CXP120@PSUVM.BITNET (04/22/89)
I am interested in any information which would help when buying a hard drive
for an SE.
-would prefer an external drive
-which drives have a lot of problems & which do not?
-Which hard disk would you prefer (of any for the mac) and why?
-Especially interested in La Cie's Cirrus 80, Microtech international
Nova 80, and Quickor
Thanks
CXP120lauac@mead.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) (04/23/89)
In article <82800CXP120@PSUVM> CXP120@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >I am interested in any information which would help when buying a hard drive >for an SE. > -would prefer an external drive > -which drives have a lot of problems & which do not? > -Which hard disk would you prefer (of any for the mac) and why? > -Especially interested in La Cie's Cirrus 80, Microtech international > Nova 80, and Quickor >Thanks >CXP120 Contact each company that you're looking at and ask them who makes the internal drive mechanisms. If the drive mechanism is Quantum or CDC, buy the drive. If the mechanism is Seagate, snort a bit and hang up. I have extolled the virtues of Control Data and Quantum before, and I'll do it again. I've given (and sometimes passed along) advice to dozens to buy either brand, and NO ONE has complained to me yet. I would be surprised if you were the first. --- Alex UUCP: {att,backbones}!ucbvax!qal.berkeley.edu!lauac INTERNET: lauac%qal.berkeley.edu@ucbvax.berkeley.edu FIDONET: Alex.Lau@bmug.fidonet.org (1:161/444)
kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (04/25/89)
In article <23486@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> lauac@mead.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) writes:
<Contact each company that you're looking at and ask them who makes the
<internal drive mechanisms. If the drive mechanism is Quantum or CDC,
<buy the drive. If the mechanism is Seagate, snort a bit and hang up.
<
<I have extolled the virtues of Control Data and Quantum before, and
<I'll do it again. I've given (and sometimes passed along) advice to
<dozens to buy either brand, and NO ONE has complained to me yet. I
<would be surprised if you were the first.
There is an interesting discussion of the Quantum ProDrive 80S in the
25 April MacWEEK (MacInTouch column). They've identified these venders
as using the ProDrive: FWB PocketHammer80, Microtech Nova 80,
Ruby Systems' StarDrive 80DX and Apple's Internal 80SC for the SE.
Interestingly, there were differences in performance caused by the
installer software, which has to choose the best set of trade-offs.
"The surprise was an outstanding performance turned in by Apple's
disk in our standard benchmark test, duplicating a large file from the
Finder. In this test, formatting with Apple's software cut the dupli-
cation time by 25 percent over third-party installer software to
match the speed of our CDC Wren. Other tests failed to show the same
gains for the Apple software, so it appears that Apple has optimized
its disk driver for the Finder without affecting performance elsewhere."
While they felt that Apple's HD SC Setup 2.0, FWB's PocketInstall,
Ruby Systems' StarDisk and Microtech's Format have the essentials right,
they faulted Apple and Microtech for calculating the interleave factor
automatically without giving the user the option to override. (creates
performance problems if you want to format on an SE/30 and move to
an older machine)
They mentioned that these drives format to more than 80 Mbytes and
pointed out that the Quantum is quieter than the average Mac disk.
Shirley Kehrseo@cs.utexas.edu (Jungyun Seo) (04/28/89)
In article <93537@felix.UUCP> kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) writes:
-There is an interesting discussion of the Quantum ProDrive 80S in the
-25 April MacWEEK (MacInTouch column). They've identified these venders
-as using the ProDrive: FWB PocketHammer80, Microtech Nova 80,
-Ruby Systems' StarDrive 80DX and Apple's Internal 80SC for the SE.
-
-Interestingly, there were differences in performance caused by the
-installer software, which has to choose the best set of trade-offs.
-"The surprise was an outstanding performance turned in by Apple's
-disk in our standard benchmark test, duplicating a large file from
-he
-Finder. In this test, formatting with Apple's software cut the dupli-
-cation time by 25 percent over third-party installer software to
-match the speed of our CDC Wren. Other tests failed to show the same
-gains for the Apple software, so it appears that Apple has optimized
-its disk driver for the Finder without affecting performance
-lsewhere."
