brian@jtsv16.UUCP (Brian A. Jarvis) (10/24/89)
Of late, funds considering, I have been mulling over the possibility
of investing some money in a hard drive for my Amiga 500. I've been
leaning towards the A590 model from Commodore, but would like to
hear something (*anything*) from people who have already made the
great leap and have some experience with the beast.
1) How much does it cost in the U.S.? Saturday, I was quoted $940 and
$899 Canadian ($800, $765 American, respectively).
2) How reliable is the thing? After all, what good is a 20 Mb drive when
15 Mb are mapped out as bad blocks...
3) What sort of warranty is Commodore putting on the thing? The usual
90 days? Any other exceptional notations?
4) A while ago, someone posted a note on exactly what kind (type, speed)
of RAM was required for the machine to bring it up to 2 Mb. Could
some kind soul reiterate?
5) Has anyone heard if Commodore is planning a similar drive with a larger
capacity, say, 40 Mb? It would seem to be the next logical step.
I'm tentatively planning to do a little negotiating with the local
dealers when they gather together for the World of Commodore Show at the
end of November, so I'm scrounging for data now. Any words of advice
would be greatly appreciated.
Brian
--
Brian A. Jarvis, J.T.S. Computer Systems,
brian@jtsv16.jts.com, Downsview, Ontario
...jtsv16!brian Canada M3H 5T5 (416) 665-8910
History is all too frequently the study of the worst case scenario.eberger@godot.psc.edu (Ed Berger) (10/24/89)
In article <1171@jtsv16.UUCP> brian@jtsv16.UUCP (Brian A. Jarvis) writes: > >1) How much does it cost in the U.S.? Saturday, I was quoted $940 and > $899 Canadian ($800, $765 American, respectively). Well I went looking for one, for my since past birthday, and it simply wasn't available. One dealer said they have had one on order for a few months. The other (who had also reccomended it), I asked about availability, they called me back in a few hours and said, sorry they're on back-order. Sigh. Potential prices were quoted in US$ of $599, and up $649?? abouts. >4) A while ago, someone posted a note on exactly what kind (type, speed) > of RAM was required for the machine to bring it up to 2 Mb. Could > some kind soul reiterate? 256K x 4 chips. I guess I'll punt, and go with third party... Does anyone have technical/mountlist info on Micropolis 1372a scsi drives? I know someone who just might give me one. -Ed Berger eberger@b.psc.edu
consp13@bingsund.cc.binghamton.edu (Marcus Cannava) (10/24/89)
In article <1171@jtsv16.UUCP>, brian@jtsv16.UUCP (Brian A. Jarvis) writes: > > Of late, funds considering, I have been mulling over the possibility > of investing some money in a hard drive for my Amiga 500. I've been > leaning towards the A590 model from Commodore, but would like to > hear something (*anything*) from people who have already made the > great leap and have some experience with the beast. > > 1) How much does it cost in the U.S.? Saturday, I was quoted $940 and > $899 Canadian ($800, $765 American, respectively). I have purchased the A590 drive, one of the first, and I wholeheartedly support it. It is one of the easiest, fastest drives for the 500, it has excellent support software, and uses standard memory chips to expand the internal (fast RAM) memory. Price: I paid $599 from Go Amigo, a mail-order house in California (1-800-BE-AMIGA) > 2) How reliable is the thing? After all, what good is a 20 Mb drive when > 15 Mb are mapped out as bad blocks... I have no bad blocks yet (6 months of use), and it's purring like a kitten. It has its own power supply brick, so you don't have to worry about overloading the Amiga 500's already overtaxed power supply. > 3) What sort of warranty is Commodore putting on the thing? The usual > 90 days? Any other exceptional notations? The usual 90 days. Nothing exceptional. > 4) A while ago, someone posted a note on exactly what kind (type, speed) > of RAM was required for the machine to bring it up to 2 Mb. Could > some kind soul reiterate? No idea. Any takers? > 5) Has anyone heard if Commodore is planning a similar drive with a larger > capacity, say, 40 Mb? It would seem to be the next logical step. > Commodore has introduced the 590 as a side-effect of purchasing a LOT of hard drives from Epson, originally intended to be used in Epson laptop computers (which have fallen by the wayside, as all Epson computers eventually seem to do..) Anyway, Commodore wants to use these drives in the new Amiga laptop (I believe, the Arrow, but I could be mistaken on the name..), and continue to produce 590's. All these drives are 20 megs, and Commodore has no plans to manufacture/purchase any other drives. Overall, the A590 is a fantastic deal. I've found 20 megs to be plenty for a few applications programs, a nice storage area for data files, etc., and maybe even a game or two.. (I have Larn installed, so now I'll never get any work done! :-) ) It is available for $599, although I've seen it commonly priced around $799, so any price inbetween those is a good one. (U.S. Dollars) Hope this helps. \marc
