Re: 3.5" HD in openbrick ?

On Tuesday 27 January 2004 06:57 am, denis bonnenfant wrote:
> Hi, just a newbie question : Is it possible to use a normal 3.5" HD with
> the openbrick ?

   Sort of.
   At least on the OpenBrick-E machines there is a "normal" 40-pin IDE 
connector to allow the use of a 3.5" HD or cdrom.  If you plan on using a 
compact flash RAM card at the same time, though, you've got to make sure that 
you're using 5V CF RAM and not 3.3V CF RAM, because using a HD or cdrom will 
force 5V onto the IDE bus.
   But:
	1) a 3.5" HD will not fit in the OpenBrick
	2) there is no power connector on the inside of the OpenBrick for a
	 normal HD / cdrom.  It will require an external power supply
	 - and look ugly.

> I want to build a home router/wifi AP/samba server, I
> need at least 120 Go of disk, but big 2.5" HD are REALLY expensive
> compared with 3.5" ones ( 120 Go less than 100€)

   Unfortunately I'd still recommend the 2.5" HD because it would end up 
costing more to buy an external power supply, plus the headaches with leaving 
the openbrick open and figuring out mouting...  Yuck.

> Is it a space problem (not enough room in the case), unsufficient power
> supply, BIOS, or IDE bus incompatibility ?

   Yes, yes, no, no.

> If the problem is just the space, may i consider to put one or two disks
> on an external support (or just mounted on the cover) ? powered by the
> openbrick or an external adapter ?

   This is really starting to sound like the OpenBrick is not the solution for 
your problem: if you really want a cheap Samba server and space is not an 
issue, then you really need a "normal" desktop or rackmount PC for your 
server, which will let you use normal hard disks and mount things with enough 
space - preferably a 2U or 3U case to avoid the problems of CPU heat sinks 
and fans being squashed to a small size where they must spin fast and be 
loud, which is a standard problem of all 1U cases.

	- Chris

-- 
Chris Knadle
[email protected]