What is the best CD-RW drive for an Amiga 2000HD?

[DoomMaster]

I am putting together a 3rd Amiga 2000HD.  This one will have Kickstart 3.1 and Workbench 3.9.  I am using an A2091 SCSI Controller card with the 7.0 Boot ROMs and the revision 08 Western Digital Controller IC.  I would like to include a CD-RW drive.  What do you recommend?     :-o

[x56h34]

I've used a Yamaha CRW4416S (SCSI-2 50-pin) with my Amiga 4000 while it had Cyberstorm 68060 Mk.2 in it. It worked like a charm, with no problems. I still have the CD-RW, if you would like to buy it. It is in working condition, and the date stamped on it is January 1999. Not sure how many hours of use is still left in it, but at the moment it works fine.

[DoomMaster]

To x56h34:

I already have a Yamaha CRW4416S CD-RW drive.  It is installed in my 2nd Amiga 2000HD, which has Kickstart / Workbench 2.04.  My goal is to have 3 Amiga 2000HDs in MINT condition.  One has Kickstart / Workbench 1.3 and is dedicated to my over 600 vintage commercial games.  My 2.04 system will be used for music and MIDI, and my 3.9 system will be used for graphics and animation.  So, I need a CD-RW drive that can keep up with the animations.  I already have a Seagate 10,000 RPM fan-cooled hard drive just for my OS 3.9 Amiga 2000HD system.  I also have Commodore's high quality 68030 board.  It blows the doors off the 040 to 060 boards in quality and reliability!  The custom Chips in my new Amiga 2000HD are military grade ICs, even the two 8520s are military grade.  I am looking for military grade quality 256k X 4 DRAM memory ICs and I am willing to pay the price to get them.     :-P

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

What do you recommend?

C'mon, dude.  I recommend you get a life & stop this foolishness.  I can't believe people are still willing to even try responding to your posts with genuine help.  :-?

[x56h34]

Sounds good. :-) It will be kind of hard to track down SCSI-2 mint or new CD-RWs nowadays. You'd probably need a SCSI-3 CD-RW and then use 80-50 or 68-50 pin cable conversions. Make sure you get round cables, too. They are the best.

I've been thinking of getting myself an A2000 just for kicks. I only have A4000 of the big box Amigas at the moment. I have all the necessery extras to upgrade it too. Picasso IV (not sure whether to sell or keep it...and how would I fit it in? I think it doesn't fit in A2000 without some major hacking), 4.3GB SCSI 2 IBM Hard Drive, 10 new OEM packaged 12X Sony SCSI-2 CD-R drives :-), the Yamaha CD-RW I mentioned, even an extra KS3.1 A500/600/2000 ROM...All I'd need would be a nice accelerator with a SCSI controller and RAM (e.g. Blizzard 2040/2060 or A GVP G-Force 030/040) for the entire setup and that's it. I would need a 6.0+ rev A2000 though...wouldn't settle for less than that. Maybe even a 2MB CHIP RAM hack.

[DoomMaster]

To Oldsmobile_Mike:

It sounds like to me that it is YOU that should "get a life & stop the foolishness".

How come you do not have your picture posted for your avatar?  Are you afraid to show the rest of us what you look like?  I do like classic Oldsmobiles though.  They are very nice cars.  I myself have owned a few.  Have fun here on Amiga.Org and stop picking on me.     :-D

[Piru]

I already have a Seagate 10,000 RPM fan-cooled hard drive just for my OS 3.9 Amiga 2000HD system.

10krpm hard disk for A2000/030 system is total overkill, you're not getting full speed out of it anyway. Zorro II bus is capping the transfer speed. 10krpm helps with the seek time however.

BTW. Are you sure it's 10krpm on your A2000HD? According to your previous posts the speed is changing... So is it 8-15krpm or what?

I also have Commodore's high quality 68030 board. It blows the doors off the 040 to 060 boards in quality and reliability!

Have you ever owned 040 ot 060 board? Or where do you get this quality idea from? Lots of CBM hw was totally crap.

For example Blizzard 2060 would be something to consider. It has built-in SCSI controller aswell, that'll eat any Zorro II controller alive.

About the CD-RW, don't bother getting high end drive as your A2000/030 is not fast enough to transfer the data thru Zorro II bus anyway, and even if it was, the CPU is too slow to process the data.

