Can you lay a G4 on its side?

I would think the side that allows the motherboard to be on the bottom so the heat from the CPU can rise?
Bobby wrote on :
And if so, which side is preferable? I would think the side that allows the motherboard to be on the bottom so the heat from the CPU can rise? And can you run a G4 with the door open? I'm thinking of putting the open G4 in a large enclosure in a rack for noise control (with temperature sensors).
Tom Harrington replied on :

In article 9wHVd.26914$Ka6.188373@redacted.invalid, "Bobby" replytonewsgroup@redacted.invalid wrote:

And if so, which side is preferable? I would think the side that allows the motherboard to be on the bottom so the heat from the CPU can rise? And can you run a G4 with the door open? I'm thinking of putting the open G4 in a large enclosure in a rack for noise control (with temperature sensors).

Marathon computer puts them on their side-- see http://www.marathoncomputer.com/grac.html.

nowhere replied on :

Tom Harrington wrote:

In article 9wHVd.26914$Ka6.188373@redacted.invalid, "Bobby" replytonewsgroup@redacted.invalid wrote:

And if so, which side is preferable? I would think the side that allows the motherboard to be on the bottom so the heat from the CPU

can rise? And can you run a G4 with the door open? I'm thinking of putting the open G4 in a large enclosure in a rack for noise control (with temperature sensors).

Marathon computer puts them on their side-- see http://www.marathoncomputer.com/grac.html.

-- Tom "Tom" Harrington Macaroni, Automated System Maintenance for Mac OS X. Version 2.0: Delocalize, Repair Permissions, lots more. See http://www.atomicbird.com/

Neill Massello replied on :

Bobby replytonewsgroup@redacted.invalid wrote:

And if so, which side is preferable? I would think the side that allows the motherboard to be on the bottom so the heat from the CPU can rise? And can you run a G4 with the door open? I'm thinking of putting the open G4 in a large enclosure in a rack for noise control (with temperature sensors).

Convection isn't really an issue, as the G4 has a large internal fan that blows onto the main board and stirs things up. If you don't use a bracket that supports the G4 by its ends (top and bottom) and just lay it on its side, I'd say it's better not to have weight pressing on the door. Stress (and possible warping) on the door might be transmitted to the board.

Bobby replied on :

And if so, which side is preferable? I would think the side that allows the motherboard to be on the bottom so the heat from the CPU can rise? And can you run a G4 with the door open? I'm thinking of putting the open G4 in a large enclosure in a rack for noise control (with temperature sensors).

Convection isn't really an issue, as the G4 has a large internal fan that blows onto the main board and stirs things up. If you don't use a bracket that supports the G4 by its ends (top and bottom) and just lay it on its side, I'd say it's better not to have weight pressing on the door. Stress (and possible warping) on the door might be transmitted to the board.

Good points. I wonder if someone has made some sort of bracket doo-hickey to support the machine slightly off the mounting surface, without rack mounting. The company mentioned previously charges $200 for their rack mount adapters! What a deal. All you need is some metal bracket drilled and bent at the right angle to support the unit on all 4 corners. Do people ever remount the insides to put it into a horizontal application case? Like a server case? And what's with all the space on top of the optical drive? Why don't they have mounting for more optical drives or hard drives up there? The bottom of the G4 case seems so well thoughtout. Is this the cost for prettiness I wonder?

Wes Groleau replied on :
Personally, I am skeptical of this story, but I've been told by I.S. people that a hard disk formatted with the platter(s) horizontal can be unreliable when used vertically and vice versa.
Tom Harrington replied on :

In article 38q20bF5ot1dfU2@redacted.invalid, Wes Groleau groleau+news@redacted.invalid wrote:

Personally, I am skeptical of this story, but I've been told by I.S. people that a hard disk formatted with the platter(s) horizontal can be unreliable when used vertically and vice versa.

I remember hearing that as well-- that if you were going to do something that would change the orientation of the drive, you should reformat it after reorienting it. But that was years ago, and I'm not sure if it's still important on modern drives. Wouldn't hurt, I guess, but it might just be a waste of time.

Henry replied on :

Tom Harrington tph@redacted.invalid wrote:

Wes Groleau groleau+news@redacted.invalid wrote:

I've been told by I.S. people that a hard disk formatted with the platter(s) horizontal can be unreliable when used vertically and vice versa.

I remember hearing that as well-- that if you were going to do something that would change the orientation of the drive, you should reformat it after reorienting it. But that was years ago, and I'm not sure if it's still important on modern drives. Wouldn't hurt, I guess, but it might just be a waste of time.

I wouldn't worry about the hard disk so much, but what about the DVD or CD drive? I should think that the horizontal orientation would be important there.

cheers,

Henry