Article 314 of comp.sys.amiga.reviews:
Path: rcfnews.cs.umass.edu!barrett
From: awdorn@primenet.com (Alexander W. Dorn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: Rapidfire SCSI-II controller
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Date: 21 Feb 1996 05:17:09 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 361
Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <4ge9sl$djv@kernighan.cs.umass.edu>
Reply-To: awdorn@primenet.com (Alexander W. Dorn)
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Keywords: hardware, SCSI, Zorro II, commercial
X-Review-Number: Volume 1996 Number 3
Originator: barrett@knots.cs.umass.edu
PRODUCT NAME
Rapidfire SCSI-II controller for the Amiga
DESCRIPTION
A full-length Zorro card with SCSI-II Controller, space for
mounting a Hard Drive to the card (HardCard Design), and up to
8Meg of Memory Expansion.
INFORMATION
Name: DKB
Address: Post Office Box 930344
Wixom, MI 48393-0344
USA
Telephone: (810) 348-3821
Fax: (810) 348-3755
Tech Hotline: (810) 348-3531
PRICE
$159 U.S. (MSRP)
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
Any Amiga capable of taking ZORRO expansion cards.
(A2000/A3000/A4000)
SOFTWARE
None.
COPY PROTECTION
None.
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
As I am just building up a workable system after having my
A3000 stolen, the machine I started with is definitely Bare-Bones,
though it was the only machine I could get at the time here in the
U.S.
The Computer
------------
o Amiga 2000 rev (4.x) 7MHz
o ECS Chipset w/1Meg Agnes and Super Denise
o WorkBench 3.1
o 1 880K Floppy Drive
And the Drives used:
--------------------
o Quantum 40Meg Hard Drive
(Picked up for $25)
o Sony 2X CD-Rom Drive
BACKGROUND
As I mentioned above, I started out to build myself an Amiga
system after my A3000 was stolen, but finding one was difficult.
My search began shortly after Escom purchased the rights to the
Amiga, which prompted people everywhere to purchase up what
remaining A1200s were around (at least that's what the salesmen
told me everywhere I called.) So, I got hold of an old A2000
bare-bones system and slowly but surely started on the road of
expansion.
Having had an A3000, and knowing many people with A3000
systems, I became accustomed to having SCSI Problems, in particular
with CD-Rom Drives. When it came time to get a SCSI Controller, I
wanted something that didn't have known problems with it, and yet
I didn't want to spend a small fortune for it, and while I was
going for it, I figured I'd go for a SCSI-II Controller. I then
saw the add for the Rapidfire-not only would it give me SCSI-II,
it would give me up to 8Megs of 72Pin 32Bit Memory expansion
(though only 8Megs, as the A2000 can only take 8Megs of ram
through the motherboard.)
Unfortunately, when I ordered the card, it was not yet in
stock, so I waited and waited. Finally, when it arrived, the
waiting had only helped to grow my excitement. I had already
mounted the CD-Rom Drive and one of the 40Meg Hard Drives I'd
picked up at an electronics swap meet in the A2000 chassis, and
was anxious to get it up and running.
INSTALLATION
In the bright red package, with images of a Bullet and
target-sites all over the box, was the card, a short manual (7
Pages), a 2"-3" 50Pin Ribbon Cable (just long enough for the
connection between the SCSI connector and a hard drive that can be
mounted on the card itself [hardcard design]), and an installation
disk. First, being a "good" computer user, I read through the
manual completely. For Installation instructions, it basically
said to remove the cover, insert the card, plug in the SCSI Cable,
and power up. Most of the manual discussed memory expansion, and
connecting SCSI devices.
The truth is, installation is as easy as the manual
describes. All you need to do is plug it in and go, although you
should make sure that you've got everything connected correctly,
and that you have all of the jumpers set correctly on your SCSI
Devices (Which I did not, as the default settings on the CD-Rom
Drive had the factory test jumper still in place. If you have an
A2000, it pays to make sure that the jumpers are correct before
installing the drive, as removing the drive from the 5.1/4" bay
usually requires you to remove any/all cards from the machine so
that you can get to the two inside screws that hold the 5.1/4"
drive in place-not a fun thing to do.) Also be sure that you only
have Termination Resistors on the last device on the SCSI Loop.
Note:=============================================================
Because I've seen this written in almost every review I've
read, I'll place it here. Although I personally have no trouble
opening up a computer to work on it, I've got quite a bit of
experience in doing such. If you are not confident that you can
safely do this, please have it done by a trained technician, as a
computer is a terrible thing to waste, and, opening the computer
can void some warranties if it is not done by a trained
technician.
==================================================================
Now, back to the review.
After I got all of the correct jumpers in place, I plugged
it back into the Controller, plugged the Hard Drive light into the
correct connector, and switched it on. I was very happy to see
the hard drive light flash as I booted off of the floppy disk.
For the Hard Drive indicator light, there were three
connectors on the RapidFire. One, marked A2000 (which I used),
and two marked A4000, one for the connection from the motherboard,
and the other out to the hard drive light. Although the manual
does not describe it as such, it seems to be a pass-through for
the Hard Drive Indicator light. This is nice, so that if you use
an A4000's internal controller, then use the RapidFire as a second
controller, you don't need to worry about either not having a
light for one of your controllers, or having to add an additional
LED for the new controller.
After I re-booted off of floppy disk, I inserted the DKB
Install disk that came with the package. Along with Drivers for
the AMAX-II was the program RapidSET, which is a HDToolbox-like
program specifically for the RapidFire Controller. While it
seemed a little awkward when compared to HDToolbox (which may
simply be because I'm more used to HDToolBox), it does the job
well. With it, I partitioned and formatted the 40Meg Quantum into
two twenty-meg Partitions (one of which I made bootable) without
problem.
Then, a quick re-boot (still off of the floppy disk at this
point), and I had two new icons on my WorkBench. After formatting
them and installing WorkBench on the first of my two partitions,
another re-boot let me boot off of the Hard Drive.
This is what I had been waiting for. In case you are not
familiar with running an Amiga off of a one-floppy system with no
hard drive, it requires the user to simply get into the habit of
swapping floppies constantly. Now, that I have my WorkBench on
the Hard Drive, I can use the one floppy for whatever I want
without having to constantly swap my WorkBench disk in and out.
CD-ROM DRIVE
The Next Step was installing the CD-Rom Software. When I
started looking for a SCSI Controller, and had already purchased a
Sony CD-Rom Drive and wanted to find a controller that would work
it. Having read reviews of many of the other controllers, some of
which specifically had problems with Sony CD-Rom Drives, I decided
to try the newest controller around, the RapidFire, in hopes that
it would not have this problem.
Lucky for me, I had no trouble with the Sony (Once I got the
test jumper off.) I installed my older AsimWare AsimCDFS v2,
using the "Standard Commodore Install Program," and again, with a
re-boot, the Sony worked great.
I had also read problems that some people had written about,
basically that the A2000 would wait around for about two minutes
with a SCSI CD-Rom drive attached before booting. I have
encountered no such problem with the RapidFire. When I turn on
the machine, the floppy drive light comes on, the hard drive light
flashes, and it boots up with CD-Rom Drive connected-just like
that.
MEMORY EXPANSION
On the Rapidfire card, there are two 72Pin Simm sockets for
memory expansion. What is nice about these sockets is that they
are mounted on the card in such a way that the Simms can be added
easily to the board without having to remove the card from the
computer, which was good for me, as I did not have any 72Pin x
32Bit Simms on hand when I installed the card (I was anxious to
get the hard drive up and running.)
The three jumpers, mounted at the top of the card (again,
for easy access-so that they can be changed without having to
remove the card from the computer) allow you to easily change the
memory configuration according to the jumper chart, which is
located in the Manual AND painted onto the card itself (so that if
you loose the manual, you can still set the jumpers.)
After I got hold of a 1x32 Simm (4Meg), all I had to do was
insert it into the topmost SIMM socket, set the jumper (in this
case, just remove the first jumper), and I had 4Meg of fast ram.
Simple.
EXTERNAL CONNECTOR
So far, as SCSI controllers go, I have had a great
difficulty in understanding the difference between SCSI-I and
SCSI-II. When someone tries to explain it to me, their
explanation usually has flaws. It had come to a point where I
believed that the difference was that SCSI-II used more of the
50Pin connectors than SCSI-I, thus requiring 50Pin Centronics
connectors for external devices-a theory that was supported by the
standard SCSI-II Connectors now out there on other machines.
