Re: Hard drive Reliability?

[maarten van den Berg <maarten@ultratux.net>]

On Monday 24 May 2004 20:35, Brad Campbell wrote:
> Frank van Maarseveen wrote:
> > On Sat, May 22, 2004 at 09:15:13AM +0400, Brad Campbell wrote:

> I have had a good look at the failure modes of 92mm double ball bearing
> fans and I have not found much record of them failing catastrophically.
> They slow down due to dust or bearing failure over time before they grind
> to a halt usually.

Well, that IS true.  Fans that die are often the 40mm and 60mm variants. (and 
to a much lesser extent, 80 mm)  The bigger fans have a good balance between 
motor strength and bearing surface, especially when it comes to places where 
dust can enter or settle.  I've seen old Dells with 120 mm fans, where you 
could barely turn the fan by hand but they still did spin up.  Incredible.
Meanwhile, they made such a noise any admin within 200 feet would know they 
were due for exchange. ;-)

> Give me one decent 92mm double ball raced fan against multiple 40mm crappy
> sleeve fans you get in normal hotswap bays any day of the week!

Hear hear !
I tend to 'dremel' my way for a 120mm fan nowadays, if at all possible...

Maarten