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From: dtw@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Hard drive comparison
Message-ID: <38@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 17-Feb-87 02:14:30 EST
Article-I.D.: f.38
Posted: Tue Feb 17 02:14:30 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Feb-87 05:52:33 EST
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 55
Keywords: The Macintosh Journal DataFrame Jasmine Hard Drives

The latest issue of The Macintosh Journal contains reviews of 13 SCSI hard
disk drives for the Macintosh.  Anyone considering purchasing a drive should
read this issue.  Considering how popular the DataFrame 20 has been, I paid
special attention to how it compared with the much less expensive Jasmine
Direct Drive 20.

According to The Macintosh Journal the DataFrame and the Jasmine
perform about the same speedwise.  They did several different kinds of
tests and came up with a "normalized, general-purpose speed rating".
On a scale from 0 to 20 the top performers were:

	HardMac+	18.03
	DataFrame 20	17.23
	Jasmine		16.56
	DataFrame XP	16.04
	Apple HD 20 SC	15.40

Notice that the older, cheaper, and faster DataFrame 20 did notably better
than the newer, more expensive, DataFrame XP!  The Jasmine is only a few
percent slower than the DataFrame 20.

The main disadvantage of the Jasmine, relative to the DataFrame, seems
to be that it is noisier.  The DataFrame is described as "relatively
quiet" while the Jasmine is described as "rather noisy".  TMJ measured
peak noise levels in decibels one inch from the surfaces of each of the
drives.  Roughly, here are the measurements for some of the drives they
tested:

	Ehman			< 60	(didn't do well speedwise)
	Peripheral Land		< 60	(didn't do well speedwise)
	Internal Floppy		60
	DataFrame		60-65
	Jasmine			68
	HardMac+		65-70
	Apple HD 20 SC		70

Prices vary considerably, but here is what TMJ paid for some of the
drives:

	Jasmine Direct Drive 20		$ 589
	HardMac+ 20			$ 995
	DataFrame 20			$1099
	DataFrame XP			$1299
	Apple HD 20 SC			$1299

Hard drives that they DO NOT recommend, for various reasons, include:

	Ehman Engineering Ehman HD-20
	Rabbit Industries Magic 20
	Mirror Technologies Magnet 20X
	Relax Technology MacMate 20

Although The Macintosh Journal has had a shaky publication history, they
have, thus far, published the most thoughtful reviews of any of the Mac
publications I've seen.