#Pinnacle RCD200 conf?
9 messages in this thread
I heve been using a Picnnacle RCD200 CDR drive for two years.
I bought it from YMI. At that time, they sold it with a 386sx 25 CPU,
a Rancho Technology R10AT SCSI card connecting the CDR drive
and a Fujitsu M2266SA drive on which the ISO image is stored.
Like most people using RCD-200 drives, I have a high failure rate.
From reading messages going back and forth, I have a feeling that
if I build a powerfull system with 2 SCSI cards and a fast SCSI disk,
maybe I can make it reliable.
Any ideas or experience with this drive.
I was thinking of building the following config:
Pentium 75mhz
2 Adaptec 1542
1 Seagate ST12550N hard disk to hold CDROM image.
Corel CD-Creator or some other package to be determined.
Would this be enough.
Thanks
Patrick Robin
Dear Patrick,
Whether or not you need or would gain anything by having two SCSI cards is open
to debate; we've never seen any improvements in our own testing.
You presumably have some version of the RCD-PC software that was bundled with
the drive? If so, get it upgraded — there have been some streamlining
improvements which help overcome the 202's small buffer (though there's a limit
to what we can do with it).
Best,
Deirdre' Straughan
Incat Systems
…… or you could buy a new recorder for around $2000US and do away with the
two SCSI cards ect ect ect.. like the Philips, Plasmon and Kodak. They all are
very reliable and have giant buffers… saving a lot of money in bad discs and
almost more importantly headaches.
Georges
CD Archive, Inc.
http://www.cdarchive.com
Georges,
I am in the market for a CD-Recordable. Since I want the CD-R for backup,
copying other CD's and producing Multimedia titles (but not on a high
production level) I have been looking at the JVC 2X CD-R which comes with a 1GB
SCSI hard drive or the Pinnacle RCD1000. My budget is about $2600.00, are
there any other contenders out there that would meet my requirements and would
be better? I plan to hook the unit up to a Pentium 90mhz PC with 16MB and two
Enhanced IDE drives (totalling 1.8GB), are there any additional h/w requirments
that you know of? All drives are 12ms and below. Thanks. Brian.
I will send you a price list ect via private e-mail.
Cheers,
Georges Brown
CD Archive, Inc.
Patrick,
Pinnacle decided my RCD200 (about the same age as yours) needed new firmware
somewhere along the way, and I also kept up with the latest software upgrades
(available from their BBS), but the thing that I think really got my problems
down to a dull roar was replacing the Fujitsu drive with a better one, in my
case a 4GB DEC. I hear they like Micropolis, and it strikes me that the
consequences of having the wrong drive are so fatal that I think I'd find out
what specific drive they guarantee will work and buy exactly that model!
Of course, I gave up trying to use virtual images a long time ago, and always
made an ISO image. And right after getting everything humming, the RCD200
completely died, so I'm in the process of upgrading to the 1000. Next year the
ultra-reliable $500 Sony's <g> will be out and I'll regret it, but I can't
wait.
John
Thanks for your input John. I will contact Pinnacle to see if
I shoul upgrade the firmware. When you mention software upgrade,
do you mean the premaster package? Which one do you use?
Thanks
Patrick
Patrick,
For the RCD200 series, I know of only one software package. Pinnacle makes
upgrades available on their BBS, for which I applaud them.
John
I have a new RCD1000, but still have an older RCD202. My setup is almost what
you propose, except I am using a 486/DX4 100. (2 Scsi controllers) large scsi
hd's etc, and the latest version of the software. If you make an ISO file the
disks are almost always perfect. If you are a casual user of the RCD, then
this setup works fine. The RCD1000 has the ability to write an ISO file at 2X,
and this is a nice feature (worth the additional) $$$ I don't know. BTW, the
original 202 cost me about $5000, and the 1000 cost less than $2000.