Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!leah!bingvaxu!bingsund.cc.binghamton.edu!consp13
From: consp13@bingsund.cc.binghamton.edu (Marcus Cannava)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A590 Drive
Message-ID: <2573@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
Date: 24 Oct 89 14:13:12 GMT
References: <1171@jtsv16.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu
Reply-To: consp13@bingsund.cc.binghamton.edu (Marcus Cannava)
Organization: SUNY Binghamton
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In article <1171@jtsv16.UUCP>, brian@jtsv16.UUCP (Brian A. Jarvis) writes:
> 
> Of late, funds considering, I have been mulling over the possibility
> of investing some money in a hard drive for my Amiga 500.  I've been
> leaning towards the A590 model from Commodore, but would like to
> hear something (*anything*) from people who have already made the
> great leap and have some experience with the beast.
> 
> 1)  How much does it cost in the U.S.?  Saturday, I was quoted $940 and
>     $899 Canadian ($800, $765 American, respectively).

	I have purchased the A590 drive, one of the first, and I wholeheartedly
support it. It is one of
the easiest, fastest drives for the 500, it has excellent support
software, and uses standard memory
chips to expand the internal (fast RAM) memory.

	Price: I paid $599 from Go Amigo, a mail-order house in California
(1-800-BE-AMIGA)


> 2)  How reliable is the thing?  After all, what good is a 20 Mb drive when
>     15 Mb are mapped out as bad blocks...

	I have no bad blocks yet (6 months of use), and it's purring like a
kitten. It has its own
power supply brick, so you don't have to worry about overloading the
Amiga 500's already overtaxed 
power supply.

> 3)  What sort of warranty is Commodore putting on the thing?  The usual
>     90 days?  Any other exceptional notations?

	The usual 90 days. Nothing exceptional.

> 4)  A while ago, someone posted a note on exactly what kind (type, speed)
>     of RAM was required for the machine to bring it up to 2 Mb.  Could
>     some kind soul reiterate?

	No idea. Any takers?

> 5)  Has anyone heard if Commodore is planning a similar drive with a larger
>     capacity, say, 40 Mb?  It would seem to be the next logical step.
> 
	
	Commodore has introduced the 590 as a side-effect of purchasing a LOT
of hard drives from Epson, originally intended to be used in Epson
laptop computers (which have fallen by the wayside, as all Epson
computers eventually seem to do..)
	Anyway, Commodore wants to use these drives in the new Amiga laptop (I
believe, the Arrow, but I
could be mistaken on the name..), and continue to produce 590's. All
these drives are 20 megs, and Commodore
has no plans to manufacture/purchase any other drives.

	Overall, the A590 is a fantastic deal. I've found 20 megs to be plenty
for a few applications
programs, a nice storage area for data files, etc., and maybe even a
game or two.. (I have Larn installed,
so now I'll never get any work done! :-)  )  It is available for $599,
although I've seen it commonly
priced around $799, so any price inbetween those is a good one. (U.S. Dollars)

	Hope this helps.

					\marc