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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Bamiga2002 on December 16, 2008, 08:47:13 PM

Title: Hard drive converters
Post by: Bamiga2002 on December 16, 2008, 08:47:13 PM: I'm getting ready to part from my old SCSI-harddrive connected to my BPPC due to lack of 80-pin QUIET scsi-hdd's on the market (10000 rpm's is pissing me off). So i've decided to use a converter to connect an IDE or SATA harddisk to my BlizzPPC. Now i've tracked down a couple of possibilities:

1. use an IDE-to-SCSI converter to use IDE HDD's
2. use a SATA-to-SCSI converter to use SATA HDD's
3. use an IDE-to-SCSI converter connected to a SATA-to-IDE converter to use SATA HDD's.

Now i've examined and option 2. is a rather expensive one and i don't know if option 3. works (2 converters connected to each other). Has somebody tried any converters? If then please share your experiences!

Thanks :-)
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: MozzerFan on December 16, 2008, 09:58:00 PM: I'm using a CF-IDE adapter connected to my Cyberscsi through a IDE-SCSI converter.

It brings many advantages:

- The CF card is faster than when I'm using an IDE harddisk with the IDE-SCSI converter
I'm getting ~7.5 MB/s with a 4 GB Sandisk Ultra II CF card. With a Maxtor 40 GB IDE harddisk I got ~6 MB/s.

- It's silent.

- The case of my Amiga 4000 is a lot cooler now

- It uses less power than a harddisk.
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: Bamiga2002 on December 16, 2008, 10:01:15 PM: Damn, never thought of this possibility though i have a CF-IDE adapter on my IDE-port :-)

The problem is the size: i have much stuff on my 36GB SCSI-HD and i don't think there's such a CF card to hold the amount...

But thanks for the idea :-)
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: MozzerFan on December 16, 2008, 10:08:00 PM: i think the largest CF card you can find at the moment is 32 GB.
They're rather expensive though.

Edit: just had a quick look

Saw a Transcend 133x 32 GB CF card for 75€. They might be cheaper in the US.

I think a SCSI-IDE adapter with an IDE harddisk would be the cheapest solution.
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: Bamiga2002 on December 17, 2008, 06:22:02 AM: Ok, thanks. I'll see what choice i run into.
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: kolla on December 17, 2008, 06:33:57 AM: Acard has some nice SCSI-SATA bridges:

http://www.acard.com/english/fbnewprod01.jsp

3.5" cases with various SCSI-interfaces, that you can put 2.5" SATA disks into. :-)
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: Bamiga2002 on December 18, 2008, 12:50:53 PM: AF they are not compatible with BPPC but thx anyway.
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: Darrin on December 18, 2008, 01:40:31 PM: Quote

MozzerFan wrote:
i think the largest CF card you can find at the moment is 32 GB.
They're rather expensive though.

Edit: just had a quick look

Saw a Transcend 133x 32 GB CF card for 75€. They might be cheaper in the US.

$99 for a 32GB one on Tiger Direct (same card as you saw).
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: alexh on December 18, 2008, 01:43:43 PM: One thing to note: Hard drives are much faster than CF cards when it comes to the Cyberstorm PPC / CS MKIII. It's UW SCSI3 is able to run in the 40MB/s region.
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: kolla on December 18, 2008, 02:08:27 PM: Quote

Bamiga2002 wrote:
AF they are not compatible with BPPC but thx anyway.

Sorry, what isnt compatible with BPPC?
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: MozzerFan on December 18, 2008, 02:11:35 PM: Quote
$99 for a 32GB one on Tiger Direct (same card as you saw).

Prices seem to vary a lot. I saw one here (http://computers.pricegrabber.com/flash-memory/m/61755784/) for 68$. Next best price was 78$.
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: BinoX on December 18, 2008, 02:21:08 PM: The Acard SATA to SCSI things work quite well with a CSPPC/CSMKIII, you do have to set them to asyncronous transfer mode sometimes though (At least I had to when I used one)
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: klx300r on December 18, 2008, 02:36:13 PM: go with a CF as your HD...nothing like SILENT computing :-D :pint:
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: pyrre on December 18, 2008, 03:09:07 PM: Have a look here (http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=16) at the botom they have SSD disks. the 32gig disk ain't too expensive.
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: tone007 on December 18, 2008, 06:48:08 PM: CF is fine if you're just playing a few games or something, but if you need real performance you need something more suited to the job, like the SSD or a -gasp- real hard drive.
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: Damion on December 19, 2008, 02:58:02 AM: A good CF card + PFS3 is a wicked combination for classics. 3.9 on my A1200 is booting in a few seconds, Mac filedisks are also lightning fast. Performance will be around the controller's maximum, the SanDisk Extreme IV (http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(2678)-SDCFX4-016G-901-SanDisk_Extreme_IV_CompactFlash_16GB.aspx) should cope even with the CSPPC/MKIII UW-SCSI. ;-)

Advantages: Cheap (in smaller sizes), silent, low temperature, low power consumption, low seek time, longevity, small physical size, performance blows away ancient SCSI/IDE drives typically found in older classics, easily removable for swapping files between computers

Disadvantages: 32MB largest size, still expensive in larger sizes, cost of CF card + adapter for SCSI applications
Title: Re: Hard drive converters
Post by: Bamiga2002 on December 19, 2008, 02:59:16 AM: Quote

Sorry, what isnt compatible with BPPC?
I was referring to a SCSI-SATA converter here:
http://www.acard.com/english/fb01-product.jsp?prod_no=AEC-7730SA&type1_title=SCSIDE%20II%20Bridge&type1_idno=11&idno_no=244

I'm not sure about the compatibility though, anyone have a guess or answer?