Anyone Considered New(ish) U320 2.5" Drives for PBs?

[trag]

I don't have a PowerBook, but I understand one of the issues for the older models is maintaining a working 2.5" SCSI drive for the thing(s).

Have folks considered the new(ish) U320 2.5" drives?

I was browsing Ebay and found this (ST936701LC):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-90P1315-26K5157-Seagate-Savvio-ST936701LC-36GB-10K-U320-SCSI-2-5-Hard-Drive-/110897939923?pt=US_Internal_Hard_Disk_Drives&hash=item19d20845d3

Datasheet from seagate:

http://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/enterprise/savvio/10K/100293075d.pdf

It would need a cable adapter, and there are a few other things to consider.

According to the datasheet, it appears perfectly capable of supporting older single ended SCSI protocols.

It is 15mm thick. How thick of drives can the PowerBooks accept?

It is a 10K rotation drive. This might produce too much heat. On the other hand, it is much later technology than used in the original PowerBooks. It's possible that the power savings from newer technology, may outrun the power consumption from faster rotation speed. On the other hand, it may just run too hot. It looks like the average idle power is about 5 watts total and the maximum operational power draw is about 9 watts, with the 12V supply possibly drawing as much as 20 watts at start-up.

If it's not too thick, and not too hot, then an adapter would probably not be too difficult to fabricate, assuming that there at least a little room at the connector end of the drive available in PowerBooks.

This would just be a cabling problem with no logic. It would be a lot simpler than trying to build a SCSI to IDE adapter.

 

[techknight]

I was going to do this a while back and even opened a thread on it, because i thought i had a "deal" on ebay for 5 drives. Turned out the seller was a deadbeat and at least he finally refunded me. So after that happened, I abandoned the project.

I was going to use a DC-DC circuit stuffed inside the powerbook somewhere. I was actually going to physically remove the backplane connector and adapt over the PB SCSI cable. Also somehow fit a terminator in there, as one is required in this sense.

 

[trag]

Well, the seller I posted above has 21000 feedback. He's probably not a deadbeat.

Yes, these SCA drives seem to often lack on board termination. So,as you mention, a little bit of circuitry would be needed there on the cable. I think that there is a right-angle SCA connector available. One could use that, thus putting a circuit board parallel to the drive. If there's a little room at the connector end of the drive, one could probably whip up a little adapter board with the termination on it and install it at the end of the drive.

As I mentioned, I don't have any PowerBooks, but if you give it a try, would you please post back here. I would enjoy the project vicariously.

 

[techknight]

not referring to that seller. Also came into some information awhile back that those drives are VERY thick. so they will only fit in a select few powerbooks, it might fit in the 520/540

 

[trag]

Yes, as I mentioned above, they're 15mm thick. That may be thicker than the PowerBook will take. I don't remember what was common in that era. 12mm?

 

[techknight]

yea. I saw. Also, I might pick this project up again if i get some spare cash. I am strapped. My car is going to cost me 850 to fix due to a blown head/headgasket.