qiming@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Qiming Huang) (10/08/89)
I am considering buying a 386 machine locally. The dealer is using what he called micropro mother-board with AMI bios; and a miniscribe 3650 strained up to 65 mb (the ad I've seen on this HD is 42 mb/61 ms. and only for MFM controller) by using a RLL controller. He claims that the use of the HD for the RLL is absolutely safe. The whole system comes with 20 MHz cpu, 1 mb RAM, 1.2 mg 5 1/4 drive, 6 -16bit and 2 -8bit slots and that above mentioned 65 mb HD, priced $1999; also an alternative for VGA system with vedio 7 card and Packbell VGA monitor, priced @ $2599. Memory expansion is $225 for 1 mb addtion and $400 for upto 4 mg. What I want get help is info about the Mother-board; the risk of using the miniscribe 3650 as a RLL HD; and /or comments about the two alternatives. Any help would be heartily appreciated. p.s. the guy says he can substitute the miniscribe with a ST 277R for an addition of $100; and he can install a 1.44 mb drive for another $130. Thanks very much in advance!
akcs.larry@nstar.UUCP (Larry Snyder) (10/19/89)
>what he called micropro mother-board with AMI bios; and a miniscribe 3650 >strained up to 65 mb (the ad I've seen on this HD is 42 mb/61 ms. and only >for MFM controller) by using a RLL controller. He claims that the use of >the HD for the RLL is absolutely safe. The whole system comes with 20 MHz cpu, I would suggest installing the fastest hard disk that you can afford. 1:1 MFM is fast - but not as fast as the 1:1 RLL or some of the other interfaces. On a fast machine such as this - it will be a waste of power to limit the disk IO. Just a comment - Larry
rob@prism.TMC.COM (10/20/89)
>>what he called micropro mother-board with AMI bios; and a miniscribe 3650 >>strained up to 65 mb (the ad I've seen on this HD is 42 mb/61 ms. and only >>for MFM controller) by using a RLL controller. He claims that the use of >>the HD for the RLL is absolutely safe. The whole system comes with 20 MHz >>cpu, >I would suggest installing the fastest hard disk that you can afford. 1:1 >MFM is fast - but not as fast as the 1:1 RLL or some of the other interface. >On a fast machine such as this - it will be a waste of power to limit the >disk IO. I'd also suggest a disk with an access time of faster than 61ms; that's only slightly faster than XT-class disks. If you can, find one with an access time below 40 (or preferably 30) ms. A 61ms drive on a 20mhz machine will prove a frustrating bottleneck for any disk intensive task.