Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!brl-adm!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!wanginst!ulowell!page From: page@ulowell.UUCP (Bob Page) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Mini-review of CLtd 20M disk Message-ID: <899@ulowell.UUCP> Date: Thu, 1-Jan-87 12:44:54 EST Article-I.D.: ulowell.899 Posted: Thu Jan 1 12:44:54 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 2-Jan-87 01:49:00 EST References: <220@mcdsun.UUCP> Reply-To: page@ulowell.UUCP (Bob Page) Organization: University of Lowell Lines: 52 Keywords: disks expansion OK, so Fred beat me to the review of the CLtd 20MB hard disk. I pretty much concur with his findings, and especially the summary: the performance ain't GREAT, but the ability to have 20MB on line (and increased relative performance over stiffies) is GREAT. Fred said that he paid $900 for his. I paid $750 (that's with the pass- thru connector for the aMEGA 1MB box). However, he also said he had no connection with ASDG ... I assume you meant CLtd? Did you also make a typo about the cost? My justification was that $750 is half as much as some of the other drives out there now. I would like to see higher performance, but will wait for future products (that use Amiga's DMA chip perhaps?) before I buy another SCSI controller. Three more comments: 1. I find the drive somewhat noisy. Not as bad as the Tecmar T-Disk is/was, but compared with the Amiga (which is VERY quiet), it is a little too noisy. If I turn my stereo on normal (for college graduates :-)) volume, it masks the noise OK. Maybe with 2 feet (Fred said 3 feet with his) of cable I can move it under the table or something. 2. The physical box is rather large! I thought with that packaging (I had not looked inside) they were using a 5-1/4'' drive or something. It's 9-3/4'' wide by 10-1/2'' deep (the Amiga A1010 stiffy drive is 6 by 8). It is not the same color as the Amiga (doesn't anybody read the Amiga Schematics?), but then, it is in a metal box, so I guess it may be tough to match the paint. It is close, though. Am I being picky? 3. The documentation that came with the drive is pitiful. Just one photocopied sheet that said ``move these three files your your internal stiffy and type BindDrivers''. I had to also move the Mountlist file. There's no documentation on how to tweak the drive. It WAS easy to set up, however. Alas, our (Fred's, mine) units are first-run, the next batches may get better (remember the jumper for the 1MB RAM board?). To sum, these are small negative points. I am happy with the product. I would not be for $1500, but then again, I only paid half that. When Perry comes out with a DMA SCSI controller :-) I'll just buy that and plug my existing drive into it. I think it's a good buy, and recommend it for people with large storage needs or people who despise changing stiffies. Speed demons should look into a 2-4MB recoverable RAM disk, or possibly Ethernet/NFS. ..Bob PS It's nice to say 'avail' and see ``DH0 .. 20M''! -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. ulowell!page, page@ulowell.CSNET