Re: SCSI-1 vs. SCSI-2 -- what's the difference?

[Gregory Ross Thompson <gregt+@CMU.EDU>]

gberigan@cybernet.cse.fau.edu (Greg Berigan) writes:
> I've been going through the misc.forsale.computers.* newsgroups looking 
> for a good deal on a hard drive for my Apple IIgs, and I've seen mention 
> of "SCSI-1" and "SCSI-2" type drives.  As I plan to purchase a RamFast 
> card, should I be concerned which SCSI-n drive I purchase?

  All current Apple cards are SCSI-1.  SCSI-2 would be a bit of a
waste on a II since one of the big cool things about SCSI-2 is that it
supports up to a 32-bit bus to increase bandwidth.  Most of the other
features which are "new" to SCSI-2 were optional in SCSI-1.  Things
like parity on the data bus, and supporting arbitration.

> How big is 
> useful on a IIgs (should I even consider drives in the gigabyte range? 
> 1/2 gigabyte?) ?

  I guess it's worth considering if you're the kind of person who
likes to archive a LOT of GIF pictures, or something.  In general,
I've found that 80 is sufficient, but that files always expand to fill
your disks to max capacity.  I've got well over 120 megs on my drive
now (200 meg Connor CP3200 - big & fast), but I use a very small
subset of what's on it on a day to day basis.  If you're gonna do a
lot of programming, you'll definitely want to get a sizeable drive.

> How many partitions are recognized under P8?

  A bunch, I can't remember.  P8 now maps partitions into unused
slots, so I guess you could conceivably use 6, maybe 8, maybe more.
Since you've got a GS, I wouldn't worry about it, though, since GS/OS
will recognize 'em all, I believe.

		-Greg
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