[iamaboringperson]

DoomMaster wrote:
I am putting together a 3rd Amiga 2000HD.  This one will have Kickstart 3.1 and Workbench 3.9.  I am using an A2091 SCSI Controller card with the 7.0 Boot ROMs and the revision 08 Western Digital Controller IC.  I would like to include a CD-RW drive.  What do you recommend?     :-o

Firstly I would recommend you upgrade to a faster SCSI controler, one that is cabable of the high speeds of modern CD-RW drives, the A2091 is probably the slowest and is certainly not recomended for CD writing.
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/a2091.html
Stop barracking for old Commodore products from the 80's, when there are obviously better, faster, more upgradable products from other developers made in more modern times.
I would also reccomend that you upgrade the CPU to somthing that can handle the speed, unless you want to write at slow speeds(1x or perhaps 2x) you will need an 040, or 060, CD writing requires alot of CPU cycles.

[Cyberus]

I think a good solution would be the AdSCSI controller from ICD, www.icd.com

It is relatively cheap, probably good speeds, and can be ordered new from them

[iamaboringperson]

Cyberus wrote:
I think a good solution would be the AdSCSI controller from ICD, www.icd.com

It is relatively cheap, probably good speeds, and can be ordered new from them

The AdSCSI is a TOY!! It's JUNK!!! You need to get a real controller like the A2091!!!! :-D

[miles]

x56h34

quote:
I've been thinking of getting myself an A2000 just for kicks. I only have A4000 of the big box Amigas at the moment. I have all the necessery extras to upgrade it too. Picasso IV (not sure whether to sell or keep it...and how would I fit it in? I think it doesn't fit in A2000 without some major hacking), 4.3GB SCSI 2 IBM Hard Drive, 10 new OEM packaged 12X Sony SCSI-2 CD-R
end
Major hacking?  How does breaking the card in half sound?  The Video
slot on the 2000 is not lined up with the zorro, the flickerfixer bit
is on the back end of the card, you snap it and run a wee cable
between that and the PIV bit!  

Data from orgininal review in old AMiGA mag (AF??), other feel free to
correct if wrong :-)

My Opinion:
It is a spooky thought to snap a Picasso card in half!  A Blizzard 060
PIV and lots a ram makes the 2000 a grunty workhorse.  Go for it!

[miles]

DoomMaster,

Quote:
I already have a Yamaha CRW4416S CD-RW drive. It is installed in my 2nd Amiga 2000HD,
end

Well dude, you have a Yamaha drive that you know how well it works,
put it in the other A2000 and see if it gets the results you want,
unless you have done that already.  If you have tried it was it not
fast enough?  Was it the problem or was the data throughport of your
controller not fast enough?  Could the 030 be the problem?  Might you
need a bit more power to do what you want?

My opinion:
It might be that all these factors combined are the reason you cannot
get the preformance you require or is the drive just too slow?  If the
drive is the "weak" link see if you can get a store with a good return
policy, as SCSI is expensive, but as long as you set SCSI up correctly
any SCSI drive should work.  It might be a different story if the
software you intend to use does not work correctly.  If the drive is
NOT the bottleneck in what you are trying to do then you would do well
to look at a card like the Blizzard 060 with SCSI.

I do hope that I have given you some ideas and maybe some points to
think about.  Do let us know more details of just what you are
attempting and the software being used, someone might be able to offer
more help.

[SilvrDrgn]

DoomMaster wrote:
I am putting together a 3rd Amiga 2000HD.  This one will have Kickstart 3.1 and Workbench 3.9.  I am using an A2091 SCSI Controller card with the 7.0 Boot ROMs and the revision 08 Western Digital Controller IC.  I would like to include a CD-RW drive.  What do you recommend?     :-o

Anything made by Plextor!  I have a Plextor CD-ROM drive and a Plextor CD-RW drive.  Both work flawlessly with MakeCD DAO version.

[DoomMaster]

Thanks guys, you have all been helpful.  I am now looking for a Plextor CD-RW drive on eBay.  I found on eBay some more military grade, high quality custom ICs for the Amiga 2000HD.  They are Paula, Denise, and a 8520 IC.  They have the purple-pink ceramic body and gold-plated legs.  I plan on bidding on these chips.     :-D

[KennyR]

Military grade paula and denise...

...riiiiiiight.