[Coco] Super IDE vs. Drive Pak

[Brian Blake]

On 11/15/2011 7:18 PM, Steve Ostrom wrote:
> One thing I've noticed is that Roger seems to be selling his Drive Pak 
> on eBay, but the price will vary as will the amount of memory 
> included.  If you decide to buy Drive Pak on eBay, make sure you wait 
> and watch prices and memory so you are getting the best deal you can.  
> I think that Cloud-9 has consistant prices.
>
> -Steve-
>
>
>
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Steve brings up a good point, that the eBay price Roger sells at does 
fluctuate according to the miniSD card he has installed, though it does 
come ready to run out of the box.

However, in interest of fairness, you have to look at the cost it takes 
to get the SuperIDE usable. I'll use the cost when I bought mine:

1. SuperIDE w/RTC - $99
2. HDB-DOS for the SIDE - $30 (I do not know if the ROM is freely 
available to burn or not...)
3. CF adapter - $14 (you can subtract this if you already have a small 
IDE drive - I didn't)
4. 2GB CF card - $12 (you can subtract this if you already have a small 
IDE drive - I didn't)

In my case, it was $156, and I didn't include the cost of SuperDriver 
(to use the S-IDE in NitrOS-9)since I haven't used it yet. Then you have 
to go thru setting up the drives in order to use them.

When you buy a DrivePak, it's plug and play - the caveat is learning the 
new commands.

There is a steeper cost involved to get a SuperIDE system up and 
running. What a buyer needs to do is evaluate whether the speed increase 
of the SuperIDE is worth the extra money.

Either way, it must also be stated (for newer folks) that BOTH systems 
have the same problems with software that do not use normal DSKCON 
routines - neither can run them.

Again, not taking sides - have both, use both, love both...