motteler@umbc3.UMBC.EDU (Howard E. Motteler) (09/17/89)
Cascade Electronics is selling refurbished seagate drives for what looks like some really good prices. I just orderd a 4096 from them, and it arrived in 5 days (UPS ground). MFM drives (which should all work with the UNIX PC's controller) that they have are st-225 20 meg hh 65 ms $160 st-125 20 meg hh 28 ms $175 st-138 30 meg hh 28 ms $230 st-151 40 meg hh 40 ms $315 st-251 40 meg hh 40 ms $240 st-251-1 40 meg hh 28 ms $260 st-4053 40 meg fh 28 ms $310 st-4096 80 msg fh 28 ms $410 These are rebuilt by seagate, and come with a 90 day warranty, *plus* whatever was left of the origional warranty when the drive was returned, which could vary from zero to almost a year. (I know, that sounds wierd, but that's what Dave at Cascade said.) Their address is Cascade Electronics, inc. Route 1, Box 8 Randolph, MN 55065 507-645-7997 They've also got a lot of SCSI drives, mostly the SCSI versions of the above. They're mostly an XT/AT/386 "clone house." I know that some batches of the 225's have had a bad reputation, for burning out drive transistors and for loosing track 0. (One of 3 or 4 that we have in old IBM XTs died last year, after about a year, taking its data with it...) I've also heard that the st-40xx drives are very reliable. I'm pretty sure the st-1xx and st2xx series all use stepper motors, (I know the 225's and 251's do), while the st-40xx use a "voice coil"" positioner. Any of the half height drives should drop right into a 7300 with no problem. A down side of the 4096 is that is needs a lot more current at 12 v. than the half height drives, though some people have used them with the 7300's power supply. (The 3b1 supply gives a bit more current at 12 v.) To stick a 4096 in a 7300, you need the 3b1 hump top case. It's probably also a good idea to feed the drive power directly from the power supply, as is done in the 3b1, instead of through traces on the motherboard, as is done on the 7300. I have no connection with Cascade electronics except as a satsified customer. -- Howard E. Motteler | Dept. of Computer Science motteler@umbc3.umbc.edu | UMBC, Catonsville, MD 21228