elg@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Eric Green) (05/03/89)
I want to run both a hard drive and memory. Supra and GVP are too expensive for the performance, so I'm looking at the following setup: Microbotics Hardframe Seagate 48mb 3 1/2" SCSI Microbotics 8UP DIP (with my own 2mb of memory, which I can get cheap from unnamed sources). All into one of the following bus expansion boxes: Pacific Peripherals Subsystem 500 Expansion Technologies Phoenix (the latter two are practically identical). However, I've heard that neither the ET nor the Phoenix will work with a DMA device. Worse yet, I heard that NONE of them work too well with a DMA hard disk controller. Are these pundits close enough to correct? Will I have to go to a non-DMA controller to get reliable data storage? (if so, it'll probably be the new C Ltd. controller, which, my dealer says, is finally shipping). By the way, my dealer, the C Ltd. pusher, is NOT the person who said that the boxes didn't work well with DMA (the latter was a big Microbotics pusher). Plus, I haven't found someone with a low-powered ET or Phoenix, just the heavy-duty ones (I'm running an Astec 130w PC supply on my A500, so have plenty of power left over for a card cage). The Subsystem 500 starts looking more agreeable then, because at least it's out of the way instead of making the computer four inches wider, and it has a nice spot to mount my hard drive in (though I'll still have to bring in power for it from my Astec). Anybody ever use a ST151N, or an 8UP DIP, or a Hardframe, and have anything valuable to add? Would you buy it again? What about the Subsystem 500 or the ET or Phoenix? -- | // Eric Lee Green P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509 | | // ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg (318)989-9849 | | // Join the Church of HAL, in worship of all computers with | |\X/ three-character names (e.g. IBM and DEC). White lab coats optional. |