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Using SFF system in moving vehicle: hard drive issues??

J

JmsAndrsn

Platinum Member
I'm going to be helping someone put together a shuttle system and portability is a big issue. He was wanting a Raptor hard drive but asked about potentially using the system in a moving vehicle (ie. a motor home, SUV, limo, etc.). I would imagine it's probably not a good idea for a desktop hard drive to be used like this - any thoughts on that? I'm tempted to ask if there any drives that are speically made for something like this but I would think not.

Would a laptop hard drive be any better suited for the task as I could probably get some type of adapter to get one to work in a desktop system?

Thanks for any help or thoughts you might be able to share.
 
Good question! A laptop is made for this sort of thing. You can now get lappy drives in 250 GB/7200 RPM size. That would work.

I would not be sure about a Raptor in use while the RV was moving.I would prefer to turn it off so the heads could be parked while moving. I have friends who have PCs in their RVs, but they usually park to use them.

Even laptops are not immune to constant vibration. My brother had one in his plane, it was normally on the floor in the cockpit (Citation II jet) as a nav aid. One day it would not boot. Final diagnosis and fix - the CPU had to be reseated. It had become unseated due to prolonged vibration and possible G-force effects.
 
Actually there are ways to 'bullet proof' your pc in a moving vehicle. The case should be solidly anchored down to something with added padding where its bottom (we'll assume the bottom is the part actually touching floor, table, etc.,) meets the table, floor, or whatever its to sit upon. Some kind of shock absorbing mat of some kind should do the job nicely. I'm sure there are hardrives designed for such use as well. You'd need to research it. Also using rubber grommets, or something similar, to hold the drive/s in place would help greatly.

I would say he'd be fine on the open highway but when moving along on lesser quality roads, like dirt, or gravel, to avoid using the pc. Maybe contact some mod shops and see what they'd reccomend if they were to build such a rig for overland travel. They could probably give you a few good ideas.
 
Geez, for $4399 you'd think they could at least give free shipping. :laugh:

Anyway considering we're talking SFF cases here and that the mobo usually lies horizontal inside instead of vertical and the cpu, hsf, video card, and RAM modules also lie in such a way where there isnt any torquing on the mobo I dont think he'll have much to worry about on main roads. Like I was saying earlier it'll be any dirt or gravel roads where the ride gets real bumpy that he needs to worry about.
 
i would use regular harddrives. laptop harddrives would theoretically be better suited, but imo i dont think it matters much. i would go with cheap 3.5" drives and suspend them, or the entire pc case by bungie cord. tie the top of the pc to the seat and the bottom to the floor, and squishy foam all around. dont let it bottom out hard either way- you would be surprised how rough a car ride can get and i certainly wouldnt bolt the case directly to the floor.
 
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