dave@arnold.UUCP (06/17/87)
I own a 7300 :-). Stuck, however, with the .5meg RAM, 10meg. configuration :-( . *** FLAME ON *** First AT&T sells the machine for $6500, and it bombs. They say, gee, why isn't this machine selling? You overpriced, undersold them!!!!!!! AT&T could learn a few lessons from companies like DEC and SUN (although DEC's liscencing policies are mixed up, but they listen to their users). Then 2 years later, AT&T burns all the buyers of the machine, dumping 'em for $1200 (some report getting them for $800) as if they were junk! I have even heard some owners on the net claim they are going to throw them away. Don't throw it away! This system is not junk!!!!!!!! *** FLAME OFF *** Due to AT&T's pricing policies, I am caught in a dilemma. Two problems. 1) Slow performance. 2) Out of disk space. Probably (as I see it), the most cost effective thing I can do to solve the above problems, is buy a lightning fast high capacity disk drive. Can anybody share their experience of replacing the slow (>= 85ms) 10meg hard disk with a faster (>= 30ms) disk drive? Did you notice a considerable increase in overall system performance? My thinking is, if I install a faster drive, I can get by without buying more memory, until the prices come down to reality. *** FLAME ON *** $900 for .5 meg, how absurd! *** FLAME OFF *** All I need is any drive with a ST506 interface, and, because of space, power supply, and disk controller requirements, I am limited to half height drives with no more the 8 heads. Or..., I can get a full height drive with it's own enclosure and power supply, and have ribbon cable squeeze through a crack somewhere, and do loop de loops around my desk. I am looking for a drive with >= 40meg, and in the $500 price range. So far, I have found two drives meeting these requirements in half height form. One, the ST251 from seagate, has an access time of 40ms, uses a stepper motor, and priced @ $650. The other, the HH-1050 from Microscience, has an access time of 28ms, uses a linear voice coil, priced @ $800. Does anybody have any experience with the Microscience drive? Are they reliable? Anybody have experience with Microscience in general? It appears that the Microscience drive is superior, but I'm a little wary of them. Anybody know of any other alternatives? Anybody know of any third party vendors? I know of Alloy computer products (Framingham, MA), they make the DOS co-processor board, and have a 2meg RAM board ($1495). Somebody mentioned Amperfax, somebody please mail me the address and tele# of Amperfax. Anybody know any info on SCSI controllers for the UNIXpc? Any information you have would be much appreciated. Dave Arnold UUCP: seismo!uunet!arnold!dave
dave@safari.UUCP (dave munroe) (06/19/87)
> Don't throw it away! This system is not junk!!!!!!!! > system performance? My thinking is, if I install a faster drive, I can get by > without buying more memory, until the prices come down to reality. > $900 for .5 meg, how absurd! Amperfax will sell you a 2MB expansion board for around that price, they also do other nice Unix PC upgrades. Their address is: Amperfax Corp. 1928 NE 154th Street North Miami Beach, Fl 33162 (305) 944-1477 Other people including myself have done business with them and are very satisfied; I would recommend calling them. As for disk drives (and Amperfax has a 40MB drive for the 7300, too), one favorite is the 67 MB Micropolis 1325. It has a 28msec average seek time compared to ~65msec on the 20MB Miniscribe (which is very noisy too). The Micropolis is full height, so it's usually placed outside the cabinet and needs it's own power supply. -dave