Ken wrote: >I would love to upgrade my Starmax 3000. >Starting with adding big fat hard drive. Seems the 40, 60 or 80 Gig >HDs are all affordable but prices vary widely. Are there any brands >I should >avoid or prefer?
George Writes: I too have a SM 3000 and went through the upgrade thing. I added memory, a good ATA graphics card and an L2 G3 card. The results were an improvement, but not what I had expected. I then added a SCSI II fast and wide card from FroMac. I did this because I could get a 4 gig SCSI drive real cheap from E-bay. Boy what a difference. My SM's speed improved more than all the other stuff I added previously. This helped me to realize that the other improvements I made could not be fully realized while on the internal IDE drive. My system was disk bound. I have since added other larger SCSI II internal and several other external SCSI devices and only use the the internal IDE for my CD. As far as drivers for the disk are concerned, I take a different tack than some of the other advice. I went with FWB's Hard Disk Tool Kit and stayed away from Apple's drivers. This has opened up the use of many other brand of IDE and SCSI disks because FWB drivers have a larger list of compatible drives than Apple. I haven't found a device that FWB can't handle on my SM. (Be glad to send you a list of what brands I have and am currently using.) This has allowed me to add very cheap cast off drives that were previously in high end unix stations. What I spent on FWB's HDTK, I more than save on buying used disks that Apple does not support. My last addition was a 9 gig IBM SCSI II fast and wide for 25$. It bumped out a free 2 gig I got from a local University's CAD/CAM lab's cast off. I have not found a SCSI device FWB HDTK will not handle. It formats for HFS as well as HFS+ on fixed as well as removables like Zip and SuperDisk and it has a special formatter optimized for Photoshop scratch volumes. Bottom line is that without going to the SCSI II card, I was not able to experience the full potential of all the other gear I upgraded my SM with. I'm thinking of going to a FireWire/USB combo card next but I don't think I'll get much speed boost from that; just more flexiblilty. -- StarMax is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... / Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \ / <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \ Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> StarMax list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/starmax.html> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/starmax%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
