bas@wuibc.UUCP (Barry Siegfried) (02/09/89)
I'm considering upgrading the disk drive on my C-64 from a 1541 to a 1581 to
get more storage capacity. What do 1581 users think of this drive? Two
issues are of particular concern to me:
1. At least one contributor to this newsgroup has mentioned a ROM upgrade.
Why was the upgrade necessary?
2. How fast is the 1581? Mostly, I will be reading and writing program and
sequential files.
Thanks,
Barry Siegfried
bas@wuibc.UUCPBrendan@cup.portal.com (Brendan P Kehoe) (02/11/89)
In article <359@wuibc.UUCP> bas@wuibc.UUCP (Barry Siegfried) writes: >I'm considering upgrading the disk drive on my C-64 from a 1541 to a 1581 to >get more storage capacity. What do 1581 users think of this drive? Two >issues are of particular concern to me: > > 1. At least one contributor to this newsgroup has mentioned a ROM upgrade. > Why was the upgrade necessary? Actually, it is replacing the WD177X controller...this is only a problem if you have an earlier 1581...somewhere out there (I've seen it on a number of BBS's) there's a short little program that will tell you which controller you have. If you have the WD1770, you can get a free upgrade from Commodore (last I knew). > > 2. How fast is the 1581? Mostly, I will be reading and writing program and > sequential files. The only real increase in speed is because how the 1581 handles the disk. It puts 40 sectors in each track, and writes them in a much more orderly fashion, so when you try to read/write a file, it does come in faster. But since the 64 doesn't have burst mode, you won't get the same throughput as you would on a 128. > >Thanks, >Barry Siegfried >bas@wuibc.UUCP Brendan@cup.portal.com