CD solution for A1200?

[Abou27]

Hello everyone,

  I have an A1200 with Blizzard 1230 IV 50Mhz 32Mb and a 2.1gig internal harddrive.  I would like to add a CD drive but am wondering what the cheapest or easiest way would be.  I remember in the old days Archos used to do a PCMCIA drive - anyone ever hear of these popping up on eBay these days?  I'm not looking for the speed of modern drives - an ancient 2x would do me!  It is just a matter of attaching it.  Would it be very difficult to daisychain an IDE drive with the harddrive (and, if not, would I be able to use any cheap, modern drive I could find)?
I am guessing the best solution would be to get a SCSI controller for the Blizzard (though, how difficult is it to source SCSI CD drives?).  Again, do these ever appear on eBay or does any company still sell them?

So, in summary, what's the best way of attaching a CD drive (speed immaterial) to my A1200?

As always, any suggestions would be most welcome! :-)

As you can probably see, I have thoroughly confused myself considering the possibilities!

[x56h34]

Best solution:

Blizzard SCSI-IV kit w/ external SCSI-2 CD drive.

Other solutions:

Squirrel SCSI PCMCIA, CD1200 PCMCIA (use an internal ATAPI CD-drive by installing IDE-fix package).

[downix]

SCSI is still in heavy use ya know.  4th gen SCSI is coming soon even.

But you can get a PCMCIA SCSI controller as well and opt for that.  Or buy a USB internal card for your 1200 or for the PCMCIA slot and use a USB CD-ROM.

[Abou27]

@x56h34

The Blizzard SCSI kit is my preferred solution but do you think it is realistic to hope to find someone prepared to sell one?

I had forgotten about the Squirrel.  How many devices could you attach to that?

Cheers

[x56h34]

Last time I checked AmigaSuperBit had them in stock.

Squirrel supports 7 devices, the same as Blizzard SCSI.

[Abou27]

Cheers, I'll check it out.  I'm a bit wary of them, though.  Waiting on an order for 7 weeks now.  To be fair, they have responded quickly to e-mails and tell me TNT lost my parcel, so I can't really be too judgemental.  I hope they come up with the goods, though, as they seem to have so much that can't be found elsewhere!  If my current order is fulfilled, I will definitely see if they still have the Blizzard kits.

[x56h34]

That's the price we are forced to pay sometimes, nowadays, as there are very few Amiga dealers left. They pretty much can do what ever they want. :-(

[Abou27]

That's true (some interesting prices out there!) but I suppose we shouldn't grumble - we are lucky to have any dealers still supplying 'Classic' Amiga hardware.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that AmigaSuperBit turn out to be as good as they look!

[voytech]

No need of using scsi, you just need to get 2,5"->3,5" cable or something like this (with this interface you can hook up to 4 drives)

2,5" to 3,5" cable is the cheapest solutin I think, and you can connect every IDE ATAPI drive, even CDRWs, and burn own CDs! :-D

[Abou27]

This is also interesting.  Are there any issues with cable length?

[x56h34]

@voytech:

No way to make a clean solution with A1200D by using those. If he's up for drilling some holes in the casing then it's the best option. :-)

[Abou27]

@x56h34 (ed or voytech, of course) (a somewhat unecessary line)

With the IDE interface Voytech suggested, could you sqeeze it in a desktop and feed cables though side?  I don't object to holing my A1200 but would like the case to sort of fasten together alright so keyboard stays steady and it doesn't look a complete mess :-D

Been reading old posts about converting to tower but bit daunting :nervous:

[Wolfe]

You could try doing something like this:

A1200 with internal CD. :-)

[voytech]

Abou27 wrote:

Are there any issues with cable length?

As far as I know, up to 50cm - I used such cable once without  any problems.. And yes. You would probably need to cut some of your case. I did some work with a file on the left side of my case (very small hole just about a 1 or 2 mm), and the cable is coming out to CDROM lying next to my miggy..
BTW my friend has got this eide interface (it fits in standard case), and I must say it works great with 4 drives (2 HDDs, CDROM, and CDRW), it even speeds up a little the hdds..

 :-D

[Jose]

u can also use one of those SCSI to IDE adapters. DMA with the SCSI kit really improves things for stuff like playing videos.