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Procom Si 2703/C
Procom Technology, Inc. (800)800-8600 http://www.procom.com Distributors: Intelligent Electronics, Inacom
LIKE THE HP DRIVE mentioned before, Procom's Si 2103/C is manufactured by another company that also entered the product for review under its own name. In this case, the OEM is Seagate, and the drive is the 2-Gbyte Barracuda 2LP ST3255ON.
The Seagate Barracuda already is premium-priced product. With an estimated street price of $879, the Procom Si pushes that further. It is the most expensive drive by far in terms of price per megabyte, coming in at 41 cents vs. 25 cents to 33 cents for the other 2-Gbyte SCSI models tested.
Even though the CRN Test Center tested internal drives--and this pricing is for a such a model--that hundred dollar premium Procom charges does result in differences. For example, Procom preconfigures drives for platform compatibility, ships the drives with SCSI and drive light cables already attached, and provides a glossy 24-page installation manual and a data sheet for the drive. Procom's technical support staff are particularly knowledgable about platform compatibility issues, both within and without the microcomputer arena.
If a reseller already is comfortable with configuring drives for specific systems, all this extra help may be unneeded. Procom's real strength is preconfigured RAID storage subsystems and other specialty products. But for the reseller who wants a preconfigured drive, Procom takes some of the hassles out of installation--for a price.
Quantum Atlas Quantum Bigfoot
Quantum Corp. Contact Distributors Distributors: Arrow, Bell, Gates, Globelle, Ingram Micro, Wyle, Scwebber, Centauri, Gates/Arrow
TWO PRODUCTS could not be more different than the Quantum drives reviewed here. The Atlas XP34300W is a thousand-dollar-plus 4-Gbyte Fast and Wide SCSI-2 drive loaded with state-of-the-art technology. The Bigfoot is a 2.5-Gbyte Enhanced-IDE drive that spin half as fast and cost one-third as much.
Quantum's Atlas is a drive well-suited to A/V work. It avoids interruptions for thermal recalibration, a problem with most drives that can cause drop-outs when capturing realtime video to a hard disk. Combined with a 7,200 rpm spindle speed, a 2-Mbyte...