Member Avatar for alphaa10

An external HD enclosure permits massive amounts of storage, and under a SCSI regime, the SCSI data cable can be long enough to run from the workstation backplane to the enclosure.

With an Adaptec U160 SCSI controller with both internal and external (backplane) channels in which to address storage, as well as the ability to choose my boot drive from an adapter-generated boot menu, the adapter card permits a hardware-based multi-boot system, one OS per drive.

The plan is to mount five or six SCSI HDs in the enclosure, and then boot selectively (from the adapter-generated menu) using the drive containing the OS of choice.

Can anyone find a problem with mounting a standard 300-400W power supply in an old computer case, connecting the power supply HD cables to the SCSI drives, connecting the workstation SCSI adapter data cable itself (with at least six stations) to each of the enclosure HDs, and then-- in effect-- use two power supplies to serve the same workstation CPU?

The only difference from a standard setup is the external power supply, used because the enclosure would be farther away than would be practical to connect to the workstation PSU.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

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Member Avatar for jbennet

the external psu idea wont work, the psu wont turn on when you want it to (powerup signals are handled by the motherboard via the 20/24 pin connector)

Member Avatar for alphaa10

Thanks for the quick response-- that is the kind of insight I needed. Now, there is still a way to handle this, but I must return to the awkward idea of extending the HD power cables. On some more expensive PSUs, the maufacturer provides for extra connections and/or cables. If I take care to avoid overloading any one of these (and try to maintain a "star" pattern in load distribution), what is your review of that approach?

Have you done such an extension of the HD DC lines yourself, or have you seen others do it? What is the best connector to use for the junction between two 12v+/- ends (5v+/- ends)?

Member Avatar for jbennet

you can buy extenders ready made but i dont know about the distance.

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