keithe@teklabs.UUCP (Keith Ericson) (03/27/84)
We have two "original" (i.e., 64k mother-board) IBM pc's in our office
for which I purchased and installed the Insider 10-meg hard disk system
from Micro Design International of Maitland Florida. Primary reason for
purchase of this particular system was money: $995 for drive and
controller, plus $13.40 for shipping. I also spent $65 for
clock-calendar module and $55 for game port.
These systems originate from Maynard Electronics, and appear to be the
same as reviewed in the February 28th edition of PC WEEK. The drive is
a half-height unit, but comes with front-panel bezel and mounting
standoffs so as to occupy a full-heights worth of space.
There are several installation options. The controller electronics
module plugs onto another card that plugs into the PC mother-board.
This "daughter-mother" card has six locations at which function modules
can be installed, the hard-disk controller spans three of the
locations. The other three can be occupied with any of the following:
printer port ($59), serial port ($95), clock/calendar ($65), game
adapter ($55). Or if you've run out of slots in the PC you can fill the
remaining three locations on the daughter-mother board with a
replacement floppy-disk controller and eliminate the original floppy
controller. (That adds $300 to the price)
I had already modified my PC by replacing the two full-height,
single-sided floppy drives with Shugart 455's (half-height,
double-sided) and I had to modify that installation. The
instructions told me to put the hard-disk drive on the right, and
that's where I had installed both the floppies. I ended up retaining
only one floppy drive in each system: there are only two power
connectors coming from the power supply, and I'm not sure the PS could
handle three drives (the hard disk is run from the internal supply).
Indeed, on the other computer we have removed the graphics adapter
(never used, anyway) because the power supply folds-back (apparently)
when the hard-disk is spinning up, a sign that the current limit of the
PS is being at least temporarily exceeded. (By the way - anybody got
any documentation on these power supplies? I'd crank up the current
limit if I knew where the adjustment is.) My PC doesn't have this
problem even though all the slots are now occupied (256k RAM expansion
& serial port, graphics adapter, monochrome & printer adapter,
hard-disk controller, floppy-disk controller).
Turns out it was a good thing we bought two systems: one (mine)
wouldn't work - erroneous reads - and by process of elimination I
determined that the controller card was at fault. Calling Micro Design
International got a return material authorization to get a replacement,
and (about) a week and a half later I was back "on the air" with the
new controller.
Over all I'm very pleased with the drives. They're everything hard
disks are supposed to be: fast, somewhat noisy, and somewhat scary (I
just KNOW I'm gonna' accidently wipe out something one of these days,
and with no backup). On problem I have yet to solve is the front panel
bezels for the half-height floppy drives. Presently there are gaping
holes above and below the floppy, and this adds to the noise output.
I'll have to either make or buy some pieces to cover up these holes.
keith ericeon at teklabs
PS - I've no connection with Micro Design International, other than as
a reasonably satisfied customer.