My Reply follows quote. On 24/07/01 18:58 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
said:
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Marten van de Kraats)
>Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>I'v got this box for external scsi stuff. Apart from a scsi device it
>contains a power supply that is cooled by a fan. The distance between
>the fan and the circuitry of the power supply is ca. 12 cm, so it is
>not like there is a strong wind blowing through it. Apart from the
>fan, there are plenty of air openings in the box.
>What could happen if I would turn of this fan? I mean, would this in
>the end lead to a dead or burned power supply or could it work just
>fine... the oldesy compacts didn't have a fan and neither do the
>modern iMacs, so this fan is maybe something I could do without...
>What kind of precautions should I take when turning of the fan?
>Any ideas? Any experiences?
>
>I think about putting a hard disk in this box and connecting it to a
>plus that I'd like to setup as a silent server (an even more silent
>alternative to my already pretty silent se).
>
>Marten
--------------------
Well, you could take out the fan (or just diconnect it for a bit) and see
what happens. I suspect that if the box had a fan then the combination of
power supply and whatever device was in the box was expected to generate
enough heat that the fan would be needed in order to keep the temperature
inside the box within the range specified by the device designers.
It is possible that the box/device was put together by someone who "had
always done it that way" and included the fan because "these types of
boxes always have a fan."
Without knowing anything about the box, power supply, SCSI device in the
box, and the heat generated by the various components, it is always
"safer" to have a fan than to disconnect it just to do it.
I have a bunch of SCSI boxes, most with older hard drives in them. All
have fans. Some I found to be so full of dust balls that if the fan
wasn't there, I would expect heat build-up to be quite high.
If you go to the web sites of various hard drive manufacturers you will
find specifications for ambient temperature ranges for drive operation.
Operating the drives outside of these specifications could degrade the
drive. Over time, excess heat has bad effects on solid state devices and
could lead to premature failure.
Some of the newer drives operate at high speeds and I would expect them
to generate quite a bit of heat. A couple of drives that I installed in
old Macs make such a whine that I certainly don't hear the fan! I am
thinking of putting some sort of sound deadener in the cases to quiet
them down.
You mention some of the older Macs with no fan. I know that there were a
bunch of after market devices (fans, chimneys) to cool them. The analog
boards on the early Macs tended towards early failure. As I recall, heat
was one of the causes.
Ken Daggett
<http://home1.gte.net/res0bznj/index.htm>
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