c160-ed@zooey.Berkeley.EDU (Norman Fong) (09/27/86)
We just got our Apple HD20sc in today..here's some unbiased dirt on it: Size about same height as HD20, length is about 1 inch longer! than mac! width is the same as a mac. One red led in front, lights up when drive is active. Fan is noisy! As noisy as a becktech fanny mac. Drive does not make much noise during access. FLAME ON! Drive does not come with cables! You have to buy a scsi cable.. WORSE YET! you have to buy a fricking SCSI terminator! ($40!) because the drive doesnt have one builtin, as does every single other drive on the market. I think this sucks royally! FLAME OFF! It comes with software..some at least. Find File DA, a HFS global search-type utility..(useful if you forget a path) and Disk First Aid, a great disk scavenger/recover program for ANY HFS volume inc. DS disks and hard disks. Havent used it personally, but have heard it works. Drive performance: When formatted, 19264K is available. Where's the other 536K? (Floating in the bit stream?) DiskBench 1597 1594 and 234. Not too fast..Good Access time though DiskTimer 20.5 20.5 Acces 3.8 (Fair) (Dataframe 40 gets 13.4 13.7 3.8) Actual speed diference approx 10% slower. IE excel loads in 10s on HD20sc, 8s on Dataframe. The drive retails for $1298 which is high compared with $1098 Dataframe and $599 Jasmine drive? Its just comes down to whether you can afford the $$ to buy a reliable drive from Apple. We sure will trust this sucker more than any other scsi drive as the HD20 NEVER gave us problems, guess the extra $$ was insurance.. Hope this helps.. Norman Disclamer: I Dont work for Apple or any hardware manufacturer. Claimer: I work for FWB Software, which sells software geared for hard disks, so I hope I know what I am talking about...(Sometimes)