall) for automated backup this way.
I've noticed that the Antecs seem to let the HDD's generate less noice than the plastic frames did. Also, it's much easier to slide the drives in and out due to the extra space (which makes it easier to switch the master/slave jumper and switch drives in the tray.)
One downside to the Antecs is their length: 9" (a bit deeper than most CD drives.) this leaves a bit less room to move in the case than I'd like, but I do think the added convenience and cooling is worth it.
Had I to do it over again, I'd probably go for the Antec full tower to which you refer, rather than the In Winn Q500. I like the In-Winn, but I'm very interested in the quiet "smart" power supply (once I get the black case up and running, I'll get a sense of just how quiet) and especially attracted to the external bays, as you mention (6 5 1/4" bays and 2 3 1/2.")
As we've noted, I agree completely with your reasoning on the increasingly compelling case to be made for hard drives as a major (but not excusive) part of backup. Their low $/meg, universal usability, unmatched speed, and versatility make them pretty attractive, especially with some decent trays.
Another advantage: hard drives are very easy to resell on auction sites. I've found that I can sell older, smaller drives for slightly less than newer, bigger, faster ones are available at buy.com.
FWIW |
