t1f4387@star.tamu.edu (Farlow, T. Michael) (06/05/90)
A while back I had asked for some information regarding Hard Drives International and Qantum/Seagate HD's. Here is the summarization of the e-mail sent to me. CEO SUMMARY: Basically most said to avoid HDI. Even though they offer very competative prices, most said that they had to wait an inordinate amount of time before receving their drives. A few sugessted that I check out Alliance Peripheral Systems (APS) of Kansas City, MO. Much thanks to those that took the time to send something to me. I forwarded the information to my superiors. Michael Farlow, Texas A&M Computer Services Center Disclaimer: I have no connection whatsoever with Hard Drives International or Alliance Peripheral Systems, or any other product/organization mentioned in this post. ====================================== From: SMTP%"@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU:CHGARNETT@amherst" 1-JUN-1990 07:51:39.94 Subj: HardDrivesInternational HDI is an evil company. I've had no end of trouble ordering things from this company, for both IBM and Mac equipment. It once took 4 months to get a 30 MB drive from them. Quantum drives seem to be more reliable than Seagate's. I had a Seagate drive in my Mac and had to take it back for replacement 3 times until I got a Quantum because they were out of the Seagates, and the Quantum has been fine ever since... Craig Garnett Amherst College ================================================ From: SMTP%"HANKBART@ducvax.auburn.edu" 1-JUN-1990 09:07:19.70 Subj: Quantum HDs Michael, You can get Quantum 105 HDs for $599 (internal) and $699 (external) from Alliance Peripheral Systems (APS) in Kansas City, MO. I ordered from them about 3pm on a Friday afternoon and had the drive Tuesday at 12:00 pm. That is the cheapest price of venders as lsited in the back of the current issue of MacWeek (which is far more current than Macworld or MacUser). I have been very pleased with their service. Their driver software left a little to be desired, I felt. I replaced it with SilverLining from LaCie which may not be a viable alernative for you, but if it is, I would recommend it. The address for APS is P.O. Box 32982, Kansas City, MO 64111. Their number is 1-800-233-7550 Mike Taylor Auburn, AL ============================================ From: SMTP%"hyde@ngstl1.csc.ti.com" 1-JUN-1990 10:39:22.08 Subj: HDI ordering this may be too late for you, my info-macs tend to get queued and batched before I see them. HDI doesn't have a good reputation for being quick on turnaround. I have yet to see anything good said about them in info-mac. I have had no dealings with them, except to avoid them after hearing bad things. -- clint ============================================= From: THOR::MKH6317 1-JUN-1990 10:42:06.08 To: T1F4387 Subj: Quantum 80's and HDI Mike, I just read your query in the INFO-MAC digest. I've bought HD's from HDI in the past. I've been very happy with them. But lately I've heard a few complaints about them. I think they are growing a tad too fast. The complaints were from people who ordered drives and were given the back-ordered runaround. Todays sweethart company for drives is Alliance Peripheral Systems. (Look in the back of any MacWeek for APS). Their price on the 3.5" Quantum 80's is $539. And for $599 you can get a Q105Mb. I've been involved in the purchase of 4 of the 105MB drives, including one for myself. They arrived withing 2 days and are loaded (12MB) with some pretty good and rather current shareware/PD stuff. I don't see how you could do any better than APS. Matt ===================================================== From: SMTP%"RHBECKER@vx.acs.umn.edu" 1-JUN-1990 10:43:13.44 To: T1F4387 I can recall having seen both good and bad things said about Hard Drives International, either here or in comp.sys.mac, probably 2-3 good and 1 or maybe 2 bad. I have also seen several messages regarding APS (Alliance Peripheral Systems, I believe) and they were all good so far. You might want to check them out, as I think they may have comparable prices on the same or similar drives. I have no connections with either Hard Drives International or APS, but have been looking at information on such drives to replace a dead Jasmine. (<-Potentially necessary disclaimer :-() Richard Becker Univ. of Minnesota RHBECKER@VX.ACS.UMN.EDU ================================================== From: SMTP%"djb@ctc.contel.com" 1-JUN-1990 11:10:16.12 To: T1F4387 Subj: Re: INFO REQUEST: Hard Drives International & Seagate/Quantum Drives I seem to recall the comments on Hard Drives International being negative, along the lines of "DO NOT BUY FROM THESE PEOPLE". Unfortunately, my short-term memory is imperfect so I cannot swear to this. I can, however, recommend buying Quantum drives from CAi, which is the mail-order/brand-name for a store called Computer Age in Silver Spring, MD, and Beltsville, MD (mail-order == Beltsville). They advertise in the back of MacUser and have both Seagate and Quantum drives. I bought one of their Quantum 80MB external drives in February of 1989 and have not had any problems with it [though I have not used that machine for several months -- it's a long story]. The disk is really fast (has 64K cache in the controller) and the only real drawback is that for CPU-bound applications, the disk is "too fast" (relatively speaking: I have an unaccelerated 512K -> Mac Plus w/2MB RAM). Consequently, applications tend to load quickly and I/O intensive applications (like word processors) run fast, but CPU-intensive applications (like HyperCard) are not helped as much by the disk speed. I paid $899 + about $7-8 shipping for mine (I live in the Washington area, but I could save about $45 in sales tax by having them send it UPS to my house in Virginia after buying it at the store in Silver Spring). The price for the same drive is now down around *$600* and they have larger capacity models for about the same price I paid for my 80MB unit. NOTE: THE CAI PRICES LISTED IN THE BACK OF MACUSER ARE GENERALLY *HIGHER* THAN WHAT YOU WILL ACTUALLY PAY -- LOWER, MORE RECENT PRICES ARE ADVERTISED IN THE /WASHINGTON POST/ EACH MONDAY [this is probably due to the huge difference in lead times for daily newspapers vs. monthly magazines]. CALL TO GET THE CURRENT PRICING INFO. All in all, I am a satisfied customer of Computer Age (CAi). Dave Bursik, Sr. Member of Technical Staff Contel Technology Center 15000 Conference Center Dr., P.O. Box 10814 Chantilly, VA 22021-3808 E-mail: djb@ctc.contel.com / Voice: (703) 818-4497 / FAX: (703) 818-5484