Building an Engineering Workstation > Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Hard Drive
Maxtor 27.2 GB EIDE Ultra-DMA/66 7200 RPM 2 MB Cache, $207 from Buy.com
I originally wanted to get a SCSI drive. They're much faster than any IDE drive, and other peripherals (CD-ROMs, Zip drives, scanners, etc.) are almost trivial to install (much easier than Windows Plug-n-Play).
However, a SCSI card would cost about $200, and the hard drive would be two to three times the cost of a good IDE drive--and still be lower capacity.
My first choice was an IBM drive, but it wasn't in stock. I chose instead a Maxtor 27 GB Ultra-DMA/66 drive, 7200 RPM, with a 2 MB cache. At $207, it was about half the price of an 18 GB SCSI drive.
Zip Drive
250 MB Internal Zip drive, $148 from Page Computer
There was never a question that I would be getting a Zip drive. All of my current machines have one, and I use Zip disks almost exclusively for transfering files. They're faster than floppies, they have plenty of capacity, and they don't go bad as often as floppies. Also, I can back up all of my data on a single Zip disk.
The only question was what kind of Zip drive. I decided almost immediately on a 250 MB drive. Even though my current drives are 100 MB, the new drives can read and write the old disks.
The next choice was the interface. I had decided against a SCSI card, so that was out. The USB was tempting--I could use it on all of my machines--but the transfer rate is about 1/3 that of the internal (EIDE) version. The parallel port version was never an option. So I went with the internal EIDE drive.
I'm still not sure that was the right choice. The 250 MB drive reads 100 MB disks just fine, but it writes to them extremely slowly. For about 2/3 the cost, I might have been better off with a 100 MB drive, with a plan to add a Jaz or tape drive when that was no longer sufficient for backups.
Optical Storage
Memorex 48X CD-ROM, $47 from Buy.com
Some form of optical storage is necessary on any computer. At first, I had planned to go with DVD-ROM. A DVD-ROM with an MPEG decoder would have cost about $200 and used up a PCI slot. But the only reason for an MPEG decoder is to watch movies, and that doesn't fit with an engineering machine.
A DVD-ROM without a MPEG decoder brings the cost down to $100. That leaves the option of later adding a decoder, or getting a video card with a built-in decoder. Again, though, I couldn't think of a need for DVD on this machine.
I finally settled on a fast CD-ROM, at half the price of a DVD-ROM without a decoder. I also considered a writeable CD drive, but I don't have a need for one right now. At the price of the plain CD-ROM, I could afford to later add a CD-write or a DVD.
Floppy Drive
Teac 1.44 MB, $17 from Page Computer
I was actually placing my order when I realized I hadn't selected a floppy drive. I almost decided to skip it--I use Zip drives almost exclusively now--but then I remembered that some software (notable Windows) requires a floppy drive for installation.
I did consider one of the 120 MB drives that are compatible with standard floppies, but I would still need a Zip drive for transfers with my other machines.
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