srinivas@ut-sally.UUCP (02/18/87)
Can somebody help me in getting the following information ? 1. A benchmark of existing hard disk drives for the amiga. 2. Near future products( I mean hard disk drives to be released before summer) that are expected to be good. I am planning to buy a hard disk drive and I would very much appreciate any information you might have. -srinivas arpa : srinivas@sally.utexas.edu
dave@dms3b1.UUCP (Dave Hanna) (10/21/88)
It seems like there have been quite a few postings in the last
several weeks of the form "I'm about to get a hard disk drive.
What does anyone think of XXX controller and/or YYY drive."
Could somebody with some experience and knowledge in this area
do the net a favor and take a couple hours and write up a review
of the popular controllers and drives, advantages/disadvantages,
approximate costs, etc? I think it could be kept around and posted
with the "commonly asked questions" posting.
Dave Hanna
--
Dave Hanna, Daltech MicroSystems | "Do or do not -- There is no try"
P.O. Box 584, Bedford, TX 76095 | - Yoda
(214) 358-4534 (817) 540-1524 |
UUCP: ...!killer!gtmvax!dave |conklin@eecae.UUCP (Terry Conklin) (10/21/88)
We have just ordered a Miniscribe 3.5" 40 Meg SCSI drive (28 ms)
and have been shopping hard for a controller. As I type this, I can
make the observation that, having just read 600 net messages, my
"overview" of net traffic may be appropriate.
Observations on hard disk controllers:
A.) Under the FFS, with the right drive, etc. Amy can get moving VERY
reasonably. in excess of 500,000 bps.
B.) The A2090(a)? is a sleeper, and is actually one of the faster(est?)
controllers.
C.) Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has failed to mention the New Microbotics
HardFrame/2000 (though someone asked about it.) In the October
"Amazing Computing", they make some hardware claims that, as a pseudo-
hacker (I redesign sections of machines as needed,) do seem to add
up to one hot drive.
On the other hand, virtually every message in the whole lot did lots
of Microbotics bashing, especially with regards to their 1000 product.
Hardware changes, but people also bashed the drivers. A NOT encouraging
sign.
If someone (say CATS crew?) could compare their shown specs (280 on,
200 ns off the bus, etc.) with say the 2090A, it would be valuable.
D.) Just for the record, some of these benchmarks are _really_ fishy.
Especially the non-DMA vs DMA ones. Lets try to ONLY vary -ONE- thing
at a time, shall we?
E.) Speaking of not mentioning a hard disk controller, in the same October
Amazing computing is an ad (pg. 71) for the "TrumpCard", an autobooting
2000 half card that's a good $100 (that's 50%!) cheaper than most of the
controllers. If it's even remotely decent, that's a real factor to a lot
of "normal" 2000 owners.
F.) Another observation. We've been looking at everything for about 2 or 3
weeks now, trying to figure out what hard disk to get. It seems no one
has made either:
A A2000 bus ST-506 controller card, a nice, cheap controller to
access all those nice, cheap IBM hard disks
B an RLL version of the above. At the computer store I
occasionally ran, we shipped an RLL drive with almost
every system. They're fast, cheap storage, and reliable
too. (The BBS has been running it around the clock for years now)
G.) I see I have been lettering my points, inherently implying they
are worth keeping track of. My apologies.
As it sits, (ans a few people have recently mentioned,) much of the net
bandwidth (not counting a certain 150 spurious messages!) concerning hard
disks, while informative, is hard to discern or boil into useful information.
The ever popular Computer Shopper still reigns supreme as a great, HUGE
single source to get the best possible hard disk, (both item and price,)
but the Amiga controller world is a great deal more complex.
Our order for the new Microbotics will stand unless someone rescues our
_hard_ earned dollars with information. If nothing else, I guess WE will
make the comparison/benchmarks. Swell.
Terry Conklin "Admonish - of - Cruciform.
conklin@egr.msu.edu Impalement, immortality scorned."
{msudoc|frith}!conklin -Slayer, At Dawn They Sleep
The Club (517) 372-3131 3/12/2400 (call me here)
The Club II (313) 334-8877 3/12/2400 Amiga filz & moreelg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) (10/23/88)
in article <12623@eecae.UUCP>, conklin@eecae.UUCP (Terry Conklin) says: > F.) Another observation. We've been looking at everything for about 2 or 3 > weeks now, trying to figure out what hard disk to get. It seems no one > has made either: > A A2000 bus ST-506 controller card, a nice, cheap controller to > access all those nice, cheap IBM hard disks > > B an RLL version of the above. At the computer store I The A2090(a) will support ST-506 drives. I cannot comment on its speed when doing so. If you want to control RLL drives, the best route is to get the cheapest, scuzziest SCSI controller available (C Ltd.), and then use an Adaptec RLL-to-SCSI adaptor. The reason for the C Ltd. controller is because using a faster controller won't get you any speed increase using the converter route, so why pay for DMA etc.? I've managed to get nearly 100kbytes/second out of it, but that was only because I was issuing I/O requests of 256Kbytes at a time ;-). As far as price goes, you can get the C Ltd. + Adaptec for less than what a 2090A will cost you... -- Eric Lee Green ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509 It's understandable that Mike Dukakis thinks he can walk on water. He's used to walking on Boston harbor.