#About to plunge…
5 messages in this thread
I am about to plunge into the world of CD-ROM. I have a ZEOS 486-33, and I am
interested in multimedia. I read through the FAQ and a bunch of other files in
your library, and I have come to the conclusion that fast access and transfer
is essential.
The Procom drive deal advertised by TigerSoftware seems good on the surface…
a fast (200msec) Toshiba drive, lotsa bundled software and hardware, and
discounts on quite a few additional titles.
Anyone have experience with this deal? Especially bad experience? Has Tiger
been responsive to your complaints? Do they deliver what they advertise?
Anyone find a better deal?
Should I wait a month or two for faster drives? (I know that anything I buy
will be obsolete when it leaves the factory, but ya gotta jump in sometime!)
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Ed:
>>Should I wait a month or two for faster drives?<
I'll leave others to comment on specific vendors and products, but there is no
guarantee that this summer will see a drive at 150ms, or whatever. Certainly
mfgrs are working on improving performance, but the timing of these advances in
the commercial marketplace is very unpredictable. So if your going to do it,
don't wait on these factors.
Best – Rich Bowers
Thanks, I Figgered that. Like I said, ya gotta jump in sometime.
The only thing is it's scary to blow a kilobuck with no idea what kind of
trouble I'm in for. I'd stick to the local suppliers (in my area, it's only
Electronic Boutique, Staples, Babbages and a few small Mom & Pop stores), but
they don't have cutting edge stuff.
Too bad there's no "Consumer Reports" for this stuff – an unbiased, thorough
quality review. (PC type magazine articles are a start, but they get paid for
their advertising pages).
Ed:
>>PC type magazine articles are a start, but they get paid for their
advertising pages<<
You're right, we need better review structures. But much as I knock the trades
for some pretty asinine reporting about the CDROM/ multimedia business, I think
they all try to remain independent from their advertisers. And Ziff gets a
special kudo in that regard.
The real problem is the way that our computer-oriented friends choose to review
these products. If ou compare a CDROM drive to a mag drive it comes up short.
But if you consider that a CDROM drive's function is considerably different
than a simple hard drive, that it is something between a hard drive and, say, a
vcr, then the standard feature list looks a little silly. So we need to
understand and expect better criteria for measuring and evaluating performance.
Best – Rich Bowers
Ed, while I agree with Rich that there probably will not be a *major*
development in the next few months, you may consider waiting a few weeks. The
Spring COMDEX starts May 24 and any changes/new drives/price drops etc. will
likely be announced or demoed there. A number of cd-rom conference followers
will be there, as well as our fearless leader (Rich). I'm sure that all
pertinant information will make its way here.
On the other hand it is hard to beat the price and features of a drive such as
the Mitsumi if you are just starting and want to keep as many bucks in your
pocket as you can. I have no connection with Mitsumi, don't even own one, but
it should be available at a reasonable price even at Mom-and-Pop stores local
to you. Cheers!