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Date:      Sun, 6 Feb 2005 12:24:53 +0100
From:      Anthony Atkielski <atkielski.anthony@wanadoo.fr>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Leaving a Computer Running ?
Message-ID:  <1088851878.20050206122453@wanadoo.fr>
In-Reply-To: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNAEEHFAAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>
References:  <200502051745.25937.hindrich@worldchat.com> <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNAEEHFAAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>

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Ted Mittelstaedt writes:

TM> In a clean room or positive pressure network room, where there is
TM> an extremely low level of dust, off-the-shelf computer fans will
TM> last many years longer than fans in a typical home PC.

What about filters?  On my current FreeBSD server (not in a clean room,
alas!), the fans that I installed have washable plastic filters, which
removes part of the dust.  I'd love to find disposable filters that
capture more dust and can simply be tossed at regular intervals.
Ideally, they wouldn't interfere with airflow too much, but I realize
that catching all dust and maintaining airflow are almost mutually
exclusive.

Currently I have two 8-cm fans blowing directly past the disk drives, in
order to keep them as cool as possible (not that the drives are that
busy, but I'm trying to be prudent).

TM> For PC's left on for long periods, they have a different problem
TM> because disk drives that spin at full speed continuiously (as 
TM> server drives do, servers have power saving disabled on their
TM> drives of course for obvious reasons) the disk will eventually
TM> overheat in just about all the garden-variety case designs.  
TM> (you can fix this yourself of course, by adding more fans to
TM> the cases)  Once the drive overheats the lubrication migrates
TM> out of the bearings and if the drive is turned off for more
TM> than 6-8 hours, it cools down enough to the point that the drive
TM> will never spin up again.

Interesting!  Have you actually had this happen?  I've had drives fail
on restart but not because they wouldn't spin up (as far as I know).

I've had drives fail very quickly when I've packed too many of them into
a single case (as in weeks or months).  We needed the additional space
and we were lucky to get the drives--asking for more fans or a better
case or anything like that would have been an exercise in futility.

-- 
Anthony




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