Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-sdd!ncr-sd!tw-rnd!johnl
From: johnl@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM (John Lindwall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Which SCSI interface???
Summary: I got a Supra
Message-ID: <458@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Date: 31 Jul 89 13:57:58 GMT
References: <730001@hpmwmdv.HP.COM>
Organization: NCR Distributed Systems Laboratory
Lines: 66

In article <730001@hpmwmdv.HP.COM>,markv@hpmwtd.HP.COM (Mark VanMeeter) writes:
> I'm interested in getting a SCSI interface for my A1000, but don't have
> enough information to choose from the ones available (e.g., Supra, MAST,
> Microbotics, C-Ltd, and Comspec).  The features most important to me are:
> 

	I have been shopping for a hard drive system for my A1000 for the past
	few months.  I chose the Supra interface, though if did it all over
	again I'd take a close look at the Comspec.

>     - performance (hard drive)
>     - does the provided software driver support a streaming tape drive
>     - reliability
>     - price
> 

	My priorities were:
		1> performance.
		2> degree of technical support.
		3> quality of software.
		4> price.

	Performance

	I just got my drive running 2 days ago.  Performance seems "blah".
	I ran DiskPerf3 to check read/write speed.  I get 95K/sec read
	and 41K/sec write with 1K buffer.  Performance increases with the 8K
	and 32K buffers but read never exceeds 200K and write never exceeds
	90K.  This is on a Quantum 80S, 19 ms ave access time.  Does anyone
	have any advice on getting more speed out of this? I used the
	SupraMount command - I never got to specify interleave :(.  I need to
	examine the problem more closely.

	Tech Support.
	
	Excellent.  It's not too hard to get through and they
	seem knowledgeable and reliable.  I'll try calling them about my
	low performance.

	Software

	Super! It was simple to format and partition the drive.  Many utilities
	are supplied.  I was very impressed.  (The manual is excellent also).

	Price

	I got the Supra from Lightspeed for $200.  Lightspeed has always done
	well by me.  (I originally ordered from MCS but cancelled the order
	because they took too long).

	I dont know if their software supports streaming tape.  You could
	call their tech support to find out: (503) 967-9081.


	Info I gathered from people indicated the Microbotics controller
	was slow and the software was poor (as well as poorly supported).
	As I said before, if I had it all to do over I'd look at the Comspec.
	Apparently it allows auto-booting (!) which non of the other drives
	do.

	Good Luck.


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	"Above opinions are my own, not my employer's"
John Lindwall				 johnl@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM