********************************************************************** *** *** *** My experience with building a *** *** *** *** generic SCSI hard drive *** *** *** *** By : Harley Ficke *** *** *** ********************************************************************** Here I am, looking around the Classified advertisements on America Online, and I come across one for SCSI hard drives. I notice that the prices are way lower than I have seen anywhere else. Since I am always out of room on my 5 MEG hard drive. I call the number in the ad and find out that what I get is just the raw hard drive, nothing else. The drives are SCSI embedded, though. Doing a rough estimate in my head, I should save about $400 to $600, if I can find the rest of the parts used. That did not work out and so I did not save as much money as I had thought. The person that I purchased the hard drive from said that he thought that he had an extra case and power supply around, no luck on that one. In the mean time, I had been watching the ad's on America Online. There were several ad's for SCSI controller cards. The CMS cards were going for about $35. The RamFast cards (I only saw 2 ad's in 4 months) went for $150 and $180. The Apple high speed DMA cards went for $60 to $85. I saw one ad for a CMS hard drive and 2 CMS controller cards. I asked him if he would sell me one of the controller cards for $35. He said he would. I then contacted Tulin Corporation about their A-HIVE hard drive cases. I wanted room in the case for a second drive if I ever added one to my system. The total cost of a case and cable came to $170. Here is a breakdown. 30 Watt power supply and case ........................... $119 Hardware kit for mounting 2 drives and internal cables ... $25 SCSI 50 pin to 25 pin cable (computer to case) ........... $18 Shipping and Handling ..................................... $8 ------ Total for case with COD delivered to my door ............ $170 Hardware description Price Vender ====================================================================== 90 Meg SCSI 3.5" hard drive .............. $305.00 new overstock CMS SCSI controller card (used) ........... $37.00 America Online user A-HIVE case, power supply, cable ......... $170.00 Tulin Corporation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Total for 90 Meg SCSI hard drive w/card .. $512.00 I looked through the February 1991 issue of inCider/A+ magazine. Here is a list of the hard drive suppliers that I found. These drives come with case, drive, and power supply. They are ready to format and use. This is not a complete list as some sold drives at about the same price and so was not included in this listing. Some prices have been rounded to the nearest $5 or $10. Note: the AE Vulcan drives are internal hard drives. They replace the original power supply and come with their own controller card. I think that RamFast makes a controller for the Vulcan drives also, but I am not sure. If so, you can be sure that it is a lot faster that the AE controller card. "Apple SCSI" refers to the Apple High Speed DMA SCSI card. Quality Computers page 2-5 NAME MEG PRICE ================================================= Q-Drive w/Apple SCSI 80 800 100 1000 CMS w/Apple SCSI 60 700 AE Vulcan 40 650 100 1290 Programs Plus page 22-27 NAME MEG PRICE ================================================= AMR 60 665 AE Vulcan 40 650 100 1280 CMS w/Apple SCSI 60 570 GOLEM Computers page 30 NAME MEG PRICE ================================================= AE Vulcan 40 650 CMS w/Apple SCSI 40 575 60 680 Applied Engineering page 51 NAME MEG PRICE ================================================= Vulcan 40 900 100 1800 Tulin Corporation page 65 NAME MEG PRICE ================================================= A-Hive w/Apple SCSI 48 580 w/system software 85 620 case can hold another drive 100 815 or tape backup Chinook page 77 NAME MEG PRICE ================================================= Chinook 100 800 comes with system software and utilities TMS Peripherals page 92 NAME MEG PRICE ================================================= TMS 80 540 105 595 210 955 This last company seems to have the lowest prices on hard drives and interface cards. (RamFast SCSI DMA $179 w/drive $169). I have not contacted this company and so don't know anything about them or their reliability. ********************************************************************** *** *** *** *** *** Assembling the hard drive *** *** *** *** *** ********************************************************************** Following the instructions that came with the A-HIVE power supply and case made the job a lot easier. It went like this. Open the case. Disconnect the LED from your hard drive. Connect the wire from the LED on the case to your hard drive. Connect the power connector to your hard drive. Connect the SCSI internal cable to your hard drive. Put 4 screws through the bottom of the case into your hard drive. Put the case back together. Connect the case to your hard drive with a SCSI cable. Format, partition, and use your new hard drive! Everything went just fine except formating. After trying every hard drive that the CMS formater knew how to format. I was running out of options. A user of America Online, Herr Fixit, suggested that I check my SCSI ID settings again. I checked carefully my switch settings and was embarrassed at what I found. On the back of the A-HIVE case are two sets of switches. One for each drive that the case can hold. I was using the wrong one. After I set the correct switches to the correct ID number, the drive formatted correctly. I now have two 30 Meg volumes that I did not have before. When you are used to only having 5 Meg, 60 Meg is like having an unlimited amount of storage. The drive is not as fast as I had hoped for. Maybe I had my hopes up to high. When I get the money saved up, I will buy the RamFast SCSI controller card. I will then have and even faster drive. The RamFast SCSI card will allow me to use the full 85 to 90 Meg of my drive instead of the 60 to 64 Meg limit the CMS card uses. Harley Ficke Addresses for companies mentioned in this article. Quality Computers Programs Plus 20200 E. Nine Mile Road 75 Research Drive Box 665 Stratford, CT 06497 St. Clair Shores, MI 48080 Golem Computers Applied Engineering 1111 Rancho Conejo Blvd., #407 P.O. Box 5100 Newbury Park, CA 91320 Carrollton, TX 75011 Tulin Corporation Chinook Technology 2156H O'Toole Avenue 615 Main St., #635 San Jose, CA 95131 Longmont, CO 80501 TMS Peripherals 23123 SW 58th Ave. Boca Raton, FL 33428 The ad that I saw for the raw SCSI hard drives was placed by Jay Kimmey. Jay finds over stocks and liquidations and then sells them at very low prices through Chris Reagor. Chris also sells from other sources and such has a lot of hardware available. Jay is currently serving in OPERATION DESERT STORM. Labaron Engineering Texas Discount Computers %Chris Reagor %Jay Kimmey Tyler, TX 2825 Valley View (903) 561-4207 Tyler, TX 75701 (214) 566-9148