Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!rutgers!husc6!husc4!hadeishi
From: hadeishi@husc4.harvard.edu (mitsuharu hadeishi)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: disk drive step rate, noise
Message-ID: <339@husc6.HARVARD.EDU>
Date: Mon, 6-Oct-86 18:21:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: husc6.339
Posted: Mon Oct  6 18:21:23 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Oct-86 00:16:15 EDT
References: <150@ingr.UUCP> <3874@amdahl.UUCP>
Sender: news@husc6.HARVARD.EDU
Reply-To: hadeishi@husc4.UUCP (mitsuharu hadeishi)
Distribution: net
Organization: Harvard Science Center
Lines: 31
Summary: Consolation for loud drive owners


In article <3874@amdahl.UUCP> Tony Sumrall writes:
>In article <150@ingr.UUCP> streeter@ingr.UUCP writes:
>>  I purchased my Amiga in November 85, at the same time a friend
>> purchased his.  I was immediately disturbed by the noise the
>> diskette drives make while moving the heads.  ...
>My drives are considerably noisier than the drives on my friends machines
>and, I agree, they have a different insert-eject feel to them.  My wife
>thinks that my drives are so noisy that she's sentenced us both to a back
>room!  I got my machine in mid-December.

	The early drives were NEC, the later drives are Mitsubishi (I think).
However, it turns out the NEC drives are somewhat more reliable than the
Mitsubishi, based on hearsay evidence (i.e., Electronic Arts people
found more head alignment problems and inconsistencies between various
Mitsubishi drives than between NEC drives.)  In fact some would go so far
as saying the Mitsubishi drives were notoriously unreliable (under the
very heavy wear-and-tear the drives undergo at EA; i.e., lots of disk
ejections and insertions.)

	Hitachi drives are also quiet, and they are completely
compatible with the drives in your Amigas.  You can get them for
about $100 apiece (without cable or case.)  However, the screw holes
for the internal and external drives are in different places (even though
the drive mechanisms are identical) so I assume a generic 3 1/2"
drive may have screw holes in any old place.  However, I know people
have put Hitachi drives into their Amigas and gotten a LOT quieter
operation.  I don't know if the Hitachi drives are better or worse
than Mitsubishi regarding head alignment and reliability in general.

			-Mitsu