Best storage I can get? FastATA MK-VI 4000 CF/SATA

[Heiroglyph]

I've got an A4000 with a Cyberstorm 060 MKII (no SCSI module) and a Mediator.

Those MKII SCSI modules are rare, so I'm looking for options.

Is a FastATA MK-VI 4000 CF/SATA the best I can do for storage?

What are your experiences? Other suggestions?

Thanks,
John

[QuikSanz]

Good Question. I have Cyberstorm MkIII and UWide SCSI drives or SATA converters for them are not easy to come by.

Chris

[Heiroglyph]

Good Question. I have Cyberstorm MkIII and UWide SCSI drives or SATA converters for them are not easy to come by.

Chris

I've got plenty of SCSI drives, even 10k and 15k RPM ones, but only old ZorroII cards.

I'm looking for something to replace my onboard IDE that performs as well possible for around the price of that FastATA.

I'd just like to hear from some actual owners before I buy.

I've felt like my only other Elbox product, my Mediator, is really not that good but there's not a good alternative to it either.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Fastlane Z3?  10MB/sec and adds up to 256MB of memory?  Allows you to make use of all those SCSI drives you already have?

I've never owned one, but if I was building some kind of "ultimate A4000" system, that's probably something I'd look for.  I never liked IDE.  

[danbeaver]

The FastATA with the latest ROMs will be no faster than a good SCSI-2 setup at <10 MB/s despite the PIO mode of 4 on a mode 4 drive.  The Zorro 3 Bus tops out at 13 MB/s and I suppose some intensive CPU cycles in multitasking overhead conversion accounts for the rest.  The SCSI-3 bus on the CS MK3 and CSPPC will yield up to 35 MB/s if you decide to trade up; of note these CS devices use the accelerator bus.  Using a Compact Flash 2.0 device with 100 ns minimal cycle time in mode 5 still goes no faster in my testing.  I'm just guessing that a GREX 4000 board. that also bypasses the Zorro 3 (actually Buster limited), with the drivers for an IDE or SCSI card might get you higher transfers than a Zorro board.

[danbeaver]

The Fastlane Z3 board would be nice if you got one that worked with your system, but they won't give you 256 MB (at least no one has figured it out yet), and I could never get the SCSI to work (from 2 different Fastlane's boards and 3 different Amiga 4000's).  See the various forums for the "FastLane Z3 Blues."

[Heiroglyph]

Keep in mind that I'm not going to spend $1000+ for a new 060 card.

I have over 200MB of RAM between my 060 card and Radeon and could get a brand new 128MB or 256MB Zoram/BigRam for $99-$130.

I have no problem with IDE drives and I already have an unused SSD if SATA can be made to work.

And most of all, I have to actually be able to purchase this storage controller. Hens teeth rare isn't really an option.

I just want to feel out my reasonable options.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

So basically you're just looking for ideas?  Hrm.  How 'bout the A4091?  Doesn't offer ram expansion (you said you don't need it), not as rare as hen's teeth, still supposed to be able to do 8-9MB/sec.  How's that?

[Heiroglyph]

So basically you're just looking for ideas?  Hrm.  How 'bout the A4091?  Doesn't offer ram expansion (you said you don't need it), not as rare as hen's teeth, still supposed to be able to do 8-9MB/sec.  How's that?

That's realistic, I think since I don't know the price, especially if anyone has one for sale or knows where to find one.

[QuikSanz]

The FastATA with the latest ROMs will be no faster than a good SCSI-2 setup at <10 MB/s despite the PIO mode of 4 on a mode 4 drive.  The Zorro 3 Bus tops out at 13 MB/s and I suppose some intensive CPU cycles in multitasking overhead conversion accounts for the rest.  The SCSI-3 bus on the CS MK3 and CSPPC will yield up to 35 MB/s if you decide to trade up; of note these CS devices use the accelerator bus.  Using a Compact Flash 2.0 device with 100 ns minimal cycle time in mode 5 still goes no faster in my testing.  I'm just guessing that a GREX 4000 board. that also bypasses the Zorro 3 (actually Buster limited), with the drivers for an IDE or SCSI card might get you higher transfers than a Zorro board.

So in my case it's, will a 15000 RPM UW SCSI be faster or a SATA drive W/converter be better?
Those SCSI drives are getting a bit old now.

Chris

[Heiroglyph]

So in my case it's, will a 15000 RPM UW SCSI be faster or a SATA drive W/converter be better?
Those SCSI drives are getting a bit old now.

Chris

I would think an SSD would be faster than even a 15k drive, assuming the controller and converter were even remotely decent.

It would be like a CF on onboard IDE. The access time would be amazing for the small files we tend to use and the transfer rate would be well above that of the controller.

[danbeaver]

@Chris -- The converters from SCSI-3 to SATA take a conversion "hit" of about 3 MB/s, so a native U320 15000k HDD under OS3.9 will saturate the bus at 35 MB/s vs 31 using an SSD SATA with conversion.

@Thread - - In my opinion a Buddha Phoenix Edition of 3 to 5 MB/s doubles the number of IDE ports and speed of the onboard IDE for about $100 USD and in a cost to benefit ratio gives a good option, although the FastATA will be new and easily available, just don't believe the hype.

[amiga1260]

I saw a YouTube video that a FastATA MKVI 4000 has almost the same speed as a Cyberstorm mark III SCSI-3 Controller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NucMgn2byVk

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

@Thread - - In my opinion a Buddha Phoenix Edition of 3 to 5 MB/s doubles the number of IDE ports and speed of the onboard IDE for about $100 USD and in a cost to benefit ratio gives a good option, although the FastATA will be new and easily available, just don't believe the hype.

I considered suggesting that as well.  AFAIK all Buddha's are only Zorro II however, no?  (limited to 3.58MB/sec)

[mechy]

I saw a YouTube video that a FastATA MKVI 4000 has almost the same speed as a Cyberstorm mark III SCSI-3 Controller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NucMgn2byVk

LOL not on the best days.He is using a cyberstorm MKII which is narrow 50 pin scsi rated 10MB/s. What they don't show you is the cpu overhead the Fastata has. SCSI is very cpu friendly in most case(proper scsi on the accelerator). zorro3 scsi will have more overhead.
the Cyberstorm MKIII/PPC ultrawide scsi will walk off and leave all these behind.
Sysinfo is not a good test for disk speed either.