CompuServe Thread

David, I have IDE, SCSI-1, and SCSI-2 drives. I recently needed more hard disk space, so I bought a couple of the Conner 1275 (IDE) drives. I have a PAR and my reasoning was that if I needed another drive for the PAR I could use them in an emergency. If you are going to invest in the PAR or some other system, you should consider the compatability of your whole system. The rumors are that DPS is designing an SCSI-? interface for the PAR; I would call them and use the information as part of my decision. The only disadvantages I've seen with SCSI-2 is the added cost of the controller, and the expensive and hard to find external cables. If you want to buy a 9G drive, that will make your decision for you. Again, check with the service bureau and consider the future expansion of your system. As for the DAT and CD. They both are good at what they do. The DAT is high capacity 2-8G. It's great for backing-up systems, but not much else. The CD is great for creating custom libraries of meshes, textures, animations, scenery, audio, etc. You could use it to backup jobs, but it's not very practical for backing-up your whole system. Hope this helps. byron engineering arts

I recommend going SCSI-2. FWIW. Much better than IDE, especially on 32bit OS'. SCSI can handle more going on at one time. SCSI is really great. For fast disk access, and porbability at the expense of upgradability, get an external SCSI drive. Only about $150 more than a regular internal SCSI drive. (just make sure you have SCSI on all systems) For removable drives, and easily accessable disk storage, go Magneto Optical. There are 230 MO drives out (SCSI) and their disks are only ~$30! For larger storage, get a 5.25 1GB MO drive. Not as portable, but lots of disk space, and at a rate of some hard drives. (slower ones) For tons of backups of files you want to get to all the time, go for a recordable CD-ROM. They're close in cost to the 1GB optical drives, but only cost $15 per 600MB, and anyone with a multisession CD can access them. These files cannot be erased though. They're permamently on the CD forever. For lots of files for long time storage, or backing up large 9GB drives, etc. Get a DAT. I've seen them go up to 10GB BTW- all these drives are Fast SCSI-2. It's definately what you should get into. JNJ

d "<–>" g, << I figure that a 1G external SCSI drive should give me everything I need. Have you had any experience with these drives and which brands are the best?>> Nope. <<How much slower?>> Ohhhh, about thiiiiis much. <<What is the transfer rate compared to a hard disk?>> From the manual: ZCAV FORMAT SEEK TIME (includes head setting time) AVERAGE 35 msec TRACK-TO-TRACK 1 msec MAXIMUM 70 msec LATENCY (average) 13.6 msec (2,200 rpm) TRANSFER RATE FROM/TO DISK 10 Mbits/sec Average (6.78 – 13.17 Mbits/sec) AT SCSI (async), Maximum 1.5 Mbytes/sec AT SCSI (Sync), Maximum 4 Mbytes/sec ————————————- Transfer speed is noticably slower, but for backups or storage, who cares? Its faster than tape, and far more reliable. I used DC2120 QIC for all backups for over a year, and lost several files due to read/write errors. I finally started copying all important files to floppies just to be sure I'd have them if they disappeared from tape. Since I got the optical drive, I haven't lost a single file (that I know of). Its painfully slow when copying and verifying lots of files, such as complete directories, but its easy to plan a little nap time around such events. <<How does this compare to DAT?>> Don't know. The glass media is good for 1 million rewrites and guaranteed stable for 30 years minimum. I don't recall what the shelf life or stability for tape is, but I know its much shorter, by decades. I haven't priced optical drives or media in awhile, but when I got this stuff it was less than $3,000 for the drive, the SCSI card, the drivers, and 5 GB of rewritable storage, and I haven't filled up all of the disks yet. Much of what I thought was going to be precious wasn't after all, so it got overwritten. <<I need to be able to transport quite a lot of files to other companies so I want something that is going to be robust and compatible with the majority of bureaus.>> Sure. Most of the bureaus around here use SyQuest and are Mac shops, so not much of the hardware I use is compatible with theirs anyway. Methinks your gonna have to make a decision between what's more important: compatibility with the shops you work with most, or maximizing your storage space. Those recordable CD's are interesting if you want to immortalize your files. I think they're relatively cheap, and CD-ROM drives are common enough that you shouldn't have much problem finding one on a network in nearly every bureau. I don't believe they're rewritable, so you gotta get it right, and be proud of it, the first time you burn that disk. Too ridgid for me. I always leave plenty of room for improvement, and most of the time, it shows! <<So how are things going with your models? Are you going to impress my socks off with some models in the next showcase forum?>> I doubt it. I'm back in the corporate flow again now that the reorg has settled in. One of my first new fun "duties" is to surf the net and locate references to sustainable architecture (whoopie…). I haven't been there yet, so when the ISDN line gets here, I'm sure I'll go away for awhile. I'm still plugging away on a few fun 3DS projects, but none are near completion, and as you know, I'm in no hurry to finish them. How 'bout you, laddie? Did you ever get your UL problem fixed? Keep them cards and letters coming …B.

>>if you are ever in need of advice on making squishy, >>spludggy, gooey objects just ask me. Hey DG! Lots of people are, or may be in the future, interested in good ways to make things that have such adjectives. Would you possibly have time to write and post David "cells-R-us" Gould's Top Ten tips for shaping splatable stuff? Pretty please? JKJ

Bob, I am not familiar with Pinnacle-Micro, I know the Philips unit. This is an all sing all dancing machine, but may only be slightly more expensive, and any way, as I understand it the "technology" is in the software, rather than the hardware. The writer should have a large buffer, the bigger the better. This id because the writing process is not the same as writing to a standard FAT type hard disk, and as such if you can send it large chunks of data to be getting on with, it will work more efficiently. The software for the writer is the clever bit. This should allow you to write Photo CD, CD-I (MPEG), as well as your normal files, and as such your writer should support all of these. Photo CD is a very compatible and efficient method of transfering images, and MPEG is better than either Quicktime, or AVI. I realy do think you should consider PCMCIA type III. This is not only available on lap-top and note-book, but also for desk-top PCs. Every new note-book, or lap-top has a PCMCIA slot, and a number of the larger PC manufacturers are also including them. Don't forget that PCMCIA is the interface for "Plug 'n' Play". The range of PCMCIA devies is quite increadable; I think there is even a high definition camera. The hard disks, and Flash ram are good way of transfering and storing data: they're so small. Check it out. Rich

We have this unit at work and have had lots of problems with it. We wasted dozens of blank CDRs at the outset. The price is about the best out there, but I'd suggest getting something else, maybe a Sony unit. Mitch