Nice! RLL and ESDI would be cool too - but even harder to find, so no surprise you weren't able to include them.

dionb wrote on 2020-01-20, 09:13:

Nice! RLL and ESDI would be cool too - but even harder to find, so no surprise you weren't able to include them.

I have an RLL drive, but no controller. Also, the last time I saw it was in the early 2000s, buried somewhere in my closet . I seem to recall that when I last spun it up, some less-than-pleasing sounds came out of it.

ESDI, now there's something I haven't seen in a very long time.

Your Title is misleading and the xls cannot be opened by standard apps. Comparing late model SD adapters to real HD's is not what I was expecting from your title. If this was usenet you would get a "plonk" 😁

Jed118 wrote on 2020-01-21, 04:14:

I have an RLL drive, but no controller. Also, the last time I saw it was in the early 2000s, buried somewhere in my closet . I seem to recall that when I last spun it up, some less-than-pleasing sounds came out of it.

ESDI, now there's something I haven't seen in a very long time.

I have a massive full-height 540MB ESDI drive from the days when 120MB was a big HDD. Have been looking out for a suitable controller for over a year now. Not too seriously though (as in: willing to part with significant money for it) as I'm not realistically be using something like this regularly. I do however have an almost identical 600MB SCSI drive which would make a good comparison. That drive is cosmetically inside my XT clone case - but as it can realistically simulate a jet engine starting and a minor earthquake when seeking, I don't normally have it powered up 😉

Of course I did have an RLL controller a while back - but gave it away as I didn't have any suitable drives...

Horun wrote on 2020-01-21, 05:25:

Your Title is misleading and the xls cannot be opened by standard apps. Comparing late model SD adapters to real HD's is not what I was expecting from your title. If this was usenet you would get a "plonk" 😁

Oh? How would you title it? What would you differently/change? My goal was to test the various different drives available, plus modern alternatives. How would you have compared them (maybe I'll do a part II or a revision!)

Yes the XLSX was made in LibreOffice on an old laptop as I was doing the tests. It opened up on Excel O365 Pro Plus just fine though...

dionb wrote on 2020-01-21, 08:38:

but as it can realistically simulate a jet engine starting and a minor earthquake when seeking, I don't normally have it powered up 😉

*edit - damn ISA ESDI controllers are indeed not cheap!

I had a Seagate Barracuda 2 gig that was in my 386/486 DLC eternal project that I used for many, many years. Alas, a lot of quick power ups and power downs killed it a few years ago. It still spins up, but there's no longer a connection between the SCSI controller and the data portion (the controller will see the drive, but not the media) 🙁

It was (and still is, it's hooked into that rotating hard disk stand I have) quite loud - that sound reminds me of the golden years of PC computing 😉

Jed118 wrote on 2020-01-22, 01:06:

Horun wrote on 2020-01-21, 05:25:

Your Title is misleading and the xls cannot be opened by standard apps. Comparing late model SD adapters to real HD's is not what I was expecting from your title. If this was usenet you would get a "plonk" 😁

Oh? How would you title it? What would you differently/change? My goal was to test the various different drives available, plus modern alternatives. How would you have compared them (maybe I'll do a part II or a revision!)

How about: MFM, IDE, EIDE, SCSI, SCSI2 and SD using various adapters ? That would be more accurate.
Added: Also if you want others to contribute using their controllers and drives perhaps naming the HD util used for each test would be a good idea, just a thought...

Interesting. I'm surprised SCSI was the winner.

Horun wrote on 2020-01-22, 01:37:

Jed118 wrote on 2020-01-22, 01:06:

Horun wrote on 2020-01-21, 05:25:

Your Title is misleading and the xls cannot be opened by standard apps. Comparing late model SD adapters to real HD's is not what I was expecting from your title. If this was usenet you would get a "plonk" 😁

Oh? How would you title it? What would you differently/change? My goal was to test the various different drives available, plus modern alternatives. How would you have compared them (maybe I'll do a part II or a revision!)

How about: MFM, IDE, EIDE, SCSI, SCSI2 and SD using various adapters ? That would be more accurate.
Added: Also if you want others to contribute using their controllers and drives perhaps naming the HD util used for each test would be a good idea, just a thought...

I suppose I could rename the video title, but not in the video.

Adding the names of the utilities is a good idea as well. I will add it in the description.

Interesting. I'm surprised SCSI was the winner.

That's mostly because 430VX chipset was used.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-02-06, 07:59:

Interesting. I'm surprised SCSI was the winner.

That's mostly because 430VX chipset was used.

I used what was available around here that would accommodate such a spectrum of drives. Having said that, the read speeds as reported by PC Config seem to plateau.

Man, I need to find a new place to host that XLS...