Re: HARD DRIVE BLOWOUT: 420MB w/case/ps for $319.95!!

[jfw@proteon.com (John Woods)]

woobin@icsl.ee.washington.edu (Woobin Lee) writes:
>>>Ahem, I'm about to buy 540MB drives for CHF360.00 (Swiss Francs, that is) which is about 
>>>USD240.00 ...
>>  Not with an international-capable power supply as described above,
>>you're not. These power spplies are not cheap,
>I don't have the original article so I don't know what kind of enclosure you
>have, but you can get a nice-looking 3.5" enclosure with a UL/CSA listed power
>supply accepting 85-250V AC input, and a SCSI cable and terminator for
>$90 from Wetex Int'l 1-800-75-WETEX. A similar enclosure but with a cheaper
>(i.e, non-UL) power supply is about $75.

Note that UL certification largely consists of proving that the power supply
isn't terribly likely to catch on fire, and if it does, isn't terribly likely
to set anything else on fire and/or kill someone; it isn't very rigorous to
accomplish, and (myself) I'd be real leery of assuming that the cost of the
test was the *only* corner that was cut on a non-UL power supply.  Note also
that many fire insurance policies essentially state that if there's even a
good chance that a non-UL electric device was responsible for a fire, they
won't pay a cent.

>By the way, I haven't seen any external disk enclosures made from plastic, 
>except for the face plate which is usually a molded platic for better 
>cosmetics. I believe steel casing is cheaper to build and has a better chance 
>of FCC compliance.

There are some vendors who have disk enclosures made from plastic, especially
disk drive vendors who actually have to spend the time snapping the things
together rather than enclosure vendors who can just ship a bag of loose parts.
Meeting FCC requirements with a plastic case basically requires a shielded
power supply and short SCSI cables (since drives themselves usually do OK
by themselves).  (I hate those cases, especially the ones that are not intended
to be openable except by destroying the plastic!  You have to assume that those
are *really* cheap, if they cost less than the extra couple of minutes of a
technician's time...)