SCSI Compact Flash adapter? Or Acard?

[motorollin]

I'm currently backing up my A4000's SCSI hard disk to a FAT formatted Compact Flash card in an IDE adapter on the internal IDE interface. It is *slow*. Is there any such thing as a Compact Flash to SCSI adapter which I could connect to my MKIII? Alternatively, will a Compact Flash to IDE adapter connected to the MKIII through an Acard IDE->SCSI bridge run significantly faster than the IDE device connected to the A4000's internal IDE interface?

--
moto

[meega]

Most things are significantly faster than the A1200's internal IDE interface.  :-D

[motorollin]

Maybe so, but I'm not using an A1200 :-P

I'm painfully aware that the A4000's internal IDE interface is very slow. I just don't know whether an IDE device will run faster when connected to the SCSI bus, or whether latency introduced by the Acard will negate the benefit. If a native SCSI CF device exists, I'm sure it would outperform the Acard.

--
moto

[meega]

motorollin wrote:
Maybe so, but I'm not using an A1200 :-P

So why did you ask about it?  :lol:

[Piru]

latency introduced by the Acard

There's some latency?

The limiting factor would be the speed of the flash I'd say.

[motorollin]

@meega
Oops! Edited ;-)

@Piru
I don't know whether there is latency or not. My question was, will the Acard with an IDE device connected to the MKIII perform significantly faster than the same IDE device on the A4000 IDE interface. And if a native SCSI adapter exists (CF to SCSI) would that be faster still?

--
moto

[Piru]

if a native SCSI adapter exists (CF to SCSI) would that be faster still?

No. The limiting factor is the flash speed.

[motorollin]

Thanks - that answers part of the question, and fortunately the one which saves me looking for a possibly non-existent piece of hardware :-)

Just want some confirmation that the Acard is significantly faster than the internal IDE adapter before I shell out for one.

--
moto

[Piru]

It is roughly 10 times faster for HDDs (assuming modern IDE HDD, A1200 IDE [A4000 IDE should be the same?] vs CS MK3/PPC UW SCSI).

Again, since the flash is quite slow for writing you will not get as much speedup for it.

[motorollin]

Ok, well that's good enough for me. Thanks.

--
moto

[beller]

Hey Moto..

Have you considered going to a USB interface instead?  There are tons of USB readers out there and it might be faster than the setup you've described.

Just tossin it out there...

Bob

[motorollin]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think USB would be even slower on an Amiga. Also, I have been advised that USB mass storage is not reliable on an Amiga, and since this is for a backup, I would prefer to stick with reliable solutions.

--
moto

[beller]

I've been using a compact flash adapter on the A1200 which is very fast.  Hope you can find a similar solution for the A4000...

Bob

[rkauer]

 If you just want a backup solution, use a CF on the internal IDE.

 That way you save the ACARD costs.

[motorollin]

Umm, that's what I am doing now. It's slow, which is why I want something on the SCSI bus.

--
moto