........
-Shirley Kehr
If they use the same disc (Quantum 80), is it technically possible to
use the same formatting software developed by apple to format other
disc drives to get faster speed?
Just Curious.
Jungyun
--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 Jungyun Seo UUCP: uunet!cs.utexas.edu!seo 1
1 (512) 471-9573 ARPA: seo@cs.utexas.edu 1
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+liemandt@lindy.Stanford.EDU (Joe Liemandt) (04/28/89)
In article <276@ai.cs.utexas.edu> seo@cs.utexas.edu (Jungyun Seo) writes: >In article <93537@felix.UUCP> kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) writes: >-There is an interesting discussion of the Quantum ProDrive 80S in the >-25 April MacWEEK (MacInTouch column). They've identified these venders >-as using the ProDrive: FWB PocketHammer80, Microtech Nova 80, >-Ruby Systems' StarDrive 80DX and Apple's Internal 80SC for the SE. >- >-Interestingly, there were differences in performance caused by the >-installer software, which has to choose the best set of trade-offs. >-"The surprise was an outstanding performance turned in by Apple's >-disk in our standard benchmark test, duplicating a large file from >-he >-Finder. In this test, formatting with Apple's software cut the dupli- >-cation time by 25 percent over third-party installer software to >-match the speed of our CDC Wren. Other tests failed to show the same >-gains for the Apple software, so it appears that Apple has optimized >-its disk driver for the Finder without affecting performance >-lsewhere." >........ >-Shirley Kehr > >If they use the same disc (Quantum 80), is it technically possible to >use the same formatting software developed by apple to format other >disc drives to get faster speed? >Just Curious. > >Jungyun >-- Has anyone tested the drivers that are available? I noticed the Apple speedup a while ago, on the old Quantum 280. Apple seemed to have optimized the Finder copies. My tests showed it did beat my CDC Wren in Finder copies. It looked like the Wren was using blind reads, but not blind writes. Apples software was using both. This was only at the Finder level. As soon as I went into an application to test, the 16.5ms CDC Wren beat out the 28ms Quantum 280. (Note the Quantum 280 is the old 5.25 in drive, not the new 3.5 in Quantum Prodrive). Has anybody seen a report that compares driver software, or are they all close enough that it does not matter?? Why can't MacUser and MacWorld conduct meaningful reviews and comparisons? PC Magazine and Tech Journal provide reasonable information to their readers, why not in the mac world? Macintouch and Connections Magazine seem to be the only place to find any technical info (besides the net of course). While I'm on the subject of performance, has anybody tested the various Ethernet cards, what about 9600 baud modems? (I usually read the PC magazines for a peripheral such as this). Joe liemandt liemandt@jessica.stanford.edu
alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) (04/30/89)
In article <93537@felix.UUCP> kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) writes: >There is an interesting discussion of the Quantum ProDrive 80S in the >25 April MacWEEK (MacInTouch column). [etc.] > >While they felt that Apple's HD SC Setup 2.0, FWB's PocketInstall, >Ruby Systems' StarDisk and Microtech's Format have the essentials right, >they faulted Apple and Microtech for calculating the interleave factor >automatically without giving the user the option to override. (creates >performance problems if you want to format on an SE/30 and move to >an older machine) They blew it. These drives have a cache, which means that the correct interleave is ALWAYS 1:1 no matter what you attach them to. I'm surprised to see this; those guys are usually on the ball, technically. There is a speed issue that relates to the drivers, which may or may not be what Apple's doing. The cache I mentioned is more than a track cache, and you can speed things up noticeably if you make use of it properly. So far, I don't know of anyone who does, but maybe Apple's finally taken that step. BTW, MicroNet also sells these drives. Their software is about on a par with everyone else's. --- Alexis Rosen alexis@ccnysci.{uucp,bitnet} alexis@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (last resort)