Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!sei!godot!eberger
From: eberger@godot.psc.edu (Ed Berger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Trump 500 w/ Ram expansion
Summary: Amiga 500 hardrive solutions
Keywords: Trump, Cltd, Supra, A590, &RAM
Message-ID: <732@godot.psc.edu>
Date: 17 Jan 90 15:21:08 GMT
References: <111400077@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: eberger@godot.UUCP (Ed Berger)
Organization: Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
Lines: 72

In article <111400077@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> jhc00614@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>
>     I have just recently purchased the Trumpcard 500 and I have a few
>questions and answers for anybody interested.

I was considering the Trumpcard 500 when I went shopping for a hardrive.
It seems to be the answer for someone who NEEDS Amax support now.
The patch was supposedly on PeopleLink (where everything else seems to be).

>     Lastly, how fast is it compared to other A500 hard drive systems?  

I've heard that it is comparable, You're not going to get super high 
performance without an accelerated Amiga, the drive probably has about
the most effect, not the controller & software unless they're really bad...

Here's whats wrong with the TrumpCard 500:
==========================================
>     Now, maybe I can help somebody as well.  I have just purchased the
>Meta 4 card w/ 0K from Briwall for $165.  I have purchased two 1X8 80NS 
>SIMMS from Micro Electronic Tech. of MA at 508-435-9057 for $80 a piece

So to add 2M of RAM it costs you ~$320.
To add 2M of RAM to the A590 cost me ~$158.50 (all you need is the chips)
To add 2M of RAM to a Supra/500 or Pacific Periphs costs ~$269
(of course thats all you can add, not 4M RAM)

>addition, I purchased a separate power supply because it is necessary if
>you add extra ram. 

I was wondering how they handled that, its never mentioned in the Ads.
I figured it needed external power, everyone else does....
I was hoping it used another ZorroII slot for ram so if you upgrade to a 2000
your RAM can follow you; but I've heard that it is a proprietary card???
Supra and I guess Pac.Periph. use power from you're hardrive supply, which
you must furnish if you buy only the controller.
 
> USEFUL Info on power supply hookup deleted....

>     All I can say, is that the Trumpcard is a fine little hard drive though
>the extra power supply and muffin fan I bought for it along w/ the set up
>time was a bit more than I planned on spending money or time on in buying it
>but I considered the Xetec, A590 and Impact before deciding on it.  

I do think they go out of the way to make the inital price seem great.
But if you add multiple partitions, or hardrives to you're controller you'll
want to add at least 512K, to have 1M left for applications.
People considering a hardrive upgrade have to look at the overall system
that is required to figure out the price.  It may be easier to buy one piece
at a time.

My brother-n-law got a Cltd (non-Kronos), and had to return it twice, before
he got a working example. He had to buy a power supply and case for his used
SCSI drive, and the software FedX didn't support it, making life all the more
difficult. It was an obscure drive, but they did support its larger brothers.
Supra does not support it either, but the A590 software justs asks the drive
for info, and works wonderfully.  At least the Cltd software could ask the
drive, and tell you (so you can figure it out), the supra would leave you 
guessing if you got an unsupported drive without info from the mfr. And then
you have to manually enter it everytime you run Supra-Format (No Save data) 
That turns out to be 3 times to configure the drive. (you're forced to reboot 
and run SupraFormat again... The best software... Sure...)

>Oh yeah,
>I also considered the Infinity Machine by MAST but after getting BS and one
>excuse after another since November, I decided I didn't have an INFINITY and
>went with something that exists.

That was the most obvious vaporware Ad I've ever seen!

-Ed Berger
eberger@b.psc.edu