[Soekris] hard disk & wifi card

[Breen Ouellette]

Stuart Henderson wrote:
> On 2006/07/10 10:08, Breen Ouellette wrote:
>   
>> I suggest you use a Seagate HD. As has been noted on this list, the 
>> Seagates tend to do better with being run 24/7. A lot of other brands 
>> will crap out with that kind of usage.
>>     
>
> I've had IBM, Seagate, and Fujitsu drives die in 4801s. In my case
> the Seagate Momentus did least well and made a horrible whiny noise.
> Fujitsu 4200rpm lasted the longest and was the quietest, but
> even the best just doesn't seem right for this type of box unless
> you power them down most of the time.
>   

http://lists.soekris.com/pipermail/soekris-tech/2005-April/008145.html

Not the only poster talking up Seagate+Soekris, but I would say probably 
one of the more informed. Seagate has a five year warranty and cross 
shipping replacement if you do have a problem. They've always worked 
well for me. I can't speak for how they perform in an environment they 
weren't designed for (the net4801 without cooling), but as I originally 
stated, I hacked open my case with a dremel and added a fan, and not 
just for the HD, either. I wasn't too impressed with the temps even 
before I switched from CF to HD. Call me paranoid and I will most 
certainly agree. Only time will tell if the airflow actually increases 
the lifetime of the drive. Ask me in a year and I'll be sure to let you 
know.


>> The great thing about having an HD is there is no more fussing around 
>> with CF write issues, probably the reason you are going this route. 
>>     
>
> Which particular write issues? They're slow, but it's not like
> you'll be writing that much to them from a firewall. And it's been
> years since you /really/ had to worry about the number of writes
> (noatime and not swapping to flash, but don't really need more
> than that - unless you want to mount read-only to avoid fsck on
> unclean shutdown; but that applies to normal HDs too).
>   

I can do a base install of my OS of choice, OpenBSD, and use it for 
whatever purpose I choose using a hard disk, including write intensive 
applications. With CF, I have to dick around with the base install or 
use something like Flashdist to protect the card. I like the fact that 
using an HD on the net4801 keeps it in line with an install on a plain 
old computer. It is simpler than the CF route, and to me that is 'the 
great thing' I alluded to. Sure it isn't difficult to do CF installs, 
but it adds one more layer of potential problems, one which I prefer to 
avoid all together. It seems that we merely have different priorities, 
and it is a waste of time to argue them on this list. We would do just 
as well to argue about which colour is better: blue or red?  :)

Just so it is crystal clear: there are some very good situations in 
which CF can be used with the net4801. I am not attempting to deny that 
or put forward the idea that everyone should toss CF and only ever use 
an HD with the system. Ultimately, I am bothered less by the cons of 
using an HD than the cons of using CF.

A nice feature of the platform is that we all have the option to choose 
one route or the other, and trying both options is not cost prohibitive. 
The only way to make it better (beyond the obvious march towards faster, 
better technology) would be an airflow friendly case design.

Breeno