Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!srcsip!nic.MR.NET!wilbur!zeke From: zeke@wilbur.unix.ETA.COM (Robert K. Scott) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: large drives for the mac II Summary: Wrens, Swifts, and other fast fowl Message-ID: <4361@wilbur.unix.ETA.COM> Date: 16 Apr 89 00:46:16 GMT References: <8536@csli.STANFORD.EDU> Distribution: usa Organization: The Final Frontier Lines: 39 In article <8536@csli.STANFORD.EDU>, cower@csli.STANFORD.EDU (Richard Cower) writes: > i'm thinking of buying a large >150mb drive for my mac 2. what I'd like to > know is 1. are full height drives a hassle? 2. do full height drives > result in any cooling problems? 3. are the cdc wren drives as good as > rumored? 5. any advantages you know of to the cdc swift drives? 5. do > you think prices will keep drop much over the next couple of months on > these large drives? > i bought my mac with a 40mb internal, as that was all that was available. > i lived with it till now, and given that is is sitting here with it's > bearings screaming...I'm ready to get something else. > Full height drives aren't a hassle if you have room for the cabinet, and the cabinet is cooled adequately. These caveats go for any piece of equipment, however. Wren drives are very good. We use many varieties of Imprimis drives here: ESDI Wrens for our Apollos, SCSI Wrens for our SUNs, and the bigger Sabre and Hydra drives for our supercomputers. The only difference between the Swift and the Wren that I know of is the size, 3.5" versus 5.25". The Wrens and the Swifts have parking and locking heads (auto park and lock on any kind of power down), high MTBF, and fast seek times. I don't expect prices on large hard drives to drop much for awhile. Prices usually drop when a new technology (larger sizes, significantly faster seeks) goes into production, and I don't see that happening for the next while. Most of the price fallout from last year's overproduction is done, and the healthy drive makers are very stable right now, so I don't see any price relief on the way from market forces either. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Extra zesty disclaimer: MINE! MINE! ALL MINE! Robert K. "Zeke" Scott internet: zeke@sunfun.eta.com voice: (612) 642-3493 uucp: {amdahl,rutgers}!bungia!eta!sunfun!zeke snail: ETA Systems, Inc. ETC03J, 1450 Energy Park Drive, St. Paul, MN 55108