Q: 2nd Power Mac as HD Dock Verses Hard Drive Dock

Its a Mid 2010 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 48GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB, OS X 10.9.5.

The second unit has not been purchased yet.

My first HD dock was like $120 to $130 and does not work any longer due to cheap fans. On the other hand the fans in a second Mac are going to last longer and are generally universal parts that can be replaced. I can control the fan speed in the second Mac and monitor its temperate. I've yet to replace a fan in a computer as I shut down the computer twice a year and blow any dust out (I've got a dual 867 G4 converted to SATA drives with the original fan). I think the HD enclosures are overpriced and will not last. For the time I actually used the StarTech dock - it was not worth the money. I also see some value in getting a similar Power Mac aluminum body as it can always be used for parts.

"It sounds like you've already made up your mind... so what are you asking?"

I haven't really made up my mind yet. I was just brainstorming ideas.

"Given that you've stated a goal of archiving your data, I would think that an external enclosure that supports removable drives would be a preferable solution."

The problem is that I think most of these enclosures are junk. There are higher prices ones with metal enclosures, but I suspect they use they use the same junk fans found in $9.99 laptop coolers.

Another option might be a G4 PowerPC 1.25 Ghz Mirrored Door running 10.5.8 that I have here. It currently uses PATA drives. I converted two previous G4s to SATA drives before using a expansion card. I believe I still have one or two of those cards left and some add on fans that work by connecting them to the four prong power connectors. The advantage of this would be it would be free. It would use more power, but I don't see using it on a daily basis - perhaps once a week backup now.

Any idea where I might find what models a Apple 661-2877 power supply and fan might fit? This was the fan and power unit Apple created as a replacement for the noisy ones in some mirrored door models; however, I am not sure its for all mirrored door models or just a few. The printed manual inside does not list specific models, but it does picture the correct case.

Thanks for your time.

I already have one of those - sold under the newer technology brand names. They are o.k., but very short term testing of a drive, but provide no cooling, and as heat is the killer of drives I'd be asking for trouble, especially now that the caviar black drives have doubled in price to over $150.00 for a 1TB.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

 

does not work any longer due to cheap fans

Then pull out the fans, look up the part numbers on their labels, and figure out what air moved in cfm and sound generated in db are. Then look for fans with at least those cfm specs and quieter, and your repair cost will likely be under US$20.

 

Using a US$1500 Mac Pro silver tower as a hard drive enclosure does not make sense. It could do much more, and uses too much power just to spin up Hard drives.

They don't sell parts. The unit is not meant to be serviced.

These exact fans appear to available from once source in Hong Kong for $15.35 each; however, there is lot of evidence that this place is a scam. How exactly do they ship two fans from H.K. for free for instance? In any case if there is a problem with the items you are expected to ship them back to H.K. as outlined by people who have previously purchased from them. In any case I'd have the same junk fans from China and what is to say the fans didn't burn out other parts of the circuit board to boot.

I am not sure where that $1500 figure comes from, but they don't regularly sell for that used unless you got something extra special and its in mint condition with its original box in which case I wouldn't be buying one of those in the first place.

Power usage is not an issue even if the unit was left running all the time. Less power would be used if kept in sleep mode or shut down completely for once a week backups, which would be similar to wear possible caused by hot swapping them into a dock once a week (i.e., the old leaving them run all the time versus shutting them down argument).

 

Use a sledge hammer to tap a tack into the wall... whoops broke the dry wall and 2x4!

 

The FBDIMMs in the 2006-2008 can also put out 10-15W per DIMM and the backside of the case is putting out a lot of heat, enough to warm a room, but generally I don't hear the fans until they hit 1000 rpm and Apple chose to have a default that was too slow to do a good job cooling the memory cage (which blocks air flow from reaching into it properly, and chose to be quiet over adequate or better cooling). And to avoid at any cost going back to the terrible liquid cooling of the G5s.

 

For casual use I have some fanless open "docks" that are hot-swap and open and yes "warm to the touch" but not hot.

 

Use to buy only OWC drive cases, some were too loud, some were cheap, never had a problem as far as failure goes.

 

The balance between noise and cooling, plus how different and what harmonics and sounds people are comfortable with - it may not be "loud" but just the wrong Hz for my ears. You'll love SSDs, a heat sink, no fan, expensive but no moving parts - and fast.

 

Heat killing disk drives today is less of an issue. 128GB are inside tablets that have no apparent issues or cooling. Servers and big customers demanded and got drives and processors that operate safely 5 and 10 and 15*C warmer than before.

 

When did you last notice that Seagate and Western Digital 4TB drives have operating temps like these?

http://www.legitreviews.com/seagate-desktop-hdd-15-4tb-vs-wd-black-4tb-hard-driv e-review_2182

The two main killers of electronics are heat and dust. The cooler the drive runs the longer it will last regardless of what the manufacturer's data says. I tend not to believe what the manufacturer's say - as an example I'd give the current argument among some computer users that some of WD's new Caviar Black HDs are not actually caviar black models, but lessor drives with a black sticker.

The cooler a piece of equipment runs the longer it will last generally applies to most other items. After all we have local farmer's who run their $250,000 tractors at night because they run better and it means less wear and the possibility of having a maintenance problem during harvest season where it might 100 F outside.

I must agree the Apple default fan speed is bad. In winter the internal temp is 108 with the fans at default. In summer its its 122/126 with the default Apple fan setting. This area of the country can easily be 30 below zero in winter (with wind chill) and 100 in the summer. With smcFanControl I able to run the temps downward. In the winter this has an advantage of the computers actually heating the room they are in as you have said. - I actually shut off one of the furnace vents.

I tend to baby my computers a lot - I guess that is why I still have 10+ year old G4 PowerPCs running and look like they are new, although I like the ease of use of the aluminum cases much better.