david@wmms.UUCP (David R. Mayne) (06/08/91)
It looks like my time spent at spring Comdex in Atlanta was worth something after all, even though there were very few items of interest for unix folks (if you like WINDOWS 3.X for DOS, this was the place to be). One of the booths advertised a Comdex show special, which is a 88MB 3.5" 15ms CDC manufactured (CDC model# 94355-1000) hard drive (actually Seagate now, sorry Thad) for $350 new. The special is (or was) to run for a while after the show, so they still may sell you the drive for this price, if you mention the Comdex special. I installed my 3.5" drive a few days ago, and am very pleased so far. The only time that I can hear this drive is when I turn the machine off, and the disk heads park - it is quite silent throughout operation, and seems quicker than the 28ms 5.25" Miniscribe it replaced. The drive is a 9 head, 1072 cylinder drive, thus requiring both the WD2010 and the 5.1 mod to get full capacity from this drive. Having been unable to get my group-buy WD2010 chip working with my motherboard (with DRUN patch already installed at factory), I am unfortunately limited to the 8x1024, or approximatley 67MB, at least for now. Has anybody had experience using different versions of the WD2010 chip (A,B,C) with different results ? Also, there has been mention of an Intel (ugh) replacement for this chip: where can I find one of these animals to try ? I am tempted to undo the factory installed DRUN patch, and redo it, but would like to try another chip before hacking at the board. BTW, the company which sells these drives is Computer Parts Outlet, Inc, 33 SE First Avenue, Delray Beach, FL, 33444, 407-265-1206. This company also sells used drives with some form of guarantee, and buys both working and non-working drives. This is the first time that I have ever done business with this company, but they did ship the drive quickly, and the price was right for me (As a comparison, Computer Shopper listed this drive for $650-$750). Obviously, I am not affiliated with this company in any way, but thought that I would pass on this info to anyone interested in upgrading their 3b1 with a low power, fast, relatively high capicity drive at a reasonable price. -- David R. Mayne 1364 Normandy Dr. NE Atlanta, GA 30306 david@wmms (404) 876-0943 ...!gatech!bagend!wmms!david