pje@h.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Paul Erion) (12/15/90)
We're thinking of acquiring some Daystar SCSI PowerCards for our Mac's (IIci's with 8meg and 80meg HD). Does anyone have any experience using this card? Impressions (especially concerning performance)? paul %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% INTERNET: pje@cs.cmu.edu UUCP: ...!seismo!cs.cmu.edu!pje USPS: paul erion, c/o school of comp sci, cmu, pittsburgh, pa 15213-3890 phone: (412) 268-3680 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
anders@verity.com (Anders Wallgren) (12/15/90)
I haven't had any experiences with this particular card, but I have one or two things to say about SCSI-cache cards in general (I don't know if the DayStar card is just a cache card or not): Don't get one if you're hoping it will speed up your compiles, because they don't. If you don't believe this, try the cheaper alternative: turn your Control Panel cache way up and watch your performance go down. anders
siegel@endor.uucp (Rich Siegel) (12/16/90)
In article <1990Dec15.024819.17630@verity.com> anders@verity.com (Anders Wallgren) writes: >I haven't had any experiences with this particular card, but I have Obviously. :-) >one or two things to say about SCSI-cache cards in general (I don't >know if the DayStar card is just a cache card or not): Don't get one >if you're hoping it will speed up your compiles, because they don't. >If you don't believe this, try the cheaper alternative: turn your >Control Panel cache way up and watch your performance go down. I've been a beta-site for the Daystar board for the past few months, and my compile times have gone from 25 minutes down to around 7 minutes for some fairly large projects. Other boards may not work (I haven't tried them), but this one does. R. Rich Siegel Symantec Languages Group Internet: siegel@endor.harvard.edu "...she's dressed in yellow, she says 'Hello, come sit next to me, you fine fellow..."
alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) (12/16/90)
The comment about the PowerCard not speeding up compiles because the Control
Panel doesn't is not terribly clever. Just because Apple can't do a really
good disk cache doesn't mean it can't be done (remember Nevins Microsystems?).
Furthermore, the big loss from a cache is CPU time spent looking through
the cache. If the card is doing this there's little or no loss.
That said, I can't claim any first-hand knowledge of the Daystar Powercard.
What I can tell you is that you can do really well with the MicroNet NuPort.
It will outrun any two Wrens you care to throw at it (except the new Runner-2s,
which it's neck-and-neck with). That's _fast_.
Of course, with those wimpy 80MB Quantums, your transfer rate is just terrible,
though your seek is OK. (Therefore, if you got a NuPort without another high-
transfer-speed drive, you'd see no real speedup.) So maybe the card would help
a bit. But remember, as soon as you bust the cache, it'll get slow again...
Also, the card is being delivered _this week_. MicroNet's card has been around
for quite a while...
---
Alexis Rosen
Owner/Sysadmin, PANIX Public Access Unix, NY
{cmcl2,apple}!panix!alexis