Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mailrus!wuarchive!decwrl!ucbvax!agate!saturn!helios!terry
From: terry@helios.ucsc.edu (Terry Ricketts)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: A few simple questions...
Summary: some answers
Keywords: A2058, A2091, A2500/30, educational, discount, SCSI
Message-ID: <10938@saturn.ucsc.edu>
Date: 2 Mar 90 21:12:05 GMT
References: <999@contex.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@saturn.ucsc.edu
Reply-To: terry@helios.ucsc.edu (Terry Ricketts)
Distribution: usa
Organization: UCO/Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz
Lines: 66

In article <999@contex.UUCP> jeff@contex.UUCP (Jeff Carey) writes:

>The A2000/2/PC System (bundle) seems to be enough to suit
>me except for two things:

>1.  This system doesn't come with a hard-drive.  My questions
>    are:
>    a.  Do I need to add-on the purchase of the A2091-40 or
>        are there other, compatible controllers available ?
>
>    b.  Is the A2091 controller SCSI-compatible, and what
>        are the implications?  (I'd really like to know this.)

	I just ordered the A2000HD/PC. It comes with the hard drive. If you 
want a hard drive the A2091 is available for $589 at the educational discount.
The hard disk can be mounted on the card leaving room in the front for both
amiga internal drives and one PC 5 1/4 drive. That's how my system is set up.
The controller is SCSI compatible and has a connector on the rear panel for
extending the SCSI bus to other devices. I don't know what you mean about
implications. This does mean that you must use SCSI drives if you want to add
more. There are other compatible controllers and drives; but if you are going
with the educational discount the 2091 is your best bet. It also allows up to
2Meg of fast ram to be added to the controller card. You might consider going
with the A2000HD/PC system instead if you really want a hard drive. The AT
bridge board is much better than the XT unit in the cheaper system.

>2.  This system doesn't come with additional memory.  I question,
>    similarly:
>    a.  Do I need to add-on the purchase of the A2058 or
>        are there other, compatible memory expansion boards
>        available ?

	There is 1 Meg of chip ram on the mother board. If you get the A2091
hard disk controller it will have space for another 2 Megs of fast ram. The
bridgeboard takes some additional memory space (I believe it is 2 Megs). There
is only 3 to 4 Megs of space left, so the 2058 is overkill. If you need more
than 3 Megs there are other add on boards that will provide 2 Megs.

>1.  How many drives can fit within the 2000 chassis ?
>    The above mentioned bundle comes with 2 internal
>    floppies, will I have to pull one to fit a hard drive
>    inside ?

	There is room in the chassis for 3 drives in the front. The hard disk
can mount in the front in one of those three places, or it can be mounted on
the 2091 controller card. If you move it to the card you need to do a new
low level format in that position.

>2.  Can the controller for a floppy drive also "control"
>    a hard drive ? Is the floppy drive controller SCSI-
>    compatible ?

	The floppy disks are controlled by the mother board (internally). You
can add external floppy disks, but they are also controlled by the mother
board. There is no extra floppy controller as in IBM pc's. The floppys are
not SCSI.

>2.  What is the difference between an Amiga containing
>    the A2500/30 CPU and another Amiga 2000 with the A2630
>    board installed ?

	None that I know of.

	Hope this helps.

					Terry