taob@pnet91.cts.com (Brian Tao) (11/10/90)
I am going to look for a new SCSI and RAM card for the GS very soon now
(new hard drive is coming in next Friday). I know that both the Apple DMA and
the RAMFast are both very speedy, but is the RAMFast worth the extra money?
Some people have told me that the Apple DMA is fast enough, and you can be
sure of compatibility. Others claim that the RAMFast is SO fast that the
price/performance is actually better than Apple's. Of course, with
third-party companies having an annoying habit of folding (like Ingenuity),
I'm not sure if I should go with CVTech.
How about RAM cards? I need 4 megabytes, so I have considered either
Chinook's RAM4000 and Harris Labs' GS Sauce. I've heard many good things
about the RAM4000, but not much from the GS Sauce. Does anyone have either of
these cards? A person who has a 4-meg GS Sauce called the RAM4000 "a waste of
money". Any justification for that statement? How about mail-order prices
and the cost of installing DRAM's or SIMM's?
If you e-mail me, make sure you reply to taob@pnet91.cts.com (as stated in
my sig), NOT taob@pnet91 (some mailers will choke on this...)
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ | Brian T. Tao | UUCP: torag!pnet91!taob |
/ \ | University of Toronto | INET: taob@pnet91.cts.com |
\ The Apple II / | Scarberia, ON | taob@pro-micol.cts.com |
/ Lives On!! \ |:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::|
\ / | "Computer guru? Someone who got their computer a |
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | couple of weeks before you did." (Alvin Toffler) |philip@utstat.uucp (Philip McDunnough) (11/10/90)
In article <141@generic.UUCP> taob@pnet91.cts.com (Brian Tao) writes:
[everything deleted as the title says it all...]
I have an Apple DMA SCSI and a GS Sauce card. I'm very happy with both.
The SCSI is connected to an UltraDrive from GCC. The GS is as fast as
I need it to be( I've got a TWGS too).
The issue of the Harris card vs. the Chinook one has to do with whether
you prefer SIMM's or chips. I prefer SIMM's. They are widely available
and are inexpensive.
It has been implied that the Harris card might be incompatible and the
Chinook one is a safer buy. I can't see why this would be so and just
don't believe that.
The Chinook card is very nice though. However, it seems to me that you
get more flexibility with SIMM's.
As far as the SCSI, I've seen too many messages about ROM upgrades when
it comes to the RAMFast. The Apple card is very nice.
Philip McDunnough
University of Toronto->philip@utstat.toronto.edu
[my opinions]6600prao@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Parik Rao) (11/10/90)
I have a RAMFast SCSI and used to own a DMA SCSI. The RamFast is a superior controller in terms of sheer speed. If you find yourself using your computer & hard drive frequently, it easily pays for itself in time saved. Considering it not only speeds up reading but also writing (and does writing in the background), its a very impressive piece of hardware. If you have the extra $60-80 its definitely worth it. You need not worry about it too much, the company is not some large thing that will go bankrupt, its run by two guys who do it for fun. They also have a RAM card coming out. BTW, The RamFast has a LIFETIME warranty, yahh! The ROM upgrades are very reasonable and you're given new features on a regular basis, IF YOU WANT THEM. I have one of the very old ROM's and haven't had a need to upgrade (no cd-rom or removable HDs). I'm very satisfied. It supports everything the Apple card does as far as I can see; I have it hooked up to a cdc-wren 330 & a quantum 105 at the same time. Boot time is a mere 4-6 seconds with a few hundred K of cda's & Inits installed. It writes a 2 megabyte file within seconds. BTW, I'm just a satisfied customer, not related to the company in any way except in awe of the product. :)
taob@pnet91.cts.com (Brian Tao) (11/11/90)
> I have a RAMFast SCSI and used to own a DMA SCSI. > The RamFast is a superior controller in terms of > sheer speed. If you find yourself using your > computer & hard drive frequently, it easily pays for > itself in time saved. [snip] > I'm very satisfied. It supports everything the > Apple card does as far as I can see; I have it > hooked up to a cdc-wren 330 & a quantum 105 at the > same time. Boot time is a mere 4-6 seconds with a > few hundred K of cda's & Inits installed. It writes > a 2 megabyte file within seconds. BTW, I'm just a > satisfied customer, not related to the company in > any way except in awe of the product. :) I, too, will be the proud owner of a Quantum 105 soon, and I hear with the larger (and faster) HD's, the RAMFast really outperforms the Apple DMA. THere isn't much difference with the 20 or 40-meg drives, but once you get past 80 or 100 megs, the RAMFast pulls away, so I'm told. 4 to 6 second boot time with loads of DA's and INIT's!!!!! It would take over a MINUTE with the card/HD combo I'm running now! Wow, wow, wow... another week, and I should have the hard drive here! Do you know any more about the RAM card that is being developed by CVTech? You said: > definitely worth it. You need not worry about it > too much, the company is not some large thing that > will go bankrupt, its run by two guys who do it for > fun. They also have a RAM card coming out. Is it a 4-meg card? When will it be available? (DMA compatible, obviously!) \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ | Brian T. Tao | UUCP: torag!pnet91!taob | / \ | University of Toronto | INET: taob@pnet91.cts.com | \ The Apple II / | Scarberia, ON | taob@pro-micol.cts.com | / Lives On!! \ |:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::| \ / | "Computer guru? Someone who got their computer a | /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | couple of weeks before you did." (Alvin Toffler) |
