Who here agrees this is the worst technology...

[freqmax]

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz22.htm

What is that adapter for GVP-HD+ for?

[gertsy]

What sort of transfer rates would you get through the PCMCIA port? I guess faster than a IDE hard disk could handle.

[Fransexy_]

What sort of transfer rates would you get through the PCMCIA port? I guess faster than a IDE hard disk could handle.

16 bit PCMCIA on PC has a max theorical transfer rate of 32 MB/s, on Amiga PCMCIA you get 3-5 MB/s if i remember well

[duga]

How about a cable from the motherboard thorough the plastic chassi to an external 3,5" drive?

Looks silly.

[duga]

What is that adapter for GVP-HD+ for?

Power.

[kickstart]

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Commodore-AMIGA-1200-OVERDRIVE-External-PCMCIA-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-170-MB-Mo-/281194526580

Who here agrees that if someone owns an A1200 that he should never buy this? Why? Well, simply put A1200 already have an IDE port inside the motherboard....second...you lose your PCMCIA for a harddrive that could have being used for something more important than a harddrive.

Though....it does look sexy and elegant...it is a useless device. Unless people want to mimic Amiga 500 but with AGA capacity and does not mind their Amiga have no access to the internet.

You can put two IDE devices into the a1200 internal IDE, its too easy... if you uses the PCMCIA port with external harddisk, sample or whatever you cant use it with another PCMCIA at the same time, your post is a bit empty.

[Thorham]

Looks silly.

Indeed, but I rather have a large 3.5 inch HD and a nice 22 speed DVD rewriter any day of the week, even if it does look silly :p

[psxphill]

and does not mind their Amiga have no access to the internet.

That is what the serial port is for.
 
There are pro's and con's to using a PCMCIA hard drive.

[ferrellsl]

Looks silly.

It looks no more silly than the A1000 Sidecar or all the other external HD and memory  enclosures for the A500 and A1000.

And it's no more silly than all the external CD-ROMs that were connected to most Amigas.  It seems that no one here thinks external CD drives are ridiculous but they want to point fingers at external hard drives.  It doesn't make sense.

[Thorham]

That is what the serial port is for.

Not anymore, or where you talking about back in the day?

[som99]

16 bit PCMCIA on PC has a max theorical transfer rate of 32 MB/s, on Amiga PCMCIA you get 3-5 MB/s if i remember well

Depends on what hardware you put there I guess, have not speed tested a CF or hard drive there but 3-5MB/s? seems fast, ive gotten about 400KB/s at most with peripherals added to the PCMCIA.

[scuzzb494]

What is that adapter for GVP-HD+ for?

The adaptor is for the Overdrive and not the GVP. The Overdrive takes its power from the diskdrive port on the back of the Amiga. Bit like the VidiAmiga and other such equipment. The GVP also needs a power supply and sadly too many are sold on Ebay without them so always check what power supply is required and whether you have both halves of it.

[scuzzb494]

Then came The Squirrel.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/car_0807/car_2708_050.jpg

Though this is way better on the 1200....

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/a_scuzz_nov02/a_scuzz_nov02_221.jpg
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/a_scuzz_nov02/a_scuzz_nov02_220.jpg

[takemehomegrandma]

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Commodore-AMIGA-1200-OVERDRIVE-External-PCMCIA-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-170-MB-Mo-/281194526580

Who here agrees that if someone owns an A1200 that he should never buy this? Why? Well, simply put A1200 already have an IDE port inside the motherboard....second...you lose your PCMCIA for a harddrive that could have being used for something more important than a harddrive.

Though....it does look sexy and elegant...it is a useless device. Unless people want to mimic Amiga 500 but with AGA capacity and does not mind their Amiga have no access to the internet.

I had one of these back in the days, and it was far from useless to me back then. I bought my A1200 without HDD and added an internal 2.5" some time later on. Back then 2.5" drives were insane expensive and had very limited capacity compared to the bigger ones. If I remember correctly, I got myself a 60MB drive (yes MB, not GB) for a lot of money. When I had outgrown it, I had the option of either replacing it with a bigger one at a huge cost, or buy this product and use a cheaper and much bigger 3.5" HDD that could be used at the same time as my 2.5" internal one. I found the latter option the most preferable.

The only use for it today though, is probably if you need an external/portable HDD for some reason.

[freqmax]

The adaptor is for the Overdrive and not the GVP. The Overdrive takes its power from the diskdrive port on the back of the Amiga.

What is the Overdrive?

That is what the serial port is for.
 
There are pro's and con's to using a PCMCIA hard drive.

Considering the amount of data used for internet, I think serial port on Amiga (max 19 200 bit/s) is simple not good enough. A side effect is higher CPU demand.

[Linde]

Considering the amount of data used for internet, I think serial port on Amiga (max 19 200 bit/s) is simple not good enough. A side effect is higher CPU demand.

Do you think that the serial port speed would usually have been an internet connectivity bottleneck in the early 90s? 19200 bps is not the limit, by the way. I guess it depends on the CPU/DMA load, but I can for example use stable MIDI (38400 bps) on my 8 MB fast RAM A1200. I'm sure you can on a stock 500 too.