root@rice.edu (Brazos) (03/02/90)
two cheapest are Ehman and Mirror Technologies. Maxcess seems to make quality products, at a higher price, along with Microtech, at an even higher price. Mass Microsystems is out of the question with their stratospheric pricing method. From: robbins@rice.edu (Thomas Robbins) Path: robbins As far as comparing the drives' actual quality, I have tried to extrapolate from MacUser's reviews of standard hard drives last month, to get a sort of measure of the *company's* quality. I did this by averaging the ratings for all of each vendor's products. All of the vendors have two year warranties, the *new* 20 ms, 30,000 hr MTBF Syquest mechanism, and internal fans. This gives us: VENDOR PRICE RATING Ehman $750 3.0 Mirror Tech $750 4.25 Maxcess $850 4.5 Microtech $1100 5.0 To me it seems like the best quality/price deal is from Mirror Tech. Can anybody comment about experience with these companies, their service, or their Syquest products? How about better companies I may have skipped? -- Tom Robbins Youth is wasted on the young. robbins@owlnet.rice.edu - George Bernard Shaw Senior, Chemical Engineering Life is wasted on the living. Rice University - Zaphod Beeblebrox IV
ph@cci632.UUCP (Pete Hoch) (03/03/90)
In article <5414@brazos.Rice.edu>, root@rice.edu (Brazos) writes: > This gives us: > VENDOR PRICE RATING > Ehman $750 3.0 > Mirror Tech $750 4.25 > Maxcess $850 4.5 > Microtech $1100 5.0 > To me it seems like the best quality/price deal is from Mirror Tech. I would just like to point out that These prices quoted are all list. However I found Ehman has no 'street' price where as I have been able to get quite a discount from Microtech. (I have no experiance with the other two companies.) By discount I mean I got a Microtech at Macworld last summer for under $800 and a friend of mine just purchased on for about $850. Also Microtech comes with two SCSI cables and they remove the internal termination from the Syquest unit and give you an external terminator. I use my Microtech as my boot disk for doing development work and I boot from my internal disk all the other time. I like the product a lot. By the way, my friend had a PLI unit for the past 18 months. It died a month ago and so he sent it in for repair. They told him it would cost $520 because they had to replace the drive mechanisim. This seemed a little high since the quantity price for a Syquest drive is in the $350 range so he told them to forget it and he bought a Microtech. As usual I don't own stock or nuthin' in Michrotech I just like their new name. Pete Hoch
phssra@mathcs.emory.edu (Scott R. Anderson) (03/03/90)
In article <34779@cci632.UUCP> ph@cci632.UUCP (Pete Hoch) writes: >In article <5414@brazos.Rice.edu>, root@rice.edu (Brazos) writes: >> This gives us: > >> VENDOR PRICE RATING >> Ehman $750 3.0 >> Mirror Tech $750 4.25 >> Maxcess $850 4.5 >> Microtech $1100 5.0 > >I have been able to get quite a discount from Microtech....By discount I >mean....about $850. An ad in the most recent MacWeek has Syquests from DPI for $739. BMUG is quite fond of this source: "It's fast, reliable and trouble-free; the best of all Syquest removable drives available." * * ** Scott Robert Anderson gatech!emoryu1!phssra * * * ** phssra@unix.cc.emory.edu phssra@emoryu1.bitnet * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
m_herodotus@coors.dec.com (Mario Herodotus - Digital Customer Support Center (800) 525-6570) (03/04/90)
In article <5086@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>, phssra@mathcs.emory.edu (Scott R. Anderson) writes... > >An ad in the most recent MacWeek has Syquests from DPI for $739. BMUG is quite >fond of this source: "It's fast, reliable and trouble-free; the best of all >Syquest removable drives available." I purchased one of these drives over a year ago. I use it for backups and as an online disk. I have had no problems. Mine is fast, but I understand the newer ones are faster (20ms vs 25ms I think). The tech support there is very good too, I used them to explain the termination I would need when installing the drive. Mario -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I can't afford my on opinions and DEC won't pay for them either. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mario Herodotus [ CX03 1/K4 ] | m_herodotus@coors.dec.com Digital Equipment Corporation | Customer Support Center | - or - m_herodotus%coors.dec@decwrl.dec.com 305 Rockrimmon Blvd. | Colorado Springs, CO 80920 | - or - ...!decwrl!coors.dec.com!m_herodotus (800) 525-6570 Ext 25520 | [direct line (719) 592-5520] | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