$CSD211@LSUVM.BITNET (Mark Orr) (11/12/90)
I heard recently that there was a 83 Mb hard drive made by Seagate... So I looked it up in the Roger Coats product list and lo and behold there it was...at less than $500 Has anyone had any experience with Seagate drives? Any good (reliability wise) ??? How easy are they to interface (i.e. are they SCSI or will you have to hunt for some obscure controller board) ??? ------------------------------ ! Mark Orr ! ! $CSD211@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU ! ------------------------------
toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) (11/12/90)
$CSD211@LSUVM.BITNET (Mark Orr) writes: >I heard recently that there was a 83 Mb hard drive made by Seagate... >So I looked it up in the Roger Coats product list and lo and behold there >it was...at less than $500 >Has anyone had any experience with Seagate drives? Any good (reliability >wise) ??? How easy are they to interface (i.e. are they SCSI or will you >have to hunt for some obscure controller board) ??? The ones Roger Coats sells are all SCSI. They are reliable but not as fast as the Quantum or Connor drives (but are also not as expensive). Todd Whitesel toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu
russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) (11/12/90)
In article <9011112226.AA29980@apple.com> $CSD211@LSUVM.BITNET (Mark Orr) writes: > >I heard recently that there was a 83 Mb hard drive made by Seagate... >So I looked it up in the Roger Coats product list and lo and behold there >it was...at less than $500 > >Has anyone had any experience with Seagate drives? Any good (reliability >wise) ??? How easy are they to interface (i.e. are they SCSI or will you >have to hunt for some obscure controller board) ??? Small Seagates stink. They are slow, and unreliable. Most of them are not SCSI, though some are. BTW, in the "Mmintsh" magazines, 105MB Quantums are being advertised for around $500-- and these are fast, SCSI drives (the ones in those magazines come with Mmintsh mounting hardware and probably ROMS with Unit Attention disabled, but you should be able to find 'generic' Quantums elsewhere) -- Matthew T. Russotto russotto@eng.umd.edu russotto@wam.umd.edu .sig under construction, like the rest of this campus.
shatara@islnds.enet.dec.com (Chris Shatara) (11/12/90)
In article <9011112226.AA29980@apple.com>, $CSD211@LSUVM.BITNET (Mark Orr) writes... > >I heard recently that there was a 83 Mb hard drive made by Seagate... >So I looked it up in the Roger Coats product list and lo and behold there >it was...at less than $500 > >Has anyone had any experience with Seagate drives? Any good (reliability >wise) ??? How easy are they to interface (i.e. are they SCSI or will you >have to hunt for some obscure controller board) ??? I've had a Seagate 30 Meg, 3.5" SCSI drive for about 18 months now with ZERO problems. It is the same family as the 83 meg and have been considering upgrading to the 83 mb myself. /chris ============================================================================= | Chris Shatara | Internet: shatara@islnds.enet.dec.com| | Opinions expressed are | DEC Easynet: islnds::shatara | | mine and mine only! | UUCP: ...!decwrl!islnds!shatara | =============================================================================
ronl@pnet91.cts.com (Ron Lewin) (11/13/90)
Personally, I've heard plenty of bad things about the seagate (sleazegate, as
some call them) drives. At one time there was a topic on GEnie just for
discussing people problems with them. After reading that topic, I probably
would not buy one.
INet: zoo.toronto.edu!generic!pnet91!ronl
or
: ronl@pnet91.cts.comwhitewolf@gnh-starport.cts.com (Tae Song) (11/17/90)
I own a Seagate ST-296N, bought it as a bare drive, got some cables and a case and p/s and fan and finally a SCSI card... was under $650 total... of course, now, the ST-296N bare can be had for $350 and if I did it all over again... it would be a RAMFast, ST296N combo, for under $670... including case and p/s and fan. Orignally, I got a Apples SCSI rev C card, now RAMFast. BTW, someone wanted a benchmark... 14,900K copied from partition 3 to partition 1 in under 170 sec. ST-296N has no track buffering/caching or look ahead buffers. You'll get faster results with Conners or some of the 300MB drives.
taob@pnet91.cts.com (Brian Tao) (11/18/90)
It seems that after my decision to purchase a RAMFast, all my plans have been turned upside down by a friend who is selling me his Apple DMA card for one-third the price of the RAMFast. I am running low on cash, so this deal looks REALLY nice to my checkbook! Does anyone have benchmarks comparing the two SCSI cards? I am going to hook up a Quantum 105, which I've heard has its own track buffer, so the cache on the RAMFast won't make that much of a difference. Does anyone have some statistics? \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ | Brian T. Tao | UUCP: torag!pnet91!taob | / \ | University of Toronto | INET: taob@pnet91.cts.com | \ The Apple II / | Scarberia, ON | taob@pro-micol.cts.com | / Lives On!! \ |:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::| \ / | "Computer guru? Someone who got their computer a | /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | couple of weeks before you did." (Alvin Toffler) |