Re: Apple 600e SCSI CD Rom Drive on a GS

[Wayne Stewart <waynes@telus.dotnet>]

Bill Garber wrote:

> Now you see why I acquired an Apple HS SCSI card and
> got rid of that RamFast SCSI card. ;-) Of course, now
> that I have the HS card, I haven't had the time to set
> it up. I've got to do that soon. I actually like the
> Rev.C SCSI card the best. Wish I could find another
> one for my //e.

A lot of pictures but sometimes a picture is worth thousands of
words when it's hard to describe precisely what you see. I do a
bit of troubleshooting in our user group, usually by telephone
and a few times a single pic would have solve the problem
immediately.

My first SCSI card was a Rev C which came with my IIgs. It gave me
a taste of hard drive speed so I ordered a ramfast, planning on
moving the rev C to my. IIe. Once I had a chance to compare the two
cards on both computers and saw the speed difference I ordered a
second ramfast. While waiting for the card to arrive, I came across
a good deal on a IIe with an Apple Hi-Speed SCSI card. Once I
compared the ramfast and Hi-Speed SCSI cards for speed I opted to
use the ramfasts. Right now it wouldn't matter a huge amount to most
but at the time the IIgs was my main computer and I used the IIe a
lot so any speed improvement was important. The rev C went into my
II+.
On the IIe the ramfast is pretty amazing. Even 256k of cache will
store a lot of IIe programs and data. With the Apple cards I
preferred the Rev C over the Hi-Speed on a IIe. Using an accelerator
I had to shut off DMA anyways. With the Rev C if I didn't turn on
the HD, the IIe would just pass it by and boot of the next card.
The Hi-Speed would hang the IIe waiting for a HD.

A pity you weren't here a few years ago. A local shop acquired a
few hundred IIgses with Rev B or C cards and SC20 HDs. A local
video store had beed using then and when it went out of bussiness
they were stored for a few years. The store had them stacked about
4 feet high around a room. They were about $15US each. I bought a
few for myself and people I knew but I should have made him a deal
on the whole lot and resold them. SCSI cards were really hard to
find at the time.

Wayne