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Whether the Diamond Multimedia Fireport 40 Ultra SCSI Host adapter is actually any faster than the Adaptec 2940, its betterknown competitor in the PCI SCSI host adapter market, is open to debate and likely to vary from test site to test site and task to task. But the Diamond adapter wins hands down in two categories: the price and the software bundle. Time was when buying even the lowest priced CD-R drive meant doubling a three or four hundred dollar investment just to be able to plug it in. The Fireport 40, with an estimated retail price of $199, is aimed at the newly-targeted consumer market for SCSI host adapters and its availability and low cost could bring CD recorders and other SCSI peripherals into the price range of a whole new audience.
The Fireport 40 uses a Symbios Logic SYM53CB75 RISC processor as well as Symbios firmware, flash BIOS, and utilities to provide an affordable and expandable SCSI option for PC upgrades. The availability of drivers for both Windows 95 and NT 4.0, along with a bundled disk-formatting utility also flexibly serves upgraders who may also be installing Windows NT 4.0 Server or Workstation.
In benchmark testing, the Fireport proved quite effective on a test system whose relative modesty mirrors Diamond's target consumer/ small office demographic; the platform consisted of a 100Mhz Pentium with 16MB RAM, a 6X IDE CD-ROM drive, two 1.2GB IDE hard drives, an HP 4020i CD recorder, and a Quantum Fireball 1080S external SCSI drive. 40MB/sec throughput is only possible with devices that can use the internal 68-pin Ultra Wide SCSI-3 connector, such as a fast internal hard drive. Diamond offers the External Wide SCSI Upgrade Kit as an option for accessing any external SCSI-3 devices.
Fireport installs easily enough under Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 with a ROM-based boot level configuration utility that allows the card to operate with up to three other SCSI cards. This SCSI surplus raises...