Re: Read-speed of SCSI CD-rom players

[CUTjefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney)]

On 29 Dec 1998 19:48 EDT, spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)
wrote:

>    Actually the maximum (peak) transfer rate of the Apple HS SCSI
>and RamFAST SCSI is 1 MB/sec. In general use you will get no where
>near that peak rate, probably half that or even less. This is when
>talking about the Apple IIgs, the peak rate on a IIe starts off at
>around 500k/sec and drops off significantly for general usage.

The RamFAST can actually transfer faster than 1 MB/s but only to the
cache memory.  But overall, you are right, the max speed you can
actually get data into the IIgs is at 1 MB/s.

>    I still think anything more than a 4x drive is overkill on the
>IIgs, especially when you consider peak and average transfer rates.
>Simply because the SCSI card is capable of transferring data at up
>to 1 megabyte per second, doesn't mean you'll be able to attain
>that transfer rate.

I pretty much agree with you but I certainly wouldn't turn down a 6x
if I could get one for a good price.  Actually, I would take pretty
much ANY speed CD-ROM drive if the price were right because I don't
own one yet.  :-)

>    In my opinion, 1x drives on a IIgs should be quite respectable,
>with a 2x being more preferrable if you can get one. 3x, 4x and 6x
>drives are nice if you can get them for around the same cost as a
>slower drive, but would be more for gee-whiz value than practical
>use.

Well, I'm not just thinking about what is available right now.  I'm
also considering what you might use the drive for in the future.  With
Animasia being reclassified as shareware, there might be some
interesting "Myst" type games in the future.  If someone ever gets
around to writing a decent "movie" player that spools data off of a
disk, you'll need a fast CD-ROM drive if you want to be able to get
the full effect from a "movie" burned on a CD.

>    Heh, my brother has a mountain of dead or flakey CD-ROM drives,
>although most are IDE (a 1x, a 16x, and three 2x's). One of them is
>a NEC SCSI 2x drive, though it'd probably be cheaper to replace it
>than repair. They're useful as fancy looking 5.25 bay port covers. :)

Myself, I have a 2x (I think), two 8x and a 20x CD-ROM drive sitting
here but none are working quite right and their all IDE.  :-/

The Creative Labs 4x drive was the only one I've been able to fix so
far which replaced my old 2x drive which I didn't mention in my list
above.  :-)

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