[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] A500 HD recommendations

ansok@stsci.EDU (Gary Ansok) (06/12/91)

I'm planning on buying a harddisk for my 500 (the Power-up deal is
tempting, but I just can't justify the extra cost).  I'm leaning
towards the GVP disk, but I'd also like to hear opinions on the
Dataflyer 500 -- it's significantly cheaper, is it worth it?
(Or is there any other disk you'd like to recommend?).

Also, any tips on buying something like this mail-order?

E-mail to me, I'll summarize to the net in a week or so.

Gary
ansok@stsci.edu

rbabel@babylon.rmt.sub.org (Ralph Babel) (06/21/91)

In article <2805@stsci.EDU>, ansok@stsci.EDU (Gary Ansok)
writes:

[quoting a letter from bmccnnll@vax1.tcd.ie]

> At the moment I'm using an A590 with a 52Mb Quantum
> LP52/S, which is 9ms with a 64K cache. This is, I think,
> the fastest hard drive you can get for the A500;
> marginally faster than the 11ms GVP one.

"DisCache uses look-ahead prefetch strategy to anticipate
host system requests for data and store that information in
high-speed RAM for faster access. In typical applications,
DisCache reduces the average seek time of the ProDrive LPS
52S/105S by 35% from 17 to less than 12 milliseconds."

This is straight from a Quantum info sheet.

These drives are also used by GVP.

Ralph

ansok@stsci.EDU (Gary Ansok) (06/22/91)

A week or so ago, I asked for recommendations on harddisks for the
500 (I can't afford to Power-Up right now!).  I got one useful
response, which I include below.

I'll probably go with the GVP disk, but I'm still undecided.

Gary
ansok@stsci.edu
----------
From jmpiazza@cs.Buffalo.EDU Fri Jun 14 08:56:54 1991
To: ansok@stsci.edu
Subject: Re: A500 HD recommendations
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Organization: State University of New York at Buffalo/Comp Sci
Cc: 
Status: RO

In article <2753@stsci.EDU> you write:
>I'm planning on buying a harddisk for my 500 (the Power-up deal is
>tempting, but I just can't justify the extra cost).

	I take it that speed isn't importnat to you?

Flip side,

	joe piazza

---
In capitalism, man exploits man.
In communism, it's the other way around.

CS Dept. SUNY at Buffalo 14260
UUCP: ...!{watmath,boulder,decvax,rutgers}!sunybcs!jmpiazza
BITNET: jmpiazza@sunybcs.BITNET		Internet: jmpiazza@cs.Buffalo.edu

>Gary >ansok@stsci.edu


From bmccnnll@vax1.tcd.ie Sat Jun 15 23:33:16 1991
Subject: A500 HD recommendations
To: ansok@stsci.edu
X-Envelope-To: ansok@stsci.edu
X-Vms-To: in%"ansok@stsci.edu"
Status: RO

>I'm planning on buying a harddisk for my 500 (the Power-up deal is
>tempting, but I just can't justify the extra cost).  I'm leaning
>towards the GVP disk, but I'd also like to hear opinions on the
>Dataflyer 500 -- it's significantly cheaper, is it worth it?
>(Or is there any other disk you'd like to recommend?).

At the moment I'm using an A590 with a 52Mb Quantum LP52/S, which is 9ms with a
64K cache. This is, I think, the fastest hard drive you can get for the A500;
marginally faster than the 11ms GVP one. I originally had the slow 20Mb XT
drive, but recently replaced it with the new Quantum and am _very_ pleased with
it!! Of course, the A590 can only take 2Mb of fast RAM, but there you go... The
drive is a fair bit faster than the one you'll get in an Amiga 3000. ;-)

Anyway, there's an Amiga magazine over here called Amiga Shopper, and Issue 1
(May 1991) had a complete review of hard drives, for both the 500 and 2000. To
summarise: it had the original A590 (came out slowest), the DataFlyer 500 (a
bit faster, but warned against buying it - "Oh dear...belongs in a garage...
unfinished feel...ugly...cheap&nasty design"), the Supra 500XP (faster still,
good review, but get your own PSU for it!!!), and finally the GVP ("Any faster
and it would take off...untouchable...THE choice"). My particular Quantum was
reviewed with the SupraDrive WordSync 2000 - "The fastest of the drives
tested".

Hope this helps. BTW I've got nothing to do with any hard drive manufacturer or
anything like that... 8-)

Cheers,

Barry.