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From: CJENKINSR@cc.cut.oz.au (Richard Jenkins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Infinity Turbo-Floppy 1.4
Message-ID: <4137.271f6609@cc.curtin.edu.au>
Date: 19 Oct 90 12:46:00 GMT
References: <77800031@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Lines: 42

In article <77800031@m.cs.uiuc.edu>, gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
> 
> Has anyone got experience with the following product (p40 of
> MacWarehouse catalogue)
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Infinity Turbo-floppy 1.4:  Connects to any SCSI-equipped mac,
> provides 1.44 Mb of storage (like Apple's FDHD drives), but with the
> high speed data transfer of the SCSI port.  Can also read, write, and
> format DOS disks, so you can transfer data to and from PCs  $359.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Q1:  Is this floppy drive fully-compatible with FDHD-initialized floppies?
> 
> Q2:  Is it really any faster than a FDHD drive?
> 
> Q3:  Has anyone tried installing this within an original Mac II?
> 
> 
> Don W. Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
> 1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
> ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies
-- 

We looked at these at their introduction, but were not impressed. 
The drive I saw (it may be different in the US, I don't know)
has its own external power supply (another black box under the desk) and does
not appear to read 400k or 800k disks. I can't speak for the speed of the
thing, but I can't see a real advantage in putting an apparently standard drive
in a box with a SCSI interface. We only use PLI or Apple drives, but we won't 
use that one.

It's OK for Mac Plus owners with plenty of money. If I were a Mac Plus owner
with plenty of money I'd buy a Classic instead.

BTW, the Apple external superdrive price dropped in Australia on October 16, so
you can buy an 800k drive or a 1.44Mb drive for the same price. How is it in
the U.S. and elsewhere?
_______________________________________________________________________________
Richard Jenkins          Tel: (09) 351 7864                  AppleLink:AUST0176
Curtin Computer Shop     Fax: (09) 351 2673                 QMail:(09) 351 7415
Curtin University     Perth, Western Australia       cjenkinsr@cc.curtin.edu.au