martin@mwtech.UUCP (Martin Weitzel) (01/17/91)
Due to an error of my distributor I received two IDE drives today. Of course, I will return one, but as they are of different brand, I need a hint which one to keep. The two are - Conner CP320AF (211MB, 16ms) - Seagate ST1239A (210MB, 15ms) As the specifications are much the same, it may direct my decission that the Seagate costs ~15% less, but there are some rumor that the Conner is of better quality. Furthermore I'm a little irritated by some messages concerning OS-fixes for IDE drives. (As I were informed by personal mail, there were some problems that the drive didn't quite follow the specifications and Seagate was explicitely mentioned by one person, but not Conner.) Finally, in case it should matter: I want to use the drive with SCO XENIX/V-386, but it might be that later I move the drive to a system running ISC UNIX/386. Any helpul souls outthere to guide my decission? Thanks in advance. -- Martin Weitzel, email: martin@mwtech.UUCP, voice: 49-(0)6151-6 56 83
dawes@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (David Dawes) (01/18/91)
In article <1054@mwtech.UUCP> martin@mwtech.UUCP (Martin Weitzel) writes: >Due to an error of my distributor I received two IDE drives today. Of >course, I will return one, but as they are of different brand, I need >a hint which one to keep. The two are > > - Conner CP320AF (211MB, 16ms) > - Seagate ST1239A (210MB, 15ms) > >As the specifications are much the same, it may direct my decission >that the Seagate costs ~15% less, but there are some rumor that the >Conner is of better quality. > >Furthermore I'm a little irritated by some messages concerning OS-fixes >for IDE drives. (As I were informed by personal mail, there were some >problems that the drive didn't quite follow the specifications and >Seagate was explicitely mentioned by one person, but not Conner.) > >Finally, in case it should matter: I want to use the drive with SCO >XENIX/V-386, but it might be that later I move the drive to a system >running ISC UNIX/386. > >Any helpul souls outthere to guide my decission? Thanks in advance. I have two Conner IDE drives on my system (80MB and 100MB), and I have found that they work fine with SCO Xenix/V-386 (releases 2.1, 2.3), and Esix V/386 Rev.D. My 386 has AT-bus, and the only problem I ever had was when I increased the bus speed. I'm not sure if this was because of the `controller' or the drive electronics. BTW, does anyone have any information regarding the logical head/cylinder/sectors configuration of the various Conner IDE drives? Since I didn't get any docs with the drives, I had to use trial-and-error. David -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ David Dawes (dawes@suphys.physics.su.oz.au) DoD#210 | Phone: +612 692 2639 School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia | Fax: +612 660 2903 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) (01/19/91)
martin@mwtech.UUCP (Martin Weitzel) writes about two possible drives: > - Conner CP320AF (211MB, 16ms) > - Seagate ST1239A (210MB, 15ms) I believe that should be the Conner CP3204F. ("4", not "A") You need to be careful about what manufacturers mean when they say "MB". Unfortunately, some of them think a "megabyte" is 1,000,000 bytes. Since normal usage in the industry works in powers of 2, most of us take a kilobyte to be 2^10 and a megabyte to be a kilo-kilobyte, or 2^20, which is 1,048,576. (OK, enough belaboring of obvious basic stuff.:-) Playing the marketing game of 1,000,000 to the megabyte gives a quick 5% increase in apparent capacity--not a lot, but it might influence a purchasing decision. Conner does this. I don't know if Seagate does; you ought to check. The actual size of the Conner CP3204F is 8 surfaces, 1366 tracks, 38 usable sectors. That's 415264 sectors or 202.8 Mb, although Conner's spec sheet calls the drive's formatted capacity 212.6 Mb. Anyone have configuration of the Seagate drive? I stumbled across this when I was comparing specs on Conner's "84 Mb" drive (spec'ed as 84.3 Mb) against Maxtor's "80 Mb" drive. As it turns out, the Conner drive's real capacity is 80.4 Mb; the Maxtor's is 81.4 Mb! -- Dick Dunn rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd Boulder, CO (303)449-2870 ...Mr. Natural says, "Use the right tool for the job."
jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) (01/19/91)
martin@mwtech.UUCP (Martin Weitzel) writes: >Due to an error of my distributor I received two IDE drives today. Of >course, I will return one, but as they are of different brand, I need >a hint which one to keep. The two are > > - Conner CP320AF (211MB, 16ms) > - Seagate ST1239A (210MB, 15ms) > >As the specifications are much the same, it may direct my decission >that the Seagate costs ~15% less, but there are some rumor that the >Conner is of better quality. > >Furthermore I'm a little irritated by some messages concerning OS-fixes >for IDE drives. (As I were informed by personal mail, there were some >problems that the drive didn't quite follow the specifications and >Seagate was explicitely mentioned by one person, but not Conner.) > >Finally, in case it should matter: I want to use the drive with SCO >XENIX/V-386, but it might be that later I move the drive to a system >running ISC UNIX/386. > >Any helpul souls outthere to guide my decission? Thanks in advance. Conner has much better quality control than Seagate. But since the ST1239A is really an Imprimis drive, you couldn't go wrong with keeping that. I personally would keep the Conner CP-3204F. ISC certifies Seagates to work with their Unix, but Conners have been proven to work in the field. // JCA /* **--------------------------------------------------------------------------* ** Flames : /dev/null | What to buy? ** ARPANET : crash!pnet01!jca@nosc.mil | EISA or MCA? ** INTERNET: jca@pnet01.cts.com | When will the bus wars end? ** UUCP : {nosc ucsd hplabs!hp-sdd}!crash!pnet01!jca **--------------------------------------------------------------------------* */
det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) (01/23/91)
jdeitch@jadpc.cts.com (Jim Deitch) writes: >Just as a note. Seagate offers a real neat file on their bulletin >board. It has a listing of all the Seagate drives with the CDC cross >reference. If you plan to print it out have about 300 pages of paper >ready. The printout is suitable as a reference manual for a dealer or >such. It has full specifications, and all interface types. >The number is: +(408)438-8771 > 300-9600 HST, MNP 3/5, N-8-1 This looks like a prime candidate for someone to get (locally and cheaply, i would hope) and then stuff on to some ftp site somewhere so the rest of us can get to it at (psuedo-)will. derek -- Derek "Tigger" Terveer det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG - MNFHA, NCS - UMN Women's Lax, MWD I am the way and the truth and the light, I know all the answers; don't need your advice. -- "I am the way and the truth and the light" -- The Legendary Pink Dots