[Info-vax] rx2600 Pedestal Mount (WAS: rx2600 hotplug)

[smithfarm]

Soliciting your advice/ideas on the following situation that has arisen.

BACKGROUND: I live in Europe. I purchased an rx2600 with pedestal kit 
from a seller in the U.S. The seller was asking a very large sum for 
Fedex to Europe, so I had him send it UPS to my "freight forwarder". 
This is a warehouse in California that receives the shipment and 
re-sends it. Using this service, I saved big-time on postage.

THE SITUATION: Without asking me, the freight forwarder removed the side 
panels from the pedestal kit and sent me just the server, plus the 
pedestal kit base! So the base from the pedestal kit is here with me in 
Europe and the side panels are in California.

Sending them here will cost $65 (this is via container freight as part 
of a larger shipment, not Fedex!). However, now that I actually have the 
rx2600, I'm not sure if I really want them. The rx2600 is in a 
rack-mount configuration. This means that the ventilation holes on the 
top toward the front (when in a rack) are blocked by some kind of 
adhesive-backed contact paper and all the fans run at full speed all the 
time. This makes the rx2600 sound like a jet airplane idling on the 
tarmac before it taxis to the runway.

Now, what to do?

First, I could just have the freight forwarder throw the panels away. 
That would be a pity, so I thought I'd ask here first and see if anyone 
wants them. You would have to pay postage on the side panels from 
California and for the metal base from Europe. Write me privately (the 
email is valid) if interested.

Also, what to do about the noise from the rx2600? I was thinking of 
building a sound-baffling enclosure for it. Something along the lines of 
two layers of gypsum drywall separated by silicon (I've used this for 
soundproofing before - it works well), on both sides of the box. On the 
front, I would put a furnace filter (the rx2600 seems to suck air 
through the front grille and expel it through the back). I think this 
would at least cut down on the noise. I have the rx2600 in a separate 
room that is uninhabited most of the time, but it's still quite audible 
through the closed door.

As always, all ideas, thoughts, and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Nathan

P.S. By the way, all 11 disks passed the initial test and now I'm 
running INITIALIZE/ERASE=INIT/STRUCTURE=5 on them. So far, I've finished 
this on 6 of the disks and they all show no errors.