Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-lcc!styx!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!jade!eris!mwm From: mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Cheap Hard Disks (the competition) Message-ID: <3387@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Thu, 30-Apr-87 02:35:56 EDT Article-I.D.: jade.3387 Posted: Thu Apr 30 02:35:56 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 2-May-87 08:04:18 EDT References: <8704181043.AA14428@cogsci.berkeley.edu> Sender: usenet@jade.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 65 In article <2070@hoptoad.uucp> slc@hoptoad.UUCP (Steve Costa) writes: >Actual retail Prices on the Bernoulli Boxes are MUCH lower than list >prices. Also, that price is for TWO drives, not one! (although I assume >that Leading Edge machine has only one, which is probably why the total >price is low). Opening the March issue of Byte Magazine, I quickly found an >ad with the following prices: > > 10 + 10 Meg. $1595 (these are external boxes with > 20 + 20 Meg. $2095 TWO 10M or 20M drives) Those are undoubtedly the 8" versions. I wondered back into the store today, and was told "we can get you the 5 1/4 20Meg system for $1300." Steve Walton says (in a different article) that he expects them to be around $1500 on the street, though the $3000 retail is right. I was kinda shocked myself, too. I was also told that the price on these creatures will fall over the next couple of months. Dealers are having troubles getting more than one or two of the Leading Edge systems a month, because of those drives. So it's a suppliers market for now. That someone else is starting production on the creatures will help. >If I had confidence that I could run a Bernoulli Box on my Amiga, I would >buy one immediately. I haven't the slightest idea how difficult it would >be to write a driver for it. You ought to be able to take an scsi controller/driver system (Xebec, say, as that's what sitting next to this system), + a bernoulli that speaks scsi, and tweak the mountlist/parameters/whatever file. It shouldn't require writing a driver. But check with whoever you buy it from. >Think of these advantages: > > Speed of conventional hard disks Not quite. It seems that this used to be true, but bernoulli technology hasn't kept up with winchester technology. >I'm flogging this idea, because I hope someone will see the same advantages I >do, and make it possible. My need for mass storage on my Amiga is becoming >critical but I DO NOT WANT TO BUY A CONVENTIONAL HARD DISK! It's gotten bad enough that I can't handle it anymore. I've tweaked mg so I can maintain multiple versions without pain, only to find that the .o files for more than one version don't fit on a disk with sources anymore. And the mg distribution disk had to go to compressed files to get all the sources on. Yuch. Likewise, I'm tired of seeing what I can trim off of my workbench disk to put a new tool on it. I think things have gone more than critical, and I don't have any real objection to a conventional disk any more. I'll probably have bought a disk by the end of the week. In other words, I can't _stand_ not having mass storage anymore. I'll live with the problems of the conventional drive. If the prices on the bernoullis falls fast enough, I'll regret it later. If they stay high, I'll have won. But I hope they go down; especially enough so I can junk the and replace it with a pair of bernoullis.