mhershede@cdp.UUCP (01/06/91)
HELLO EVERYONE FROM COLORADO via California/Pnet .....
I HAVE to get a hard drive, it seems, in the service of sanity
..a purchase (and condition) I have been putting off for about
two years now.
I have a A2000 with 1m chip 4m fast and am doing mostly video
graphic/animation work and want to move into 24 bit processing
soon.
My questions are:
* The DMA "hassels" that are eluded to in some of the
ads... I have picked up that they have to do with graphic
intensive reads(?). Should I rule out DMA controllers?
* Does vulnerablity to HD misfortune increase with size or
speed? IOW.. is a 40 meg 24ms "safer" than a 100 meg 11ms HD?
* Is there any advantage to Supra's Wordsync in graphic
applications?
* Are there any recognized "turkeys" in the HD world?
* Is there a "best of the best" HD system for
graphic applications if cost is not a factor?
* Where can I get reliable comparative HD/controller
stats. With all the new stuff out everything that I have
is out of date?
Thanks for any help.daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (01/08/91)
In article <936700021@cdp> mhershede@cdp.UUCP writes: >My questions are: > * The DMA "hassels" that are eluded to in some of the > ads... I have picked up that they have to do with graphic > intensive reads(?). Should I rule out DMA controllers? Those are, essentially, lies. I wouldn't recommend the A2090a for any video work (its discontinued, anyway), because it can have some troubles. These aren't based on the fact that its a DMA driven device, just a few things that no one though of when this one was designed (it was the first real hard disk controller for the Amiga, though possibly not the first one released). Any modern DMA controller, like the Amiga A2091 or Microbotics Hardframe, will work just fine with all the video you can manage. > * Does vulnerablity to HD misfortune increase with size or > speed? IOW.. is a 40 meg 24ms "safer" than a 100 meg 11ms HD? On the A2090a, again, the problems it ran into increased with drive speed. No such problems occur with any other drive I know of. > * Is there any advantage to Supra's Wordsync in graphic > applications? No. > * Are there any recognized "turkeys" in the HD world? Again, the A2090a is the one to avoid. I would personally stay away from any non-DMA controller, since such drives will eat more CPU time for the same disk transfer than any DMA controller drive. Though fully-buffering non-DMA controllers, like the old GVP controller, are reasonably efficient. I don't know enough about Supra Wordsync to recommend or blast it. Since it does 8 to 16 bit funneling, it has the potential of being a decent drive, but if it doesn't buffer incoming data, it will burn CPU time in exchange for a decent disk transfer rate. > * Where can I get reliable comparative HD/controller > stats. With all the new stuff out everything that I have > is out of date? The only comparisons you're likely to get are in magazines, and even these aren't always done all that well. Though the rags are getting better at it. >Thanks for any help. -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy "Don't worry, 'bout a thing. 'Cause every little thing, gonna be alright" -Bob Marley