CF versus SCSI disk

[Nostalgiac]

Hi people,

I use a 2060' SCSI controller with an 850Mb Quantum disk (plenty big) and could stick a 2Gb in if I could be bothered.

But I now also have a Buddha IDE controller with a CF card converter with 2gb card.

Now... what would be faster ? Any thoughts ?

cheers
Tom

[Lockon_15]

CF on IDE will hit Zorro2 bus limit at 3.5Mbyte/ps and bring CPU performance penalty since it is non-DMA disk controller.

SCSI2 onboard 2060 has taller "ceiling" at 7Mbyte/ps or even more, but then it all depends on maximum sustained transfer within HDD. SCSI drives of that class had minimum sustained transfer rate of 3.2 - 3.5 Mbyte/ps.

This could be a tie...

However, you might get away with it if you get SCSI-to-IDE bridge and then add IDE-to-CF part on top of it. In that case you would benefit from best features of both 2 worlds:
- CF lower power consumption
- CF lower heat signature
- CF lower noise level
- CF higher shock resistance (transport)
- CF lower replacement costs
- SCSI interface highest speed on Amiga
- SCSI interface frees CPU from stealing cycles

[Nostalgiac]

ouch... so based on that I should not have bothered with the Buddha IDE controller in the first place :-(

tx
Tom

[Piru]

Correct. Anything connected to Zorro2 bus will suck (speedwise).

[Darrin]

I have a Buddha and it's always useful to be able to just yank old CD ROM drives or old hard drives out of PCs and use them on your A2000.  I've got a room full of old IDE devices, but to get any SCSI stuff I either have to pay retail prices or play on eBay.

[Nostalgiac]

well... I work for a shall we say "coffee IT" company, and have access to SCSI stuff for free ... I got SCSI cd-rom and writers + harddisk plenty - so I guess my venture into Buddha/CF was a not so well informed mistake :-(

tx
Tom

[Darrin]

Don't forget that it has an A1200 clock port on it (well, mine does) so there's plenty of other add-ons that you can use with it while using SCSI devices via your other SCSI board.

[golem]

Darrin
You like a the Kates bush eh?

She's up there with the best of them.

[Darrin]

golem wrote:
Darrin
You like a the Kates bush eh?

She's up there with the best of them.

I lusted after her through the 70s and 80s (and the 90s... and...)   ;-)

Her Greatest Hits video CD was one of the first titles I purchased for use on my CD32+FMV.  I think The Kick Inside is still her best album though.   :-)

[golem]

Her first album I never got to know but Wuthering Heights is brilliant and I'm not a homosexual. I think her following albums up until The Red Shoes were all outstanding for their time. She will always be uber-hot I agree.
Back to topic..how comparable is the IDE interface on an A1200 to a Buddha through Zorro2 on a 2000?

[Darrin]

golem wrote:
Her first album I never got to know but Wuthering Heights is brilliant and I'm not a homosexual. I think her following albums up until The Red Shoes were all outstanding for their time. She will always be uber-hot I agree.

Neither am I - what are you insinuating?  

Back to topic..how comparable is the IDE interface on an A1200 to a Buddha through Zorro2 on a 2000?

:-o   ;-)  :lol: [/quote]

Good question.  To be honest, I've never really bothered measuring the speeds on my A1200s, A2000 or A3000.  My main A1200T has the Power Flyer Gold IDE device in it and that is "supposed" to be fast, however when booting off a hard drive on either a plain A1200, my A1200T  or SCSI/IDE drives on my A2000/A3000 then I really can't tell.  Let's face it, compared to the amount of data we load for Workbench compared to the never ending flood of data required for Windows, what's an extra second or two?  :-)

I'm at work for the next 4 weeks, but when I get home I'll probably test the drives on the different machines.  You've made me curious now.

[golem]

Darrin wrote:

golem wrote:
Her first album I never got to know but Wuthering Heights is brilliant and I'm not a homosexual.

Neither am I - what are you insinuating?  

:lol:

Darrin wrote:
Good question.  To be honest, I've never really bothered measuring the speeds on my A1200s, A2000 or A3000.  My main A1200T has the Power Flyer Gold IDE device in it and that is "supposed" to be fast, however when booting off a hard drive on either a plain A1200, my A1200T  or SCSI/IDE drives on my A2000/A3000 then I really can't tell.  Let's face it, compared to the amount of data we load for Workbench compared to the never ending flood of data required for Windows, what's an extra second or two?  :-)

I hear what you're saying dude.  :-)
I don't really notice a speed difference between loading drawers on my SCSI device or on my IDE hard drive either (even with a CPU intensive task in the background)

[Darrin]

golem wrote:I hear what you're saying dude.  :-)
I don't really notice a speed difference between loading drawers on my SCSI device or on my IDE hard drive either (even with a CPU intensive task in the background)

Exactly.  Although we all keep getting bombarded with maximum transfer rates and the like, in the real world it makes very little difference to the average user.  In all honesty, the only major differences I've ever seen is when using a removable media drive (such as a ZIP or ORB) drive as a boot device rather than a "real" hard drive.  I used to use my SCSI Orb on both my A2000 and A3000 for a while (using different cartridges for each machine), but now I use it as a 2nd drive for data and to back up the boot hard drive since you can boot from it if the main hard drive fails, reformat the hard drive and then drag the data Orb to the HD.  If only restoring a PC was so quick and easy  :-D

[Cass]

OT - Kate Bush related:

I particularly liked the Within Temptation`s "Running Up That Hill" Cover. Sharon den Adel RoX !

[Zac67]

OMG - I particularly dislike that one, sorry. Placebo's is a lot better, they messed up on the refrain though.