Hello,
thanks for all who responded to my query concering the Micropolis
MC2217S (1.7G), Seagate 12400 (2.1G) and Seagate 12550 (2.1G) hard
disks. To summarize:
1) Micropolis MC2217S - people reported problems (see below)
2) Seagate 12400 - works just fine.
3) Seagate 12550 (barracuda) - is too large for the Sparc 10
housing and runs slightly hot.
Here are some comments:
I consider Micropolis to be unreliable. Their 2112 got me into a lot of
trouble once. I suggest going with Seagate.
If the drive you are buying is going to be hooked up to a SPARCstation
1+, I would not get the Micropolis. I have a Micropolis 2217
connected to a SPARCstation 1+. Under relatively heavy loads (3
processes writing to disk) the Micropolis triggers a SCSI error that
kicks the SCSI bus to a lower speed. This eventually results in all
the drives on the bus being set to Async mode. This has happened to
all three 2217's I have owned. Another person on the net has also
experienced this problem. Micropolis tech support was informed of the
problem but has not done anything about it. Also, the Micropolis
vibrates much more than the Seagate ST11200 1.0 GB hard disk that I
also have hanging off of the SPARCstation.
The Seagate 12400 fits fine in a SS10 and is fast, quiet and reliable
for us. If the Seagate 12550 is this "Barracuda" thing, the faster
version of the normal 2 GB disk, then it won't fit, because it is 10mm
too long (as were we told by our supplier). Never seen such a beast.
I've got 3 of the Seagate 12400 in external enclosures, 4months old no
problems; Cost 1150 pounds = ~ 1725 US$
We got Seagates with the 56" expansion cabinet for our SS1000 database
server( I don't remember the model.) I *can* tell you that a drive
went bad and that after we replaced it the sequencer on the cabinet
tripped several times, forcing me to replace the disk a second time.
In all fairness, however, we purchased an identical system at the same
time and *that* one has given us no trouble.
The 12550 runs too hot to be inside a SS10. I had one running in a
SS10 for a few weeks, and the case temperature rose to 51 degrees C.
I moved it to an external enclosure and the temperature dropped to
about 30 C.
The 12400 is specified with a lower idle power (9 watts vs. 13.5 watts).
It would probably work in a SS10.
The 12550 was a tight fit in the SS10. The 12400 is about .25" shorter,
but might have the same problem.
The 12550 runs at 7200 rpm. Performance is very good. Expect less
performance from the 12400, which runs at 5400 rpm.
There have been questions about the reliability of the 12550. I have two,
which I bought from separate sources, second-hand, found on usenet. They
have both performed flawlessly.
I've seen 12550's advertised for about $1350 (second-hand) on usenet. One
vendor (Cranel, Columbus(?) Ohio, don't have the info in front of me) told
me over the phone that they had the 12550 for $1525, and the 15150 (4Gb)
for $2600.
If you buy a 2.1 GB from SUN, you get the Seagate ST12400N, with the
needed stuff for mounting in any sun box. You need some screws with
large rubber feet for the SS10. Sun's price a couple of months ago
was $1770.00
Seagate 12400 - I've got one of these, I like it.
Seagate 12550 - I've heard that they run too hot to put inside a pizza
box. I've also heard that the mounting screws are in non-standard
locations so they don't fit the internal brackets.
- henrik
-- Henrik Schmiediche, Dept. of Statistics, Texas A&M, College Station, TX 77843 E-mail: henrik@stat.tamu.edu | Tel: (409) 862-1764 | Fax: (409) 845-3144 Finger for pgp 2.5 key, fingerprint: CE8F BD6C 59FC DA85 376A BB96 2E83 FF5E
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