landay@cory.Berkeley.EDU (James A. Landay) (07/02/88)
Has anyone had any dealings with Tech. Specialites in Houston.
If so could you comment on them.
I am considering buying their drive setup (controller, atari adaptor,
cables, brackets, case with space for 2 1/2 height 5 1/4" drives, power supply,
and fan) for $267 and dropping in a new ST-251-1 (42 meg, 28ms) that I
have found for $399. This gives me a total cost (including shipping and
C.O.D. costs) of $694 for a large, fast, and expandable setup.
Thanks,
P.S. I have only got one reply from Circuit Maker users wanting to share
common circuits. Where are all the hardware people?
James A. Landay
ARPA: landay@cory.berkeley.edu
ucbvax!cory!landayjpdres13@usl-pc.UUCP (John Joubert) (07/19/88)
------------- I have called them (Tech Specialties) about their kit, and the price they gabve me was $299 not $269, hmm, I like your price better. Be advised that the kit that you are describing is an MFM controller, for an RLL controller, add $80. Still a real good price though. Could you post the name/place where you are getting such a good price on the Seagate 42 meg 28ns drive? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Joubert | /\ | /\ | _ jpdres13@usl-pc.USL or ... | \|<>|>|> \|<>|>|><`|`| ut-sally!usl!usl-pc!jpdres13 |-----/|-------/|---------------------- GEnie: J.JOUBERT | \/ \/ -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
landay@cory.Berkeley.EDU (James A. Landay) (07/21/88)
In article <1623@usl-pc.UUCP> jpdres13@usl-pc.UUCP (John Joubert) writes: >I have called them (Tech Specialties) about their kit, and the price they >gabve me was $299 not $269, hmm, I like your price better. Be advised that >the kit that you are describing is an MFM controller, for an RLL controller, >add $80. Still a real good price though. Could you post the name/place where >you are getting such a good price on the Seagate 42 meg 28ns drive? >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >John Joubert | /\ | /\ | _ >jpdres13@usl-pc.USL or ... | \|<>|>|> \|<>|>|><`|`| >ut-sally!usl!usl-pc!jpdres13 |-----/|-------/|---------------------- >GEnie: J.JOUBERT | \/ \/ >----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I cancelled my order with Tech Specialties after he couldn't deliver the promised product for 6 weeks after the date I ordered unless I was willing to pay $40 more (apparently he is using the old Atari adaptor boards and he ran out (I was told by someone else that those boards have a bug)) I ended up buying from Berkeley Microsystems (415) 465-6956 for $325 (including a clock, fan, large box (holds 4 half heights), power supply, cables, and software.) I bought the drive from Computer Terminal in New York (800)-223-4492. Their regular price is $435 but I told the guy that I had seen it for $410 from another mail order and he was willing to beat it. (for $399 + shipping.) They made a mistake, (thought I send a personal check when it was a certified check) so that it didn't get shipped until today. (they paid for the difference between ground and next day air). I should have it on friday and I will try it out, if anyone has any questions send mail. (if there is enough response I will post) By the way, Vance, at Berkeley Microsystems was very helpful. He even came to the office on Saturday for me so that I could pick it up rather than have it shipped. James A. Landay ARPA: landay@cory.berkeley.edu ucbvax!cory!landay
braner@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (braner) (07/21/88)
[] I finally got a cheap fix for my SH204 (the drive mech died after 7 months of service). Went to one of the larger local PC shops and got a used, traded in, drive for $50 (as-is, no warranty, although they were willing to check it out and format it for me for another $50, which I declined). It happened to be a Seagate ST238. You might wonder how can that 30 meg RLL drive work on the SH204's MFM controller. Well, they told me that an ST238 is really just an ST225 (20 megs MFM) tested to tighter specs, and should work fine on my controller even though it was a bit flaky in its former life as an RLL drive. Replacing the drive mech in the SH204 was easy, you only need a small Phillips screwdriver and a small wrench or pair of pliers for the nuts that hold the controller card. Make sure you plug in the cables the same way (relative to the slots in the edge connectors) that they were plugged into the old drive: the Atari cables do NOT make use of the polarity key slots on the drives edge connectors, so it IS possible to plug them in backwards, probably smoking something. Turned out that the original drive (a Tandon TM262) was a 3.5" drive inside of additional hardware to make it fit where a 5.25" drive would. The ST238 takes longer to spin up and is a bit noisier, but... when I get rich I'll get a (logically) large, fast, quiet 3.5" SCSI drive. The Supra formatting program didn't complain, and found no bad sectors. If I knew it's that easy to get a cheap drive, I would've gone home-brew from the start. The BMS boards + large case + PS + fan + clock + cables + instructions + SW, all for $325 --- great deal! - Moshe Braner
wes@obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes) (07/29/88)
In article <5602@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, braner@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (braner) writes: > The Supra formatting program didn't complain, and found no bad sectors. > If I knew it's that easy to get a cheap drive, I would've gone home-brew > from the start. The BMS boards + large case + PS + fan + clock + cables > + instructions + SW, all for $325 --- great deal! The formatting program CAN'T find any bad sectors if you have the stock SH204 host adaptor board. The PAL used by Atari on the SH204 doesn't correctly return error status from the SCSI controller, so you won't find bad sectors that do exist. BMS has a replacement chip that fixes this problem, and they only want 20 bucks for it. Run, don't walk, to the nearest phone. -- {hpda, uwmcsd1}!sp7040!obie!wes "Happiness lies in being priviledged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth doing." -- Robert A. Heinlein --