*BSD News Article 18330


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From: mark@roissy.umd.edu (Mark Sienkiewicz)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.windows.x.i386unix
Subject: Re: SUMMARY: 486DX2/66 for Unix conclusions (fairly long)
Date: 12 Jul 1993 15:42:24 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland
Lines: 41
Message-ID: <21s0p0$s6q@umd5.umd.edu>
References: <1993Jul12.022002.16965@taylor.uucp> <mr2CA1Az4.J2E@netcom.com> <1993Jul12.122937.20476@taylor.uucp>
NNTP-Posting-Host: roissy.umd.edu

>>: head against it.  Through all the ESDI stuff, MFM stuff, RLL stuff, etc..
>>: SCSI was there, and still is.  It may not be the BEST interface, but it
>>: is the most open, flexible, and standard available (and it's much
>>: better than IDE).

>>IDE might be unacceptable for file servers.  But it's more than adequate
>>for individual stand alone machines.  I'm more than satisfied with my
>>540Meg IDE drives.

I agree with this.

>Yes, you are more than satisfied....  but what are you going to do when you
>need more than 2 hard drives, or want a SCSI CD-ROM or Tape drive or such?

I'm going to buy another IDE controller and attach 2 more IDE disks
to it.  This limits me to 4 disks, compared to 5 for a single SCSI bus
(if the CPU, tape, and CDROM use up 3 of the addresses).  It also saves
me the price difference between a SCSI disk and an IDE disk.

And I'll buy a CDROM drive that plugs into an ISA bus for roughly half
the price of a SCSI CDROM drive.

And I'll try to find a non-scsi tape drive too, but that's a bit harder.
It seems that tape drives now come in 3 forms:
	- attach to the floppy controller and use weird protocols 
	- SCSI
	- direct ISA bus 9-track drives for > $3000
So I may break down and buy a SCSI tape drive and controller for it.  I
don't look forward to spending > $1000 on it, especially when there are
tape drives that cost only $200.

It's all a matter of what is cost effective for the individual.  If you can
afford SCSI disks (and don't have something else you would rather use the
money for) get them.  If you have other priorities, get the IDE disks.


And if someday, you wish you had SCSI, go out and buy some SCSI devices.
The IDE drives will still work in your computer.

Mark S.