bob@allan.sublink.org (sysop ) (05/20/90)
> As for IDE drives, ESDI is definity faster than IDE drives (athough IDE > drives are fast in themselves). For example, our Conner 100 Meg IDE drive > gets about 775 kb/sec, and II believe someone's ESDI drive gets somewhere > between 800-900 kb/sec. Speed difference is not great, but if speed is the > way to go, get ESDI. From my experience, IDE drive perform almost as well, > but not quite as well as ESDI drives. Are you really sure? I've just purchased a 177Mb Imprimis IDE and CoreTest reports: Avg. access time: 15.5 m/sec. Track to track : 3.6 m/sec. Transfer rate : 830 Kb/sec. My machine is a 386sx running at 16 Mhz. It's VERY important to optimize the computer set-up. A faster bus clock dropped performance to a mere 560 Kb/sec. <bleah!> BTW not all SCSI performed well. I've seen a combination of Seagate hard disk & controller (ST02 + ST251N) do a 390 Kb/sec. on a 12 Mhz 286. On the same machine a "vulgaris" MFM controller with a ST124 perform better at 430 Kb/sec. Same peripherals on my 386sx get a 460 Kb/sec. Of course avg. access time remain the same... Don't forget the money! IDE drives are more cheaper than ESDI. If you aren't a professional doing BIG disk intensive tasks you may choice the bucks vs. speed. Bye from Italy. Lanfranco ** allan ** Lanfranco Albani Calderara di Reno (BO) tel +39 51 727372 UUCP: bob@allan.sublink.org "Anche i bancari hanno un'anima"
bob@allan.sublink.org (sysop ) (05/20/90)
> One more thing. ST-506/412 MFM, ST-506/412 RLL and ESDI are also not > supported on the motherboard level. IDE is supported on the motherboard > level because that is what it was designed for. So ruling out SCSI > because of no motherboard support is ridiculous. I prefer computers > not to come with motherboard support so I can use whatever controller I > want/afford. Don't agree. Only FEW mother-boards directly support IDE drives. On almost all cases you need a small and INEXPENSIVE host adapter card to run IDE drives! I've seen a half-size card (Taiwan made of course...) with support for: 2 floppy (360, 720, 1200, 1440) 2 IDE hard drive 2 serial port (only COM1 & COM2, deselectable) 1 parallel port 1 game port (joystick) 1 bus mouse port Stop :-) Ah, forget the price: in Italy about 50-60 US$ Bye from Italy Lanfranco ** allan ** Lanfranco Albani Calderara di Reno (BO) tel +39 51 727372 UUCP: bob@allan.sublink.org "Anche i bancari hanno un'anima"
det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) (05/24/90)
In article <9536.264b1ff8@amherst.bitnet> tgoldin@amherst.bitnet writes: > In article <36200011@suna2>, silver@suna2.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > > Is video stuff as straight forward as it seems? > > Video is _not_ that simple. The major consideration with super VGA and higher > resolution is interlacing. You should stay away from monitors/cards that force > you to use an interlaced mode for high resolution. Interlacing can cause > considerable flicker (every other line of the display is updated during one > screen rewrite; it takes two rewrites to update the display). It also seems > that a true multisyncing monitor will reduce the chance of flicker. Beware: ^^^^^^^^^^^^ > some monitors that seem to be multisyncing are really only dual (or multiple) > fixed frequency monitors (like the NEC "Multisync 2a"). ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Could you be a bit more expansive about what "multisync" means in a monitor and how (and why) some monitors use multiple frequencies to display an image? I can understand that interlacing would cause flicker and, i suppose, with a longer term phospher would be cheaper to make than a non-interlaced monitor. I am in the process of looking at "super" vga monitors for running x11 on my unix system and have decided, with some trepidation, that i would like something no less capable than a Nec 3d. Any other information about monitors in general would be helpful, since it is sometimes a tad hard to learn the theory behind equipment merely from vendor's advertisements!! (:-) derek -- Derek Terveer det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG
joel@techunix.BITNET (Yossi (Joel) Hoffman) (05/31/90)
In article <242@demott.COM> kdq@demott.COM (Kevin D. Quitt) writes: >>>In article <6224@ozdaltx.UUCP> doug@ozdaltx.UUCP (Doug Matlock) writes: >>>remember external cassette drives? :-) >>Remember hand powered punch tape readers? >>Remember toggling in your exec from switches on the front panel? >>Remember slide rules? >Remember Core? >Remember mercury-column memory? >Remember analog computers with electron tubes? Remember news networks where the answer arrived before the question...? Oops. :-) -Joel --