8 Oct
2011
8 Oct
'11
5:01 p.m.
On 08/10/11 7:33 PM, Jules Richardson wrote:
Curt @ Atari Museum wrote:
Exactly.
--T
What was the deal with Jobs and fans anyway -
none in the Apple ]['s,
the Apple /// (I've now heard of 3 of them going on fire this year
alone) --- The Mac and the iCube... what the heck?!?!?
If you have fans, they eventually break, and to do things 'properly'
they also have to be monitored and the OS/firmware written to safely
handle a failure condition.
Maybe he just didn't want the maintenance burden for users, or the extra
component and development cost, or figured that not having fans and
designing the system to stay cool without would improve reliability
stats (obviously it didn't quite work out with the /// :-)
I don't have a problem with fans, but the norm seems to be to put them
at the intake or outlet, where they can be easily heard - and burying
them deeper within a machine with suitable ducting (ISTR something doing
this - NeXT slab maybe) would seem a better approach (at least for
non-portable systems).
I do have a problem with idiot design, though - e.g. my Dell laptop has
the fan intake on the bottom of the machine; fine if used on a desk
where feet raise it high enough off the surface, but it gets blocked
easily if actually used (perish the thought!) on a lap.
cheers
Jules