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From: truesdel@ics.uci.edu (Scott Truesdell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Is an(y) Apple Hard Disk better than any others?
Message-ID: <1989Oct7.034406.9948@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Date: 7 Oct 89 03:44:06 GMT
References: <MDH.89Sep18115059@frieda.mitre.org> <1989Oct3.011412.2789@paris.ics.uci.edu> <1989Oct4.044057.19765@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us> <1989Oct4.201337.27854@paris.ics.uci.edu> <1989Oct5.090136.5467@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us> <1989Oct5.183440.18094@paris.ics.uci.e
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> The Mac has it all over the PC for true
>dragability--size and weight too.  But I get a mite worried about the
>power supplies with all that in there.

  <Ulp!>  Hear! Hear!

> If your 5 and 12 Volts don't
>vary (usual first sign of power supply error in "classic" [?!] Macs is
>the screen jitters) much (1/2%?  1%?) with all that plugged in--go for it.  

I don't know about the Pluses, but the SEs may be adjusted for output
under load: a good idea after even such a small modification as a
memory upgrade.

>All you CMS users out there, beware: CMS was, for over 8 months, using a
>35-watt power supply in their external 80meg (Seagate ST-277N) drives,
>which take about 75 Watts at startup.  The result is predictable:
>KA-BLOOIE! drives.  Fried beyond repair.
>They kept it pretty quiet, no recalls or anything.
>If you have one of 'em, see if it's got a Skynet supply board.  If so,
>you should contact CMS.

See, everybody? This is just one more horror story  in a [still]
emerging consumer market. Until there gets to be a Good Computing Seal
of Approval or some kind of watchdog agency to declare products at
least reasonably engineered, we'll always experience goofs like this.
<flame> <flame>

In the Golden era of computing, or even today, still, in the mainframe
and technical and business oriented machines (you know, the ones
costing over 6 digits?) the mfgs wouldn't dream of letting their
reputation be smirched by something so trivial to deal with. From an
engineering standpoint, THESE ISSUES ARE TRIVIAL.

>(backpedal backpedal, sounds of coughing and shuffling) I have re-
>re-considered this.  The Seagates are,
>despite my constant grotching about commodity drives, not bad.  

Case in point: all those cheap ST-225s out there in PC clones that
basically just keep on tickin'.

> [various comments about experience and where the state of the art
> lies in small drives...] So I'm stuck for a recommendation within my
> experience.  So I mentioned Seagate.

McConnathy repeated states to me and others that, when not DOA, the
Seagates remain the most reliable in their price range. Their solution
at MicroNet: burn the daylights out of them on the test bench before
they ship 'em. Results: very few returns (says Charles).

>[Conners has] some brilliant engineers.  I'm just not sure they let them
>make engineering decisions.

Hear! Hear! Engineers DO NEED Marketing to tell them when it's soup.
The demands of the marketplace in ANY industry will always carry out
this tug of war between Engineering and Marketing. For engineers, the
journey is the reward, and what they learn in the process of bringing a
product to life usually instantly obsoletes the current project. They
understand this and look foreward to the next project where they can
bring their newfound knowledge and experience to bear.

Marketing, on the other hand, no matter what the industry, tends to
lean towards the used car salesman mentality. That's why when "we" go
into computer stores (or wherever) we tend to shun places where the
salespeople decend on us like greasy pirranah and instead gravitate
towards the back where the tech is busy burning his or her fingertips
on a soldering iron. :^)

>Is anyone interested in this stuff, or should Scott and I take it to
>mail?

  Yea!  <babble> <babble>

Anyway, I would guess we've about thrashed it to death anyway.

  --scott

--
Scott Truesdell