HD buyer needs advice - Please

[gachenb@eis.calstate.edu (Greg R. Achenbach)]

OK, I have several questions for all you SCSI gurus out there in
netland.
 
I'm finally getting around to buying a hard drive for the IIgs at
work (ROM 1, if that matters).  I know this has been talked about
before, but I guess I need to hear it again.  For running your
standard SCSI external hard drive, is there any difference between
the Apple HS and the RAMfast, besides speed of course?  Any
compatibility issues I should know about?  I called TMS and was
talking with the sales person there about getting one of their drives
and he said that they strongly recommend the RAMfast.  He said that
since the Apple HS is so old, it often doesn't work right with the
newer mechanisms in their drives.  Is he just feeding me a line to
sell me a RAMfast?  Are there really compatibility problems with the
Apple HS and regular, normal, external HD's?  For that matter, are
there problems with the Apple HS and exotic stuff like removables,
flopticals, tape drives, etc.  I also noticed that Quality strongly
recommends the Apple HS over the RAMfast, and that they don't even
carry the RAMfast anymore.  Is this just a situation of each company
trying to get people to buy the SCSI card that they carry even though
there is not that much difference?  What are the differences, besides
speed?
 
Now, on to the drive itself.  TMS appears to have the best prices I
have found on new drives.  Are they a reputable company?  Are they
likely to be around in two years to honor their 2 year warranty?
They sell two different styles of external, the Pro and the Shadow.
The Shadow is about the size of a 3.5 floppy drive and has an
external power supply.  The Pro is a zero foot print case and has the
power supply and a fan inside the case.  Is there any difference
between the two as far as functionality, reliability, longevity?  Or
should I just buy one based on whatever I think is most convenient?
The mechanism they are selling is a Quantum LPS (I think those were
the letters), and I'm looking at either the 170 or 270 size.  The
prices are $275 and $345, respectively.  Are these good drives and
good prices?  Any other companys or drives I should look at before I
buy?  Anything else I should know about?
 
Many thanks in advance from a hard drive neophyte?

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Greg Achenbach             gachenb@eis.calstate.edu (soon to be ctp.org)
Los Angeles County Outdoor Science School

"Society is like a stew.  If you don't keep it stirred up, you get a lot of
scum on top."  Edward Abbey