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From: vic@cd.com (Vic Serbe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom
Subject: Re: Plextor's quad speed
Date: 30 Jul 1994 18:54:16 GMT
Organization: Central Data Corp.
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In article <31c1rq$2m0@cronkite.cisco.com>, pbjohnso@cisco.com (Paul Johnson) says:
>
>In article <31bmqj$qs7@jabba.cybernetics.net>
>vic@cd.com (Vic Serbe) writes:
>
>> It's the best value per dollar on the market today for CDROM.
>
>I'm not convinced the Plextor is as great a value as you say.  Sure
>it's faster than most else, and at a price that is cheaper for the last
>150Kb/s than the NEC's are.  
>
>BUT, the Mitsumi proprietary drive, for $129 and roughly (some claim
>more) 300Kb/s (or over 2Kb/s per dollar) gives you more data transfer
>per dollar than the Plextor (600Kb/s / $400= 1.5 kb/s per dollar).  

If all you'll ever need is 2x, and you have CPU horsepower to burn, this
is true... I'll give you that.  Otherwise...

The only problem with this, is you're throwing CPU overhead and forward 
compatibility out the door as a point of value.  I consider both of these to
be of extremely high value in a rapidly moving technology area such as
computing.

Agreed, the hardware is more expensive, and does not come with the required 
controller, but there's value in purchasing something that will carry you
farther before having to spend money again.  And, in the mean time, will
noticably improve the performance of applications only *requiring* 2x, but
still benefitting from 4x and SCSI.

The interface cards for all the proprietary CDROM drives are programmed I/O
and not interrupt driven.  This translates to much higher CPU overhead.
I used to have the Creative Labs Omni CD.  Good for what it was, but light
years behind SCSI and the 4Plex.

--
Vic Serbe (vic@cd.com)