dbullis@cognos.UUCP (Dave Bullis) (03/24/90)
I heard a lot of good things about the Adaptec 1542A SCSI controller. And the Seagate ST296N 85Mb drive is getting very common and fairly cheap. Are these two a good match? Some sales-people alluded to some unspecified problems with this. Anything to this or is a bogus rumour? Please reply and I will summarize. -- Dave Bullis Cognos, Inc VOICE: (613) 738-1440 3755 Riverside Dr. P.O. Box 9707 FAX: (613) 738-0002 Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA K1G 3Z4 UUCP: uunet!mitel!sce!cognos!dbullis "I didn't know the terminals were haunted. The salesman didn't tell us."
ke4zv@kd4nc.UUCP (Gary Coffman) (03/25/90)
In article <8121@cognos.UUCP> dbullis@cognos.UUCP (Dave Bullis) writes: >I heard a lot of good things about the Adaptec 1542A SCSI controller. >And the Seagate ST296N 85Mb drive is getting very common and fairly cheap. >Are these two a good match? Some sales-people alluded to some unspecified >problems with this. Anything to this or is a bogus rumour? I have been running this combo for a while now with no problems. One thing tho, get a copy of Roy Neese's utilities. You need to turn the error correction off in the drive while you do the low level format and verify or some soft errors will come back to haunt you. Also the default error handling in the drive is not optimum; you will want to change that when you are ready to run. I also have a Micropolis 1578 (330Meg) on the same controller, it works great straight out of the box. Gary Coffman
jpp@tygra.UUCP (John Palmer) (03/26/90)
In article <8121@cognos.UUCP> dbullis@cognos.UUCP (Dave Bullis) writes: } }I heard a lot of good things about the Adaptec 1542A SCSI controller. }And the Seagate ST296N 85Mb drive is getting very common and fairly cheap. } }Are these two a good match? Some sales-people alluded to some unspecified }problems with this. Anything to this or is a bogus rumour? } }Please reply and I will summarize. I have a machine with exactly that configuration: an AHA1542 and 2 Seagate ST296N's. I have had ABSOLUTLY NO PROBLEM with the drives or the controller (except the time when the hard drive cable melted, but that was my fault, for setting the jumpers incorrectly on the AHA1542). -- = CAT-TALK Conferencing Network, Prototype Computer Conferencing System = - 1-800-825-3069, 300/1200/2400/9600 baud, 8/N/1. New users use 'new' - = as a login id. E-Mail Address: jpp@ThunderCat.COM = - <<<Redistribution to GEnie PROHIBITED!!!>>>> -
larry@nstar.UUCP (Larry Snyder) (03/26/90)
> ST296N's. I have had ABSOLUTLY NO PROBLEM with the drives or the controller > (except the time when the hard drive cable melted, but that was my fault, > for setting the jumpers incorrectly on the AHA1542). What jumpers caused the cable to melt?
jpp@tygra.UUCP (John Palmer) (03/27/90)
In article <511361@nstar.UUCP> larry@nstar.UUCP (Larry Snyder) writes: }> ST296N's. I have had ABSOLUTLY NO PROBLEM with the drives or the controller }> (except the time when the hard drive cable melted, but that was my fault, }> for setting the jumpers incorrectly on the AHA1542). } }What jumpers caused the cable to melt? The problem occurred because I had to replace the motherboard. Zeos sent out a machine with a bad CMOS RAM chip so they shipped a new motherboard out. I didn't get any help at all from them when it came to installing the board. Anyways - I had to take all of the cards out of the machine several times while trying to get the board seated properly. During the process, a pair of jumpers for setting the IRQ number got pushed together so that two IRQ numbers were selected for the board (the correct one that was jumpered and the one that was pushed together). When I powered up the machine, the hard drive cable disintegrated in a cloud of smoke. Fortunatly, no damage was done to the drives or controller. Replacing the cable was the only thing needed. -- = CAT-TALK Conferencing Network, Prototype Computer Conferencing System = - 1-800-825-3069, 300/1200/2400/9600 baud, 8/N/1. New users use 'new' - = as a login id. E-Mail Address: jpp@ThunderCat.COM = - <<<Redistribution to GEnie PROHIBITED!!!>>>> -
tron1@tronsbox.UUCP (HIM) (03/27/90)
>In article <8121@cognos.UUCP> dbullis@cognos.UUCP (Dave Bullis) writes: >} >}I heard a lot of good things about the Adaptec 1542A SCSI controller. >}And the Seagate ST296N 85Mb drive is getting very common and fairly cheap. >} >}Are these two a good match? Some sales-people alluded to some unspecified >}problems with this. Anything to this or is a bogus rumour? No problems with that set up here. I like the 296N a lot myself. **************************************************************************** Eating Cherries Can Give You High Cholesterol, Reveal Mexican Vetrinarians. Everything I say is Copr. 1990, except the stuff I stole from someone else and the stuff I don't want responsibility for. Kenneth J. Jamieson: Xanadu Enterprises Inc. "Professional Amiga Software" UUCP: tron1@tronsbox.UUCP BEST PATH ---> uunet!tronsbox!tron1 Sysop, Romantic Encounters BBS - (201)759-8450 / (201)759-8568 ****************************************************************************
pcg@rupert.cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) (03/29/90)
In article <164@tygra.UUCP> jpp@tygra.UUCP (John Palmer) writes: In article <8121@cognos.UUCP> dbullis@cognos.UUCP (Dave Bullis) writes: }I heard a lot of good things about the Adaptec 1542A SCSI controller. }And the Seagate ST296N 85Mb drive is getting very common and fairly cheap. I have a machine with exactly that configuration: an AHA1542 and 2 Seagate ST296N's. I have had ABSOLUTLY NO PROBLEM with the drives or the controller To get it working is no fuss; but I would be quite wary of the performance. I would carefully look at the spec sheet of the ST296N to see its transfer rate. I seem to remember that most Seagate SCSI drives do only 4 MHZ, which is even slower than MFM, not to speak of RLL or ESDI. Also, I seem to remember that these drives are not so hot as to their handling of the SCSI protocol, so you get a substantial slow down. I have seen Quantum, Imprimis, Micropolis recommend for their clever SCSI implementations. It is damn easy to have a poor SCSI implementation; the difference in performance between an AHA1542 and an ST01 can exist also in the drive. -- Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk