From: tw5232@albnyvms.bitnet (Teddy Wang)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: '040 and SCSI
Date: 25 Jul 92 08:33:58 GMT
Reply-To: tw5232@albnyvms.bitnet
Organization: University of NY at Albany

In article <1992Jul23.162409.14156@ultb.isc.rit.edu>, mjp3783@ritvax.isc.rit.edu writes:
>In article <1992Jul22.015517.26439@sarah.albany.edu>, tw5232@albnyvms.bitnet (Teddy Wang) writes:
>
>>Now this is a silly post!  First off, you can get a used 2000 for around $500. 
>>At least a month ago you could get the RCS Fusion Forty for $995.  That's $1500
>>for an '040 machine!  Add some 32bit ram and you'll be going 4 times faster
>>than a standard 3000.  We're talking $2000 for a fully configured 17 MIPS
>>computer!  Well lets, see I've seen standard A3000/16 for around $2000 (used of
>>course)!!!  About bus speeds, unless the amiga gets someone serious to enter
>>the hardware seen (say someone comes out with a Zorro III SCSI-2 controller or
>>something like that,) you're not going to need the bandwidth.  A good SCSI
>>controller will operate at about 1 to 2 megs per second, which is about the
>>maximum throughput of a fast SCSI drive (easily attainable with Zorro II and a
>>'040.)  Yes if Zorro III had some good expansion development (like EISA is
>>now,)it would be worth the money to buy a 3000, but I don't know how you could
>>justify spending that kind of money on the 3000 - '040 but as it stands, Amiga
>>just doesn't have those devices...
>> 
>
>Bull. My 2000 GVP 030/25 is nowhere near as fast as a 3000. Maybe because
>any graphics or sound or disk drive access or .... has to go through 16 bit
>ram. As for a Zorro III hd controller, why? The only advantage it would have
>would be major speed. The 3000 comes with a hard drive controller built in. How
>many people do you know that would be willing to buy a card that would give
>them ONLY faster hard drive access. People for whom 1 meg/sec isn't enough?
>Most low end hard drives don't even do speeds> that of the 3000's scsi
>sontroller. The 3000 also comes with a 2 meg agnus, a hard drive, a filcker
>fixer, and so on. It seems to me that the cost of adding up all of those litle
>goodies would more than make up for the price of the 3000 (which is why it
>sells).

I disagree (calmly.)  Most people who are out to by an '040 accelerator is in
it for a special purpose (which is most likely graphics related for the Amiga.) 
Somebody in this situation would not be looking at standard Amiga components,
they would also be looking at graphics cards, etc (lets face it standard Amiga
graphics just don't cut it.)  So if you stick an IV24 in an Amiga 2000 with an
'040, and one in an Amiga 3000/16 which one do you think will operate faster?

Which one do you think will render faster?  Doing benchmarks, I've heard that
the Toaster is some 5-7 times faster with an '040 equipped A2000 than the
A3000/25.  And that's graphics.  In my previous post, I stated that *IF* there
were any good exansion perif for Zorro III it would be worth it.  Unfortunately
there aren't.  Maybe a memory board here, a graphic board (DMI's still
unreleased TI 020 beast) there but really not nearly the support that Zorro II
has.  Think about it.  The original poster thought that an Amiga 3000/16 with
PP&S's '040 was the end all be all Amiga.  I was just refuting what he said. 
My argument is that it's not as great as he made it out to be as well as being
much more expensive that my setup.  Of course if you're asking for the end all
be all computer of the century you wouldn't pick an Amiga!

Teddy


     ////////  
       //                                             twang@thor.albany.edu
      //                                              TWANG@ALBNYVMS.BITNET
     //  eddy Wang                                    TW5232@ALBNYVMS.BITNET
    //   Computer Art and Animation at SUNY Albany
         New Illusions      Albany, NY                  "Increase the Peace..."