robbins@rice.edu (Thomas Robbins) (03/05/90)
In article <34779@cci632.UUCP> ph@cci632.UUCP (Pete Hoch) writes: >In article <5414@brazos.Rice.edu>, root@rice.edu (Brazos) writes: >> This gives us: > >> VENDOR PRICE RATING >> Ehman $750 3.0 >> Mirror Tech $750 4.25 >> Maxcess $850 4.5 >> Microtech $1100 5.0 > >> To me it seems like the best quality/price deal is from Mirror Tech. > >I would just like to point out that These prices quoted are all list. >However I found Ehman has no 'street' price where as I have been able >to get quite a discount from Microtech. (I have no experiance with >the other two companies.) By discount I mean I got a Microtech at >Macworld last summer for under $800 and a friend of mine just purchased >on for about $850. Also Microtech comes with two SCSI cables and they >remove the internal termination from the Syquest unit and give you an >external terminator. I use my Microtech as my boot disk for doing Hopefully this posting will go without being garbled like my last one. Unfortunately, my root here at Rice does the actual posting, so I don't have permission to cancel my own articles! Anyway, I have been partial to Microtech all along, but was deterred by the much higher price. Then two days ago I got the bright idea of asking the company about educational discounts. After much haggling, the Rice comp store guy managed to get them down to $920, for the new Syquest mechanism. (Maybe Microtech doesn't like Rice, or Pete's friend is a better bargainer. Oh well! :-) To make a long story short, I bought it. Now for the questions. MacUser says that a drawback of the Microtech is that is is internally terminated. 1) What exactly is termination, and what is the signifigance of a drive being internally terminated? 2) Pete implies that Microtech has changed their internal termination design. Assuming they send me "two SCSI cables, remove the internal termination, and send me a external terminator", what do I do with it? How do I set things up? -- Tom Robbins | Youth is wasted on the young. robbins@owlnet.rice.edu | - George Bernard Shaw Senior, Chemical Engineering | Life is wasted on the living. Rice University | - Zaphod Beeblebrox IV
rsutc@fornax.UUCP (Rick Sutcliffe) (03/06/90)
In article <5086@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>, phssra@mathcs.emory.edu (Scott R. Anderson) writes: > In article <34779@cci632.UUCP> ph@cci632.UUCP (Pete Hoch) writes: > An ad in the most recent MacWeek has Syquests from DPI for $739. BMUG is quite > fond of this source: "It's fast, reliable and trouble-free; the best of all > Syquest removable drives available." > I have been a DPI customer for over a year. Their prices can't be beat; their formatting software is quite reliable, and they recalled a mechanism and replaced it at no charge when I pointed out that it was not behaving quite as per SCSI protocalls. They have other products as well as the removable drive, and I highly recommend them to all. Rick Sutcliffe Associate Professor \ (89-90 only) Visitor Computing Science & Mathematics \ School of Computing Science Trinity Western University \ Simon Fraser University 7600 Glover Rd., \ Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6 Langley B.C. Canada V3A 4R9 e-mail: Rick_Sutcliffe@cc.sfu.ca OR Compuserve 76475,3406
leipold@eplrx7.uucp (Walt Leipold) (03/07/90)
In article <5414@brazos.Rice.edu> robbins@owlnet.rice.edu (Thomas Robbins) writes: >VENDOR PRICE RATING >Ehman $750 3.0 >Mirror Tech $750 4.25 >Maxcess $850 4.5 >Microtech $1100 5.0 > >To me it seems like the best quality/price deal is from Mirror Tech. Can >anybody comment about experience with these companies, their service, or >their Syquest products? How about better companies I may have skipped? I bought a couple of the Mirror Tech RM42 drives. They're a joy to work with; as quiet as any other SyQuest-based disk, fast, and (as far as I can tell) reliable. Their manuals are readable, and the people are nice on the phone. What more can you ask? (The usual disclaimer: I'm just a satisfied customer.) >Tom Robbins Youth is wasted on the young. >robbins@owlnet.rice.edu - George Bernard Shaw >Senior, Chemical Engineering Life is wasted on the living. >Rice University - Zaphod Beeblebrox IV -- "As long as you've lit one candle, Walt Leipold you're allowed to curse the darkness." (leipolw%esvax@dupont.com) -- -- The UUCP Mailer