BPJ0%LEHIGH.BITNET@ibm1.cc.lehigh.edu (Binoy James, Lehigh University.) (11/19/88)
Ok I got a price for a 30M harddrive with a Western Digital controller with St 506 for $289. Is this a good price. I'm not sure if this is SCSI or PC bus. What do I need now to connect it to my Ami and how can I get it? Also anybody out there have a better price for >30M drives? I would prefer if I could get a list of stuff I need to get, prices and where to get them from. You guys will be doing me a big favor by sharing your research with me. I appreciate it. Bin.
mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) (11/19/88)
> *Excerpts from ext.nn.comp.sys.amiga: 18-Nov-88 HArd drives again. Binoy* > *James@ibm1.cc.lehi (476)* > Ok I got a price for a 30M harddrive with a Western Digital controller > with St 506 for $289. Is this a good price. That is a good price, though you may not need the Western Digital controller depending on what option you use to attach it to your A1000. > I'm not sure if this is > SCSI or PC bus. It is a PC bus controller. SCSI drives do not have any mention of ST-506 associated with them. > What do I need now to connect it to my Ami and how can > I get it? If you really want to connect a PC-type drive to an A1000, you basically have two options: 1) The Wedge (put out by RSI Systems; I think -- the people who make it are here on the net and would more than likely be happy to talk to you about it) The main advantage of the Wedge is its price. Disadvantages are that it doesn't autoconfigure, doesn't use DMA, and doesn't autoboot with 1.3. 2) Buy an A2000-style expansion card cage and purchase an A2000 controller such as the Commodore A2090A or the MicroBotics HardFrame. Advantages are that you get an A2000 bus, autoconfigure, DMA transfer, and autoboot capability. Disadvantage is price. If you want to connect a SCSI-type drive to an A1000, you have these options: 1) a SOTS controller, such as the CLtd, Supra, or MicroBotics Stardrive. Comparisons of these three controllers are beyond the scope of this message. 2) the A2000-style cardcage + A2000 controller discussed above. The SOTS controllers generally do not offer you DMA transfer, though all of them autoconfig and some may even offer autoboot capability -- I think the CLtd unit offers autoboot, though I am not certain. Some SOTS units may offer additional features -- for example, the MicroBotics StarBoard offers up to 2 MB of memory expansion and a battery-backed real time clock, and an adapter board that lets it be installed in an A2000 or A2000-style chassis. For A2000-style card cages, you can purchase the Bill's Boards BusExpander ($495 for six A2000 plus five PC-AT slots, runs BridgeBoard, you supply Baby AT case and power supply) and the Pacific Peripherals SubSystem 1000 ($299 -- check with PP for availability). There may be other, more expensive options available, such as the CSA Turbo Amiga Tower. However, if all you want is a hard disk and not a pseudo-workstation, you probably won't like the price tag. > Also anybody out there have a better price for >30M drives? Your best advice is to decide whether you want ST-506 or SCSI, then check Computer Shopper and try to get as many megabytes you can for the money you have. --M -- Michael Portuesi / Information Technology Center / Carnegie Mellon University INET: mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu / BITNET: mp1u+%andrew.cmu.edu@cmccvb UUCP: ...harvard!andrew.cmu.edu!mp1u+ "my friends say she's a dumb blonde, but they don't know she dyes her hair"