ngorelic@csm9a.UUCP (Noel Gorelick) (05/02/88)
All this talk about hard-disk controllers and power supplies and stuff like that... What _exactly_ do I need to get a hard drive up and running? ie: XYZ Company sells a SCSI hard-drive for X$, what else do I need to get it to work with my Ami-1000. Does it even need to be a SCSI drive? (what is SCSI?) Why can't I use one of the $180 Drives for IBM's and such... and also... Has anybody had experience with the Hard Drive advertised by "Pioneer Comp" in Amiga World. The advertise a 'ready to use' 20Meg drive for $650. "What do you mean 'Its ticking'" | ngorelic@csm9a | ...udenva!isis!csm9a!ngorelic | ...boulder!isis!csm9a!ngorelic
tws@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Thomas Sarver) (05/05/88)
I'm interested in getting a ST506 controller for my A1000. I've seen a lot of SCSI controllers, but none for the ST506. The IBM drives are Soooo much cheaper than Mac drives and looooaads cheaper than any Amiga house SCSI drives. I've seen some suggestions for hardware hacks to put together an ST506 contrl. but has anyone seen a commercial product? What about a cable to an external drive? What would it look like next to my Amy? Will it need a power supply? Can I get DMA? These questions and more are answered in upcoming articles on! !!!!!!!sys.comp.amiga!!!!!! +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ But hey, its the best country in the world! Thomas W. Sarver "The complexity of a system is proportional to the factorial of its atoms. One can only hope to minimize the complexity of the micro-system in which one finds oneself." -TWS Addendum: "... or migrate to a less complex micro-system."
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (05/06/88)
In article <15377@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> (Thomas Sarver) writes: > I'm interested in getting a ST506 controller for my A1000. Nothing is available commercially that costs less than a similar SCSI interface. ST506 is officially a dinosaur. Those cheap PC drives you see advertised are nothing more than a mechanisim. You must add Power Supply, Casework, Software, Cables, etc. The quest for a 'PC cost' drive is a holy grail and unattainable in the next 12 months. You are welcome to spend the necessary cycles to come to this conclusion yourself. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) (05/09/88)
in article <52184@sun.uucp>, cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) says: > In article <15377@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> (Thomas Sarver) writes: >> I'm interested in getting a ST506 controller for my A1000. > > Nothing is available commercially that costs less than a similar SCSI > interface. ST506 is officially a dinosaur. Those cheap PC drives you > see advertised are nothing more than a mechanisim. You must add > Power Supply, Casework, Software, Cables, etc. Software: usually provided with the interface (at least, with the Commodore and C Ltd. interfaces for the Amiga 2000). Cables: a nightmare. At least, out here in the boondocks, where the nearest regional distributor is 500 miles away. Power supply, casework: Less of a nightmare. Any electronics hacker worth his salt has a back room full of that kind of stuff :-). But you still end up at about the same cost in the comparison of ST506 vs. SCSI. SCSI host adaptors are slightly cheaper than ST506 interfaces -- e.g. the C. Ltd. controller only has 4 chips on it. The drives are more expensive, but not excessively so nowdays -- I've seen Mac drives advertised for little more than ST506 drives. The end result is about the same. The only time it should be an issue is when one controller is DMA and one is not (e.g. the Commodore controller vs. the C Ltd. controller -- although with the FFS, the C Ltd. controller still can moveit.) The above are Amiga 2000 products, of course.... C Ltd. might still make their A-1000 stuff, but it'll naturally be low quantity (almost "on-demand") and thus high priced. -- Eric Lee Green {cuae2,ihnp4}!killer!elg Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509 "Is a dream a lie that don't come true, or is it something worse?"