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Matthew Lloyd (mlloyd@oxfordll.demon.co.uk) wrote:

: Greetings -

:     I am about to buy myself a 150-200 540Mb hard disk from Watford
: Electronics, UK. I have four choices, all IDEs:

: Make     Model number  Size   Access time  Price

: IBM      DSA-3540      546Mb  11ms         149
: MAXTOR   7540AV        540Mb  12ms         159
: SEAGATE  ST3660A       540Mb  12ms         179
: WESTERN- AC2540        540Mb  12ms         179
: DIGITAL
Buy the western digital - they have a VERY high DTR, we have them on P90s 
at work and get about 3-4Meg/sec out of them at times...

:     My question is this: which is the best make (both in terms of speed and
: reliability)? I have very little experience in these matters. I am not
: too concerned with the IBM's 1ms advantage, although it is cheaper.
: Which drive offers the greatest throughput? Why are the prices so varied
: (often against common sense?) Which would you buy? Would I need a VLB
: controller card (rather than ISA bus) to take advantage of any high speed,
: on my 486 DX2 66Mhz PC?
:     Thanks very much for your time.

:     Regards,

A
:        Matthew Lloyd

: -- 
: Matthew Lloyd - Oxford, UK
: Internet: mlloyd@oxfordll.demon.co.uk
: Worlds Beyond: Ensign David Roberts, CSciO, USS Odysseus, Blue Fleet

On Thu, 5 Jan 1995, Matthew Lloyd wrote:

> Electronics, UK. I have four choices, all IDEs:
> 
> Make     Model number  Size   Access time  Price
> 
> IBM      DSA-3540      546Mb  11ms         149
> MAXTOR   7540AV        540Mb  12ms         159
> SEAGATE  ST3660A       540Mb  12ms         179
> WESTERN- AC2540        540Mb  12ms         179
> DIGITAL
> 
>     My question is this: which is the best make (both in terms of speed and
> reliability)? I have very little experience in these matters. I am not
> too concerned with the IBM's 1ms advantage, although it is cheaper.
> Which drive offers the greatest throughput? Why are the prices so varied
> (often against common sense?) Which would you buy? Would I need a VLB
> controller card (rather than ISA bus) to take advantage of any high speed,
> on my 486 DX2 66Mhz PC?

I have both seagate and Western Digital drives in my system.  I've never 
had any trouble with either, except that they don't work together quite 
right.  This could be due to their age difference (2 years) or due to the 
different manufacturers.  Both drives work, but the slave won't report 
it's activity back to the master, or to the controler card.

Maxtor has a good name in HD's, though I've never used one.

IBM tends to make sturdy equipment, though not necessarily the cheepest 
or fastest.  IBM does a lot of pioneering in HD technology, and I've 
heard good things about their drives.

Any of these drives should be ATA or E-IDE complient, so while not 
necessary, you probably would get a performance increase with an EIDE VL 
controler.

If you have an existing drive in your system, and it's brand matches one 
of the above, It would be a good idea to purchase the drive of the same 
brand.  Otherwise you should be safe with any of them.  OEM's tend to 
prefer WD and Seagate drives.
  
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In article <789344050snz@oxfordll.demon.co.uk>, mlloyd@oxfordll.demon.co.uk (Matthew Lloyd) says:
>
>
>Greetings -
>
>    I am about to buy myself a 150-200 540Mb hard disk from Watford
>Electronics, UK. I have four choices, all IDEs:
>
>Make     Model number  Size   Access time  Price
>
>IBM      DSA-3540      546Mb  11ms         149
>MAXTOR   7540AV        540Mb  12ms         159
>SEAGATE  ST3660A       540Mb  12ms         179
>WESTERN- AC2540        540Mb  12ms         179
>DIGITAL
>
>    My question is this: which is the best make (both in terms of speed and
>reliability)? I have very little experience in these matters. I am not
>too concerned with the IBM's 1ms advantage, although it is cheaper.
>Which drive offers the greatest throughput? Why are the prices so varied
>(often against common sense?) Which would you buy? Would I need a VLB
>controller card (rather than ISA bus) to take advantage of any high speed,
>on my 486 DX2 66Mhz PC?
>    Thanks very much for your time.
>
>    Regards,
>
>       Matthew Lloyd
>
>-- 
>Matthew Lloyd - Oxford, UK
>Internet: mlloyd@oxfordll.demon.co.uk
>Worlds Beyond: Ensign David Roberts, CSciO, USS Odysseus, Blue Fleet
>I have been using a Quantum Maverick drive which I understand is about 10 msec 540 Meg
Seagate I find unreliable WD is good but a little slower. Price �145 DS Computers 081-447-0123

