jeffm@mmintl.UUCP (04/07/87)
*
I though I'd respond to both of these items while I'm at it. I have a
Taxan 640 (630 will look just as good) on my 6300 and it is the most
beautiful text I've ever seen on a PC. But the 640, 635, & 630 are only
640x400 (<720x400 for 640) monitors and won't work at other speeds. So
if you plan to upgrade later, get a multisync-type monitor now. Unless
you want poorer quality text, don't get the EGA now. Wait a few months
for the next generation (I know, one can always wait for the next stuff
but I recommend it strongly now) of video cards. There will be new high
speed multisync monitors announced at Comdex this spring also.
On the 30 Meg. drive question, I put a Seagate ST-238 with an Adaptec
2070A 2,7 RLL controller in my machine and had absolutely no problems.
I use PC-DOS 3.1 and I have ROMs v1.21. The Adaptec comes with complete
low level formatting instructions. There should be no reason why you
can't get 30 Megs with 1.21 ROMs. I thought the Seagate 4051 was a full
height drive. Is it in an external box? Are the signals clean?
My question is, is there a way to hang a 1.2 Meg floppy on the 6300's
built in controller?
Jeff
*************************************************
* Jeff Miller *
* Multimate International, an Ashton-Tate Co. *
* 52 Oakland Avenue *
* East Hartford, CT 06108-9911 *
* (203) 522-2116 x257 *
* UUCP: *
* ...!seismo!utah-cs!utah-gr!pwa-b!mmintl!jeffm *
*************************************************
*wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (04/20/87)
Hi netland, In the previous article, Jeff mentions the the Taxan 640 for AT&T color. I'm staring down the barrel of my 640 as I right this right now. I have to agree that it gives much higher quality text than the NEC multisync that I am using at work on an EGA card. The only thing I can really fault the Taxan 640 for is that it seems fairly sensitive to picking up RF interference. This never happens in text mode, but seems peculiar to graphics modes, especially the 640 * 400, and only with certain patterns on the screen. I found that placing my hand on the monitor's case cuases the picture to regain its stability. I called Hitton Patel, an engineer at Taxan. Hitton suggested that the cable that goes between the monitor and the computer is the culprit, as the vendor obtains the peculiar AT&T cable from a source other than Taxan itself. He sent me an IBM PC compatible cable (not sure what I'll do with it yet). He pointed out that the video cable needs to carry the frame ground of the computer through to the barrel of the DIN connector on the montior. Sure enough, my AT&T cable does not carry the shield through. I haven't had the opportunity to make a new cable to see if it helps. With that caviat, I can very much recommend the Taxan 640. By the way, STB makes an EGA card that supposedly is compatible with the Taxan. I'm not sure what magic it works, as the 640's sweep frequency is not the standard EGA rate. I have the card sitting on a shelf at home, and haven't been able to try it yet, as I don't have ROM BIOS 1.43 that is necessary to get the computer to recognize EGA cards. I also agree with Jeff that the AT&T color text is much superior to EGA. If you don't give a hoot about graphics and only want colorful text, stick with AT&T. You might even give some thought to the DEB plug-in board to enhance AT&T graphics. I've been [pleasantly] surprised that quite a number of graphics programs provide support for the DEB. By the way, if you want the primo monitor, try the Sony CPD-1302. It is expensive but worth it, and will be compatible for quite a while in the future since it has a rahter wide range on the horizontal and vertical scan rates. I just got done looking at six differnt multisync monitors side-by-side. The only major player absent was the Thompson Ultrascan. The Sony monitor looked particularly nice when we attached it to the AT&T Targa-16 analog video board. Bill Mayhew Division of Basic Medical Sciences Northeastern Ohio Universities' College of Medicine Rootstown, OH 44272 USA phone: 216-325-2511 (wtm@neoucom.UUCP ...!cbatt!neoucom!wtm)