The Rapidfire does not have an external 50Pin Centronics
connector, but the standard DB-25 Connector that most Amigas use.
Unfortunately, though, I do not have any external SCSI Devices at
this point to test, either SCSI-I or SCSI-II.
LIKES
I like the general layout of the card. I like the fact that
it seemed to have been designed to allow for future (adding memory
and such) without having to remove the card from the machine. I
like the fact that all of the connectors, aside from the SCSI
Connectors themselves, are located at the top of the board, again,
allowing for easy access to them without having to remove the card
from the machine. I like the ease of installation-no pesky
jumpers for setting IRQs and DMAs (I've been working with PCs too
long!). The ONLY jumpers on the board were for setting the memory
configuration (Which socket has what simm, if any,) which are
easily set by the chart painted on the card itself.
DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS
Dislikes. Well, I don't have many, but I'll be thorough
with the ones I do have. First is the DB-25 Connector for the
external SCSI Connection. Not only do I dislike this because of
the potential lack of support it offers for SCSI-II (which may or
may not exist), I also dislike it as I have known many people who
have used external SCSI Devices on Amigas, and have had as their
principal difficulty the DB-25 to Centronics cable. Apparently,
not all DB-25 to 50Pin Centronics SCSI cables are wired the same,
and some can cause occasional problems (in particular those that
come with NEC External CD-Rom Drives, which tend to lock up an
A3000 after a while.) If it had been a Centronics connector, as
is used by almost all external SCSI Devices, it would have avoided
this problem altogether.
Another problem I have with it is not with the card itself,
but in the instructions in the manual for installing a hard drive
on the card. While it may be safe to install the card directly to
the card as the book indicates, I have always installed spacers
between the hard drive and the controller card as a safety measure
to prevent the drive from shorting out against the card. While
the prospects of this are remote on the RapidFire, as the area set
aside for the hard drive has no components (electronic parts) on
it and is coated with a layer of resin to make it a non-conductive
surface, it's just a matter of my own personal habits that I would
have suggested putting spacers between the hard drive and the
controller card.
COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS
Over the years, I have used/helped-people-with numerous
Amiga SCSI Controllers, from many of the third-party controllers
that came out before the Rigid Disk Block (RDB) standard (where
an EEProm on the board would "AutoMount" a single drive partition,
forcing the user to install mount commands into their
STARTUP-SEQUENCEs to install additional partitions), to the A3000's
on-board SCSI controller, which I only had trouble with on my old
A3000 when I connected an external SCSI CD-Rom Drive to it (which
was a common problem with everyone I knew who had A3000s and
connected external SCSI CD-Rom Drives to them.)
I have also had a good deal of experience with IDE and SCSI
Controllers on PCs. Very recently, I upgraded a number of hard
drives at work, as well as upgrading one of the PCs at work to use
two IDE Drives off of the Pentium Motherboard (something I did not
like doing-it was not fun, especially without documentation) to
allow it to boot from both MS-Dos and Windows95.
Having had this experience, I must say that I am extremely
happy with the RapidFire. As for speed, I really cannot compare
it at this time, as I'm still running on the A2000's 7MHz 68k
processor, so I don't think any speed statistics I could provide
would be fair to the Rapidfire (An accelerator is next in my A2000
system's upgrade list.) I like the AutoConfig feature, something
that I wish Plug-and-Play on the PC could do (I think the idea of
having to have drivers for auto-mount devices is silly.)
BUGS
None that I have found.
VENDOR SUPPORT
I have not needed any, so I cannot say.
WARRANTY
1 Year from Manufacturer against defects.
CONCLUSIONS
At this point in my life, I must state that the RapidFire is
the Best, easiest to install and configure SCSI Controller I have
ever used.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Copyright 1996 by Alexander W. Dorn. All rights reserved.
This review may be freely used as long as it is not used for
commercial gain without my permission.
If you have any comments, you can E-Mail me at
awdorn@primenet.com
Thank you for your time.
Alexander W. Dorn
---
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