In article <789344050snz@oxfordll.demon.co.uk> mlloyd@oxfordll.demon.co.uk writes:
>IBM      DSA-3540      546Mb  11ms         149

	Good drive.  Like it.  Recommend it.

>MAXTOR   7540AV        540Mb  12ms         159

	I will take this opportunity to hack on the Maxtor.  I've had a 
few bad ones recently, one of them being a little two noisy, 
another with about 4MB in bad sectors.

>SEAGATE  ST3660A       540Mb  12ms         179 
>WESTERN- AC2540        540Mb  12ms         179
>DIGITAL

	No clue about these.  However, I have heard that WD's don't slave 
up well with anything else.  (In fact I've had trouble doing it as well)  
So if you are looking for a slave/master, don't get the WD.  (IBM and 
MAXTOR slave/master fine in my experience)

>Which drive offers the greatest throughput? Why are the prices so varied
>(often against common sense?) Which would you buy? Would I need a VLB
>controller card (rather than ISA bus) to take advantage of any high speed,
>on my 486 DX2 66Mhz PC?

	You might as well throw one in.  Depending on the one you get, 
you can get throughput rates of 25% better.  The prices are likely 
different as the drives probably have different cache sizes.  I believe 
the WD drive has the biggest cache, but I really don't know for sure.  If 
you do get a VLB card, make sure that you load the driver for it, it 
makes a huge difference...

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   \/  \/ /___  /  /  ___/ /___  /____    University of Windsor, Ontario
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I have a couple of related questions...

I too am about to buy a 540Mb hard drive. I have a 386DX40, and consequently
an ISA bus. I'm hoping to buy a VLB 486DX2-66 or DX2-80 in a few months, so 
I want to get an Enhanced IDE drive to take advantage of the bus. The thing 
is, will I be able to use an EIDE drive with my bog-standard IDE controller
on an ISA bus until such time as I can afford a VLB machine and EIDE
controller?

Secondly, is there a huge difference in speed between different makes of
EIDE drives or is it a case of only 50k/sec difference in the DTR? Does the
amount of cache make a noticable difference, ie. 256k vs 128k?

I've seen a 560Mb EIDE drive for 139upk, while some (eg WD) are 189ukp and/or
only 525Mb. Is it worth forking out an extra 50 quid for a smaller drive?
-- 
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In article <789344050snz@oxfordll.demon.co.uk>
           mlloyd@oxfordll.demon.co.uk "Matthew Lloyd" writes:
>     I am about to buy myself a 150-200 540Mb hard disk from Watford
> Electronics, UK. I have four choices, all IDEs:
> 
> Make     Model number  Size   Access time  Price
> 
> IBM      DSA-3540      546Mb  11ms         149
> MAXTOR   7540AV        540Mb  12ms         159
> SEAGATE  ST3660A       540Mb  12ms         179
> WESTERN- AC2540        540Mb  12ms         179
> DIGITAL
> 
>     My question is this: which is the best make (both in terms of speed and
> reliability)? I have very little experience in these matters. I am not

FWIW, I bought an IBM 528 Mb from Watford about three months ago, and have 
had no problems with it. Compared with my old Quantum 105Mb, it goes like 
the wind! I did have trouble configuring it, and having read on usenet about 
compatibility problems, I thought "Oh, no - there goes 249 quid" (yes, that's
how much it cost only THREE MONTHS ago!), and since there was no documentation
with it, I had to play with the jumpers on it before I got the right 
combination (it's configured as a master by default, just remove the main 
jumper to make it a slave).

As I said, no complaints so far. Just my four penn'orth.

-- 
Steve Taylor
"My doctor said I had to give up having dinners for four, unless there were 
three other people involved."
                       - Orson Welles