From owner-freebsd-hardware Thu Jul 25 14:48:53 1996 Return-Path: owner-hardware Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id OAA03656 for hardware-outgoing; Thu, 25 Jul 1996 14:48:53 -0700 (PDT) Received: from cbgw1.att.com (cbgw1.att.com [192.20.239.133]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id OAA03646 for ; Thu, 25 Jul 1996 14:48:45 -0700 (PDT) Received: from aloft by cbig1.att.att.com (SMI-8.6/EMS-1.2 sol2) id RAA11744; Thu, 25 Jul 1996 17:30:08 -0400 Received: from stargazer (stargazer.cnet.att.com) by aloft (4.1/DCS-aloft-M5.1) id AA26270; Thu, 25 Jul 96 17:35:04 EDT Received: by stargazer (4.1/DCS-aloft_client-S2.1) id AA18086; Thu, 25 Jul 96 17:35:00 EDT Date: Thu, 25 Jul 96 17:35:00 EDT From: gtc@aloft.att.com (gary.corcoran) Message-Id: <9607252135.AA18086@stargazer> To: BRETT_GLASS@ccgate.infoworld.com, darrylo@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com Subject: Re: Micropolis, again Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org, tbalfe@falcon.tioga.com Sender: owner-hardware@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >Oops.... You're right. It's Conner. But the wave of consolidations is >depressing. Fewer choices, and fewer opportunities to pay a little more for >a better product. (Apparently, computer OEMs don't care about quality -- >just price.) Overall, true. But some of you may be interested to know: Quantum makes at least two 4G 3.5" drives. The XP34301 and the XP34300 (Atlas). The 34301 I believe is a later model, and it is about $30 cheaper than the 34300. But I looked at the specs on these drives. The Atlas (34300) has an *order of magnitude* lower bit error rate than the cheaper drive. I decided to pay a little more and get the Atlas. But I'd bet that mass-market OEM's would use the 34301's (if they used a 4G drive)... BTW, I chose this drive after previously buying a Micropolis MC3243 which died (stopped spinning) 6 weeks after buying it. The replacement MC3243 though has been running fine for about a year. I had chosen a Micropolis drive because my Micropolis 1924 (2G 5.25" FH) drive had run flawlessly (though very very warm) for a couple of years (now over 3 years). I guess buying disk drives is like buying cars - any model may have a particular unit that is a lemon, but certain models end up having more lemons than others... Gary