jon@chiron.UUCP (Jon L. Griffeth) (06/14/88)
I friend of mine is thinking of acquiring a 7300 (10M or 20M disk, 1/2M of RAM). He wants to immediately upgrade it with a larger disk and more RAM. What is involved in this operation? Specifically, what type of disk controller does the 7300 use and can the RAM upgrade be as simple as putting in different chips. Thanks in advance, Jon jon@chiron
thad@cup.portal.com (06/15/88)
I've recently upgraded several friends' $495-special-10MB HD-7300s to Seagate ST251-1 (40MB, 28mS) without any problems. The UNIX PC's disk controller is "standard" ST506/412, so it's plug compatible with any drive you can put on an IBM PC. If your model is the 7300 (and not the 3B1), you're limited to a half-height drive. After opening the case, work carefully and methodically, and do NOT force anything. Everything comes apart easily once you examine the various pieces, connectors, etc. The only tricky part (for me) was having to bend the two vertical case supports; it's best to remove the 5-1/4" floppy before the hard drive. As to RAM: my friends' systems had their RAM soldered in place. You'd probably be best advised to buy a 2MB RAM expansion card and simply plug it in one of the three slots in the back.