Cazn I mount desktop vertical?

[johnoman]

I mounted my gateway desktop vertical like a tower and noticed some peculiar problems. Dows anyone know of a problem in doing this for the motherboard or the HDD?


[This message has been edited by johnoman (edited 03-29-2000).]

[wyvrn]

I would think everything is ok. My hard drives have never been affected by mounting them sideways. The rest are cards and they should not be affected either. What problems are you having?

[hd581]

We have a lab full of computers w/ cdrom's mounted sideways. They run fine AFAIK. I suspect the CDROM drive clamps the CD once its in so it can spin it fast. I guess I could open up my old broken quad speed and find out but I don't want the laser to hit my eye like Skywalker.

They do have clips to keep the CD from falling out when it opens.

[bdog]

I have got about 8 pc's running like this in a lab. I haven't noticed any problems other that it is a challenge to get the cd's in there(our drives don't have the clips). This past summer we decided to put these computers on their side to save space. After we made the change, one hd died the next day. Probably just coincidence, but I don't know. Haven't had any troubles since that.

[hd581]

Well the hard drive is pretty much the only component with moving parts so I bet that's the problem. With the older hard drives, you had to format them the way you were going to use them. (ie format it sideways if it was going to be used sideways). I don't really know how formatting works, but I think they mean low level formatting, where the sectors get laid out.

[bdunn]

ake sure if you do put a desktop vertical that the fan is on the top. If the fan faces it gets warmer inside than with the fan facing up.

The ventalation between desktop and tower cases is different so you may also wish to drill a few small holes in the front toward the side facing down.

I have no experience but suspect that CDROM drives may not work well sideways.

[hd581]

Actually, bdog, it most likely was not coincidence. Hard drives are not especially susceptible to failing when turned, but maybe that was the straw that broke its back. The exact same thing happened to a buddy of mine, recently. We turned it sideways and it quit right then.

bdog, What brand hard drive was it? Some might be more susceptible to it than others.

Incidentally, though, Dell does this all the time w/ Maxtors and IBM's; they mount the primary HD straight up near the front bottom of the case.


[This message has been edited by hd581 (edited 03-30-2000).]