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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