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From: minich@d.cs.okstate.edu (Robert Minich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: SCSI CD-ROM
Message-ID: <1990Dec22.174554.8177@d.cs.okstate.edu>
Date: 22 Dec 90 17:45:54 GMT
References: <60182@brunix.UUCP>
Organization: Oklahoma State University
Lines: 42

[The names have been deleted to protect no one]
|>No!  The NEC CDR-35 seems to be one of the most poorly behaved CD-ROM 
|>drives around. A friend has one, and though neither he nor I has a NeXT
|>(or access to a NeXT, for that matter), it has rarely even worked on his
|>Mac IIci (the first one didn't -- it worked on his [I think it was a Plus
|>or SE, but I'm not sure] but stopped working when he got his IIci; the
| 
| Well, it might as well be the case that Apples non-standard SCSI-bus
| hit you guys.
| I have heared [sic] quite some stories on the non standard behavior of
| the Mac SCSI bus. Does anyone have better info on this?

  I would be interested to hear some truth. Stories are often cute but
more often are uninformative.

| I really wonder if the NEC drive is doomed or the Mac SCSI bus.
| Considering that NeXT will only offer internal drives and that I could
| need another CD-player that is portable, the NEC option sounds not too
| bad, if it works that is...

  First off, this NEC drive is not really designed as a CD ROM player.
It's slow 1500ms avg seek time* is truly pitiful and a posting in one of
the Mac groups sometime last spring pretty much declared the poor thing
dead on the drawing board. Just having it connected to the SCSI bus was
causing the flamers hard disk to slow to a crawl. If you are going to get
a CD ROM and assuming you don't have the disk space to just copy a full CD
onto a more reasonable device, spend your money a bit more wisely and buy
the fastest model you can that otherwise meets your requirements. A really
good one will have a 350-500ms access time and even that will make ODs
look spiffy. Somehow, hooking one of these up to a NeXT would be like
putting El Cheapo retreads on a formula one car. :-|
  I invite anyone who has had first hand experience with this drive to
comment. Personally, the cited posting above is enough to steer me clear
of even thinking about trying the thing out. If you want to, take a heap
of salt and make sure there is some sort of money back guarantee!

* From MacWorld, December 1989, apparently regurgitating NEC's data
-- 
|_    /| | Robert Minich            |
|\'o.O'  | Oklahoma State University| "I'm a newcomer here, but does the
|=(___)= | minich@d.cs.okstate.edu  |  net ever lay any argument to rest?"
|   U    | - Ackphtth               |                    -- dan herrick