Getting more and more off-topic..

On Sat, Aug 03, 2002 at 01:49:49PM -0700, Chuck Yerkes wrote:
> Quoting Jukka Marin (jmarin@pyy.jmp.fi):
> > Yeah, a 100+ GB SCSI drive costs 10 times as much as a similar IDE drive.
> > 
> > My SCSI and IDE drives both seem to die before long.  Well, some drives
> > last 5 years even, but some SCSI drives have a feature of dying at the
> > age of 12-18 months.
> > 
> > I wish there was one manufacturer who put reliability before price and
> > top performance..
> 
> And yet you just complained about price above...

I complain about the fact that SCSI disks cost much more, yet they are still
unreliable.  I have owned and still own disks made by Quantum, Seagate, IBM,
Micropolis, Maxtor, HP, Fujitsu, Samsung, and other manufacturers.  None of
these makes disks that I can trust in.

> I'm booting from a 535 SCSI drive that I've had since 1994.
> It's been in regular use for 8 years.

I have disks made before 1990 which still work.  And I have disks made in
2000 or 2001 and they are dead.  SCSI or not.  The drive electronics has
never failed on me, it's always been the spindle motor, bearing, or some
other mechanical thing.

> I also have a Barracuda or two around that are from 95/96.
> The low end disks on sale a Joe's computer shack are often
> the runts of the litter.

Then what disks are not?  I don't buy the cheapest disks, I usually buy
of the "best" series to get "good" drives.  After 12 months or so, I start
hearing "yeah, lots of these drives are coming back because they've failed"
from the dealers.

> Fans are loud.  They also make things live longer.  The new
> PC box has 5 plus 3 little HD Bay fans.

You should hear the noise of fans here.. ;)

> Bad power supplies suck.  If it came with your cheapo case,
> hurl it at the annoying kid next door and get a good one.

Tell that to Sun, please.. and the manufacturers of 350 W power supplies.

> OTOH, I have an ISP quality UPS and power draws like monitors
> and printers go through a line isolater.

I have also been using UPSes for all computer power for 15 years or so.
Doesn't seem to make my disks last.

There are good disks, yes.  But at the time you find out which model is
reliable, it hasn't been manufactured for ages.  You have to buy the
New, Fast, Huge ones - and make sure your backup system is working well.

Sorry, just had too many disks die during the last 15 years on all kinds
of machines.

  -jm