Poofy Goof Rant-O-Matic

I'm constantly forgetting where to turn for rackmount accessories. Even the local Fry's has some bits and pieces, but as usual I invariably can't find exactly what I'm looking for. When Patrick sprung the question on me, I dusted off some brain cells, grepped some emails, and re-discovered Markertek, who also sells cable and other pro-audio gear, and MilesTek, who appears to be a little more industrial.

I've had a plextor PX-740A in my home desktop machine now for over a year, and it's never worked correctly. it was a special at Fry's, but it had been unopened, and the last plextor I bought there (a SCSI plexwriter 8/2/20) is still working fine, so I figured the non-working bit had to be something I was doing.