[SunRescue] Heat question regarding SS20...

[James Lockwood]

On Wed, 18 Aug 1999, Dave McGuire wrote:

>   The SS20 is somewhat notorious for having insufficient cooling.  Your machine
> is fairly well stuffed, with two drives and two mbus modules...I'd say that
> much heat is normal for that kind of system, though it's definitely not good. 
> I'd suggest getting some canned air and blow through the power supply from the
> inside out to remove any dust bunnies that might impede air flow.  Then, make
> sure to run the machine with the top cover on...the power supply fans have a
> better chance of sucking air through all the hot-running components that way. 
> Also make sure that the side vents aren't blocked by anything sitting next to
> the machine.

This is very important, I can't remember how many times I have seen SS20's
and Ultra 2's shoved up against each other so that one was sucking in the
others exhaust.

If you're not in a machine-room environment then I can't recommend using 2
drives in a SS20 (at least if your indoor temperatures climb above 75F).
My SS20/712 was at the melting point until I moved all of the drives
to external cases.

An easy to do upgrade that works fairly well is to get a pair of fans the
same size as the SS20 p/s fans (60mm?) and attach them to the opposite
side of the case with a bit of double-stick tape, blowing out.  This
creates a wind-tunnel effect through the chassis and seems to greatly
enhance heat removal.  My SS20 was up in the 120F heat range for internal
air temperature (long meat dial thermometers are great for measuring this)
and dropped over 15F after adding the second bank of 2 fans.  It's a
trifle noisier, but the peace of mind is well worth it.

-James