galvey@sts.sts.COM (10/25/89)
| 1) How much does it cost in the U.S.? Saturday, I was quoted $940 and | $899 Canadian ($800, $765 American, respectively). I just got an A590 at the Amiga Expo. It was from GO AMIGO and I paid $590 (for the 590 :-). Of course there was sales tax added on! | 4) A while ago, someone posted a note on exactly what kind (type, speed) | of RAM was required for the machine to bring it up to 2 Mb. Could | some kind soul reiterate? Looking through the User Guide I see "Use only CMOS 256k x 4 DRAMs, with an access speed of 120 ns or faster". ============================================================================= |Greg Alvey | Internet: galvey@sts.sts.COM | |Semiconductor Test Solutions | Phone : (408) 727-2885 (work) | |4101 Burton Dr. | | |Santa Clara, CA 95054 | When all else fails, read the instructions! | =============================================================================
james@uswmrg2.UUCP (James D. Brown) (11/16/89)
/ uswmrg2:comp.sys.amiga / brian@jtsv16.UUCP (Brian A. Jarvis) / 2:41 pm Oct 23, 1989 / > 1) How much does it cost in the U.S.? Saturday, I was quoted $940 and > $899 Canadian ($800, $765 American, respectively). I just got one, and paid what seems to be an average price of $650 from Progressive Peripherals, here in Denver. Sorry, don't have the address/phone info with me. > 2) How reliable is the thing? After all, what good is a 20 Mb drive when > 15 Mb are mapped out as bad blocks... No errors so far, but I've only had it a week. I'm happy with it, and being a PC to Amiga convert. I'm pleased with how quick it is considering the life-threateningly slow speed of the AmigaDos file system. > 3) What sort of warranty is Commodore putting on the thing? The usual > 90 days? Any other exceptional notations? Yep, standard 90 day U.S. Warranty. > 4) A while ago, someone posted a note on exactly what kind (type, speed) > of RAM was required for the machine to bring it up to 2 Mb. Could > some kind soul reiterate? CMOS 256K X 4 RAMS, 120ns or faster. > 5) Has anyone heard if Commodore is planning a similar drive with a larger > capacity, say, 40 Mb? It would seem to be the next logical step. You can stick any 3.5" drive in the case. There are two ports in the case, one for an XT (?) drive, and a SCSI interface. I may be too presumptuous, but one might think that the XT port will support standard PC XT hard drives?? (As I said, too presumptuous?) Also, the drive has a SCSI port on the back, for you to add more drives. The installation software will support 18 SCSI drives, though you are looking at a practical max of probably 5 or so, just because of signal loss on the cable. I've got mine maxxed out with 2MB of RAM, and all seems happy. > I'm tentatively planning to do a little negotiating with the local > dealers when they gather together for the World of Commodore Show at the > end of November, so I'm scrounging for data now. Any words of advice > would be greatly appreciated. I have not found dealers willing to bargain for Commodore stuff. From the $599 price offered by the mail order houses, it looks like $600 is about the lowest you're going to get. Can't hurt to try, though. If you can get the A590 box without a drive in it, you can might be able to get a better deal with a larger 3.5" drive (it comes with a Miniscribe drive). I've seen 40MB XT drives for about $300. I haven't yet priced small SCSI drives, though I know that big ones, like the CDC Wren V (300 MB) are more than $1000. Also, it looks like Commodore is no longer honoring warranties on merchandise sold from mail-order places, it might be worth it to you to buy from a local dealer. James D. Brown US West Marketing Resources Group, Inc. ****************************************************************************** Our outside uucp access is not stable as yet, please try whatever uucp address is included above for replies. Sorry, we are not yet on the internet. DISCLAIMER: 'The opinions expressed above are my own, and not necessarily those of my employer.' ******************************************************************************
fwp@unccvax.UUCP (Rick Pasotto) (11/29/89)
in article <520001@uswmrg2.UUCP>, james@uswmrg2.UUCP (James D. Brown) says:
:
: I have not found dealers willing to bargain for Commodore stuff. From the
: $599 price offered by the mail order houses, it looks like $600 is about
: the lowest you're going to get. Can't hurt to try, though.
:
: Also, it looks like Commodore is no longer honoring warranties on merchandise
: sold from mail-order places, it might be worth it to you to buy from a
: local dealer.
:
: James D. Brown
: US West Marketing Resources Group, Inc.
:
When I asked the one and only local dealer for a price on the A590 last
weekend he said that both of the ones he had sold so far had come in
defective and that therefore he was not interested in selling another one.
If mail-order is out (and I do agree with Commodore's intent here) where does
that leave me and the rest of the Amiga users around here?
Rick Pasotto
mcnc!unccvax!fwp