SGI: Hardware

HP---- Seagate Cheetah 72.8 15K Ultra320 SCSI Hard Drive
Manufacturer: Seagate(Made for HP)
Model Number: ST373454LC
Rotational Speed: 15,000 RPM
Capacity: 73.4 GB
Interface: SCSI
Ports: 1 X 80-PIN SCA ULTRA320 SCSI
Interface Type: Ultra320 SCSI
Seek Time: 12.0 MS Average Seek Time
Generation: Ultra320
Form Factor: 3.5 inch 1/3H Internal Hot-Swappable
Dimensions: 0.99 inch Height x 3.99 inch Widht x 5.77 inch Depth
Weight: 1.79 lb

Forgot to mention, I reviewed the O2 hardware aggitator and noticed that there was a warning with using U320 ?.? I have to say Im a little confused can anyone tell me if the above drive should work.

That's a Seagate 15K.4

I had a 36GB 15K.4 in my Origin 200 for a couple of weeks and that worked, so I don't expect problems in an O2. I've got a 15K.3 in my O2 and that works beautifully.

Is it quiet? can you hear the constant "thermal recalibration" thats common on the older 10K drives?

bjames wrote: Is it quiet?

The 15K.3 is very quiet. Like a modern SATA drive, but with slightly more aggressive seek noises. The 15K.4 is probably similar. But the Origin 200 it was in isn't quiet at all, so I can't give a definitive answer

Just want to confirm, will Ultra320 scsi drives work in a O2?

I believe no one is going to make a general statement on this, because it depends on manufacturer. It's impossible to test them all, isn't it?

I've got an IBM U320 that works in O2, but it's a loud whining crap.

I would _really_ like to know why an Ultra320 drive "won't work in an O2". SCSI is backward and forward compatible.

//Maybe// if you are talking about a 50-pin Fast SCSI-2 in an Ultra320 environment, or an Ultra320 drive connected through adapters to a 50-pin Fast SCSI-2 card, then //maybe// there would be compatibility problems. But the UltraWide interface in the O2 is not ancient.

There might be customized firmwares that end up making a drive not compatible with IRIX, but that doesn't have anything to do with it being an O2.

The only thing I'd be concerned about is heat. The 373454 draws 9.5W. By contrast, the 146GB 15k.4 draws 12W, and the 36GB 15k.4 draws 8W. There's not a whole lot of airflow in the O2, so you need to be careful, and make sure that the drive does not exceed 50 degrees C on a regular basis.

How much heat can be dissipated by the O2? Not sure, but a typical 7200RPM 18GB drive that might have shipped with the O2 would be in the range of 5.5W-7W.

Chris

My bad. I was misled by this:

bjames wrote: Forgot to mention, I reviewed the O2 hardware aggitator and noticed that there was a warning with using U320 ?.? I have to say Im a little confused can anyone tell me if the above drive should work.

Well, like I said: I've been using a lot of Seagate 15K.3 disks in Fuel, Octane, O2, Origin 200/2000 and Onyx2. I like them, they are quiet, cool and fast. I've used them in original Seagate flavor, and a couple of OEM versions (whatever I could get my hands on). They all worked, and the 15K.3 is an U320 device.

I have one 15K.4 disk which was briefly in my Origin 200 and worked fine there. It is now in storage and I'm not going to dig it up to mount it in my O2.

I don't expect problems, but I don't give any guarantees either.

The advantage of most of the systems you called out there, jan-jaap, is that they either have an internally open design (Fuel) or they are designed to take 1.6" drives (most of the rest). The O2 is the only one on that list that has 1" drive bays.

With all that said, it is entirely possible that I'm progressively working to make a mountain out of a molehill. It might very well be that anything up to, say, 12W will be ok. I know that the likes of the early 1.6" 10k drives like the ST136403LC were "egg cookers" that dissipated almost 16W, and those you had to be really careful about proper cooling.

Unless the O2 is going to be on 24/7, there is probably nothing to be concerned about using a 73GB 15k.4 that draws ~10W.

Chris

I looked up the specs for a contemporary 7200RPM drive (IBM DGHS a.k.a Ultrastar 18XP/9LP). I've got several of them with SGI labels. Were they used in O2?
Power consumption: 9.2 ... 13.4W (9GB model), and 13.1 ... 17.4W (18GB model)

The ST336753LC (36GB 15K.3) consumes 12 ... 16W depending on usage. If I think about it I'll pull it out of the O2 the next time it has been on for a couple of hours, see if it feels toasty.

I wouldn't mount a first gen 15K drive in an O2. Neither an early 10K drives like the IBM LZX. Even the black barracudas (first gen. 7200RPM) were nasty.