The InfoStation 10-Bay SCSI In Detail
StorCase ships the InfoStation without drives for an approximate street price of $2,700. That includes the controller logic offering two independent Ultra320 SCSI channels, ten drive bays with removable frames ready for 2.5" drives with SCA or SATA interface, and two redundant 300 W power supplies. After installing the drives, we were particularly surprised to hear... not much at all. The system and power supply fans are temperature-controlled and work quietly. Hence, we would even dare to start up the InfoStation in a typical office environment.
In terms of hard drives the customer can only pick either the 37 or the 74 GB Savvio today, as there are no other 2.5" SCSI hard drives available. Thanks to the SCA interface (Single Connector Attachment), the drives simply need to be mounted into the removable frames. As soon as you insert the frame into the bay, the locking mechanism will do the rest in securing the interface. No cabling is required.
A distinctive feature of StorCase's InfoStation is its SCSI logic. After connecting the device to the server using a serial cable, the configuration and monitoring software InfoMon can be launched. One option allows you to choose whether one or both SCSI channels should be used. If two-channel mode is selected, the upper five drives will be assigned to channel one, and the lower five to channel two. It's really nice to have this option, since you can attach both channels to a dual-channel SCSI controller (ideally a RAID-capable model), or split the storage between two different systems.
StorCase offers a comprehensive data sheet with many more details.
The redundant power supplies do not get very hot thanks to the low power requirement of Seagate's Savvio drives. As a result, the 40 mm fans do not have to operate at high speed, and are quiet.
The back of the InfoStation offers two Ultra320 SCSI channels, the COM port for configuration and monitoring, and several LEDs that allow for a quick system check. Unfortunately, the networking port does not work yet.
