From: lutz@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu (Dave Lutz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Summary - Talon hard drives
Date: 13 Nov 92 15:01:12 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

In article <1992Nov10.190648.27102@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> I wrote:
>
>  I'm considering the purchase of a 120MB Talon IDE hard drive, and would like
>to hear from anyone who has had experience with them.  I don't know anything
>about Talon, and am mostly concerned with reliability.
>
>  The drive I am looking at is the TA3020A drive, advertised by Hard Drives
>International.
>
>  Comments about Hard Drives International are also welcome.  So far, I'm
>pretty impressed with them (price, technical knowledge, etc).

  I'd like to thank Steve Wootton, tmcreek@eos.ncsu.edu (no real name given),
and Kevin Chalker for their replies.

  Steve informed me that Talon is actually the house brand for Hard Drive
International, so I asked them who actually makes the TA3020A hard drive.  The
drive is actually made by Samsung, so I've decided against it.

  My opinion of HDI is still pretty good.  If you ask who makes a particular
Talon product, they have no qualms about giving you a straight answer.  I spoke
to two different sales reps, and they both seemed very knowledgable.  Nobody
tried to pressure me into any particular product, and there was really no
pressure to make a sale at all.  I purchased a Conner hard drive from them last
year, and haven't had any trouble with it or with HDI.

  tmcreek expressed a very different opinion of HDI.

Thanks for the help,
Dave Lutz

   Here are some excerpts from the replies I got:

From: stevew@convx1.dseg.ti.com (Steve Wootton)

I just bought a Western Digital WD2200A (200Mb IDE) from them.  The
experience was totally positive.  Tony Price (my salesman) was very sharp,
and gave me a thorough run-down on the relative merits of the Maxtor 7213
and the WD2200 (the two drives I was considering).

I ordered a "bare drive" on a Friday, and received the drive via Federal
Express on the following Monday.  Included were two manuals, brackets and
screws, both black and beige faceplates, Stacker 2.0, and an IDE cable.  
The drive was packed in a solid block of foam rubber about eight inches thick, 
and sealed in an anti-static bag.

Talon is their "house" brand.  Tony told me that their Talon tape drives
are CMS Jumbos, and include the CMS software.  From the descriptions, I'd

  [ I deleted the rest because it was an incorrect guess about the maker of the
Talon hard drive -dl]



From: tmcreek@eos.ncsu.edu

Don't know much about the drive, but as far as I'm concerned, there are exactly
4 manufacturers in the HD business: Seagate, Maxtor, Quantum, and Conner.
Fujitsu's are nice too, but there are SCSI and quite pricey.

I have a Conner 212M SCSI.  After posting for opinions, I got about 30 positive
responses to 0 negative ones.  A fairly good review, I feel.  The drive is
the fastest thing on the block in transfer rate and in seek time (1M/s, 12ms, 
respectively).

Now for HDI.  They are the biggest bunch of nudniks this side of Mars.  If the
product gets to you in working order (they ship FedEx) :(, then great. 
I had to call tech support, and I ended up returning the product (memory, it
was).  Overall, I give them and their parent company Insight (makers of a 
famous pushed-486DX25-sold-as-33) a Big Red F.

I have always ordered from Dirt Cheap Drives (never mind the name, they are
cool).  I have ordered both of the drives I have bought in my lifetime from
them.  A grand total of 0 problems.  I found their sales people to be more
knowledgeable and polite than HDI's TECH people.   They are listed in Computer
Shopper.  I urge you to check them out.

Disclaimer: I speak only as a happy customer.

--
Send replies to:               | My opinions do not represent
     tmcreek@eos.ncsu.edu      | anyone who does not feel the
     creek-tm@aza.csc.ncsu.edu | same way as I do.




From: kcc@pt.com (Kevin Chalker)


Dave,

  I am a computer dealer located in Penfield (yes, local).  [that's in New
York, near Rochester -dl ] Personally, I'd stay away from new manufacturers
like Talon until you know the about the quality (by asking people who own
them).  I know when Kalok drives came out about a year or so ago, people
grabbed them because of their low price.  However, they turned out to be very
noisy and subject to catastrophic head crashes.  Even though I get sell Kalok
120Mb drives for ~$40 cheaper then Conner or Western Digital, I refuse to
because I don't want to handle the returns.


  [ I deleted a price quote he gave me for Seagate and Western Digital drives.
If you're interested, contact Kevin. -dl ]

Kevin
KC Computers
kcc@pt.com

(p.s. I have sold quite a few items to people at the U of R and have had
no returns)

							11/11/92

			   KC COMPUTERS
			10 Jacaranda Court
			Penfield, NY  14526
			Voice: (716) 388-8621
			FAX:   (716) 388-1528	

  [ I deleted a fairly long list of products.  If you're interested, contact
Kevin -dl ]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware