[comp.unix.i386] Conner & Swift SCSI drives?

alan@km4ba.UUCP (Alan Barrow) (03/18/90)

I am looking to build an Interactive 386 system up. For Bizarre packaging
reasons, I need to use a 3.5" format drive.

From what I can tell, both Conner & Seagate/CDC/?? make 100-200 MB drives
in this format. I am curious abaout a few things, as I have no personal
experience with either...

Any info on the following would be appreciated:

Reliability- The Swift family drives list higher MTBF, yet the Conners seem
to have a good reputation as well. Given the 3.5" limitation, will these
drives handle 7x24 unix operation? (Single user)

Performance- The specs seem pretty close on both families. Since I will be
using a cheap & sleazzy SCSI host adapter initially (ST-02, yes I know it
is less than optimal), do the disks have enough smarts/buffering internally
to do ok? (performance wise?) The long term plan is to use an Adaptec 1452,
but I need to get the system up first, thus the cheap ST-02.

Compatability- The plan is to use Interactive unix. Any known problems with
ST-02 (Other than they are dumb & slower) and COnners or Swifts?

Any recomendations or pointers would be appreciated. (Hopefully, this will
save me from the "How do I make this work" postings later, and save me from
making a bad decision.)

Thanks in advance!
Alan Barrow km4ba
404/425-0820
..!gatech!kd4nc!km4ba!alan