Last summer, with the help of a fellow graduate student, I retrieved some old computers from the dorms to build a small cluster. Total cost: $100. Five of the machines had Maxtor DiamondMax 8 40-gB drives in them. All five failed over the past few months. For $200, I could replace them with new drives. But, first I called surplus and ended up with a smattering of used drives with capacities of 20 and 40 gB. Three hours later, we were up and running again. I’m sure they’ll get plenty of use as the ISEA deadline closes in…
