[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] A3000 disk slots

lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (05/01/90)

In <ABAIR.90Apr30175521@turbinia.sps.mot.com>, abair@turbinia.sps.mot.com (Alan Bair) writes:
>
>  From the picutures I have seen there does not appear to be
>more than one external floppy slot, so can you have more than one floppy?
>Or is that second floppy actually internal with no external access :)

Har! That would be a neat floppy!

You can have two internals. If you look closely at the pictures in Byte, you
will see that there is a sort ot a 'V-groove' along the front of the machine
that contains the LEDs (Power and Hard Disk), as well as the floppy opening,
floppy LED, and eject button. The V-groove appears to stop just to the right of
the floppy, and the flat part there has horizontal grooves on it. This is a
blanking plate that is removed to expose another floppy opening just like the
first one.

The second floppy (or second HD), is mounted on a plate that is then attached
to the HD/power suply shelf. The bezel, being integral with the front panel,
and not attached to the floppy drive itself, means that alignment is simple...
no more fiddling to get the floppy bezel lined up in the hole. Nice.

-larry

--
NeXT. The hardware makes it a PC. The software makes it a workstation.
      The units shipped makes it a mainframe.  -=stolen from Hazy=-
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
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abair@turbinia.sps.mot.com (Alan Bair) (05/02/90)

Sorry Dave, I didn't mean to say you don't know what your talking about.  I'd 
hate to get on the wrong side of such an important source of information.

The BYTE article was rather vague, but today I saw the Amiga World article
and it cleared up a lot of questions I had.  Yea those plastics are great.
You guys have done a great job, too bad I have to wait 2 months to get one
home.
--
Alan Bair
SPS CAD                   Logic Simulation & Test
Motorola, Inc.            Austin, Texas
abair@turbinia.sps.mot.com
...!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!turbinia!abair

krag@cup.portal.com (Kevin Ray Grotjohn) (05/02/90)

I had to look real close to see this plastic bezel.  This is a lot better
than the A2000 floppy ports.  I've heard them descrived as holes in the
case with floppies falling out.  I occasionly have to push two plastic
spacers that threaten to fall out every now and then, most unproffesional.
 
Yes the better case is the reason I'm selling out for the  A3000. :-)

monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) (05/02/90)

In article <11214@cbmvax.commodore.com> peter@cbmvax (Peter Cherna) writes:
>In article <740@ki.UUCP> dwatts@ki.UUCP (Dan Watts) writes:
>attachment.
>
>I must tell our case designers not to do such a good job next time,
                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>it's confusing everybody!

	I'm not to sure that they did such a "Good" job by forcing us to
buy drives from commodore and not a third party. Again they have given us a
bezel-less drive (ala A1000) that is only available from CBM. This will not
be so bad if they sell them in the $100 range, but I suspect they will be
double that. It is easy to find 3 1/2 drives for well under $100 dollars
in many computer mags. This kind of "ease of repair" is not lost on many
bussiness customers.
	Now before you all fire up your flame throwers I love the 3000, I
can't wait to get one, I just feel that little details like this become
annoying after awhile.

	Oh yes, Commodore, are you planning to sell a matching expansion
box to allow 5 1/4 drives, such as a 44 meg IOMEGA removable cartridge
drive to by attached? Just a simple case, of a compatible design with a
power supply would be a nice touch (either half or full height).

Monty Saine

GO Commodore -- Your stock has dropped 7/8 since I bought my shares. --
Time to turn it around.

daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (05/03/90)

In article <754@sagpd1.UUCP> monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes:

>	I'm not to sure that they did such a "Good" job by forcing us to
>buy drives from commodore and not a third party. 

Exactly the same thing has been the case every time we introduced a new
machine.  When the 1000 came out, you could only buy external drives
from Commodore.  When the 2000 came out, you could only buy internal
drives from Commodore.  In both cases, the 3rd parties eventually
changed the situation.  I suspect, if there's a demand, the same thing
will happen this time around.

>This kind of "ease of repair" is not lost on many bussiness customers.

No different than with any Macintosh.  And actually better, because the
mechanism is an industry standard; no special motor speed control
required.  I'm sure, by now, there are plenty of 3rd party drives that
fit Mac internally too.

>Monty Saine

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
	"I have been given the freedom to do as I see fit" -REM

farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) (05/05/90)

monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) writes:
>	I'm not to sure that they did such a "Good" job by forcing us to
>buy drives from commodore and not a third party. Again they have given us a
>bezel-less drive (ala A1000) that is only available from CBM.

So just remove the bezel from your 3-1/2" drive.  Big deal.
-- 
Mike Farren 				     farren@well.sf.ca.us

swansonc@balder.acc.stolaf.edu (Chris Swanson, Systems Operator - ACC @ St. Olaf College) (05/10/90)

In article <ABAIR.90Apr30175521@turbinia.sps.mot.com> abair@turbinia.sps.mot.com (Alan Bair) writes:

   In article <11171@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:


      >Can you describe the physical setup of the machine?  I have a 
      >SyQuest SQ555 5.25" half-height removable media drive.  Can it be
      >used in an A3000 (fast backups :-)?  

      You need to mount 5.25" drives externally.  There's room inside for
      two 3.5" hard disks and one 3.5" floppy.  There's 3A at +12V, 17.5A
      at +5V, for the whole system.

      >Can a 2nd floppy be added (er, for recreational software :-)?  

      Yes, internally or externally, depening on what else you have inside, of
      course.

   I have read in this NewsGroup and recently in the BYTE review that there is
   room for 3 3.5" devices.  The system comes standard with 2; a floppy and
   either a 40 or 100MB harddisk. 

   Now in the reply above Dave contradicts himself about what the slots can
   be used for.  From the picutures I have seen there does not appear to be
   more than one external floppy slot, so can you have more than one floppy?
   Or is that second floppy actually internal with no external access

Commodore makes another faceplate with 2 3.5 inch floppy slots cut in
it that you can swap them for to replace the single 3.5 cutout.  If
you're looking at the front of the machine, the second cut-out is to
the right of the first.


--
Chris Swanson, Academic Computing Center, St. Olaf College, Northfield,MN 55057
	INTERNET:  swansonc@acc.stolaf.edu	UUCP: swansonc@stolaf
    	AT&T:	   Work: (507)-645-6845		Home: (507)-663-2154
	I would deny this reality, but that wouldn't pay the bills...