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From: stevel@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Steve Ligett)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: Are "IBM" PCs Ready for SCSI?
Message-ID: <23307@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 24 Jul 90 13:32:01 GMT
References: <23112@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <183@array.UUCP> <1990Jul17.035151.19907@ucselx.sdsu.edu>
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Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
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In article <1990Jul17.035151.19907@ucselx.sdsu.edu> add@sciences.tmc.edu (James D. Murray) writes:
>
>    I use a Future Domain TMC-885 SCSI Host Adapter with a
>Maxtor LXT-200S SCSI drive and I love it!  The system
>really complements my 386-25MHz machine.  Now if I could
>only find a good 60mb internal SCSI tape backup.
> 
>    BTW, the I am dissatisfied with Future Domain itself.  I
>specifically bought the TMC-885 because its on-board floppy
>disk controller will support up to four floppies, any
>combination.  The catch is that your floppies 3 and 4 need a
>special driver in CONFIG.SYS to work.  I have been waiting for
>that driver to be written since November 1989.  Since March
>they've bee been telling me "the driver will be released next
>month.  It's still in Q.C."  It takes 15 minutes to get through
>to the tech. support people only to be given yet another bull
>story to put me off for another month.  

Thanks to the many who responded to my original article!  It appears
that IBM PCs *are* ready for SCSI.  The compatibility and interfacing
problems seem comparable to those people have using SCSI with other
computers.

I chose to buy the Future Domain TMC-885.  Why?  It's not too
expensive, so I had money left to buy the disk drive.  (And there's
the rumor that it will control up to 4 floppy drives (see above).)
I got two prices for the TMC-885:  as TMC-885DNK, a kit with
the board, manuals, and drivers for several operating systems, $350.
As a bare board, $125.  I bought the bare board, hoping they meant it
would come with some documentation.  It came with none.  The
distributor I bought it from, Marshall Industries, doesn't seem to have
any wizards on this stuff.  So, perhaps I should have bought the
expensive package.  I believe there's something in-between, and I hope
to hear from Marshall on that.

For a disk drive, I bought a Fujitsu m2613s.  It's a 3.5", 136
megabyte, 20 ms drive.  My company bought it to resell to Dartmouth
for less than $600.

Thanks again for the advice.  If I have any amazing SCSI adventures,
I'll post a note.
--
steve.ligett@dartmouth.edu or ...!dartvax!steve.ligett