DKB RapidFire SCSI-II Controller ================================ BRIEF DESCRIPTION The RapidFire is a SCSI-II (not wide or fast) controller with 2 SIMM sockets for up to 8MB of ram expansion. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: DKB Address: 29318 Lorie Lane Wixom, MI 48393 USA Telephone: (313) 348-3755 FAX: (313) 348-3531 LIST PRICE $159 (US). I paid $128 plus shipping. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE Needs a ZorroII bus only. SOFTWARE Should work with any Amiga from Kickstart 1.3 to 3.x. Requires only the DKB driver software to be installed via floppy. (dkbscsi.device) COPY PROTECTION None MACHINE USED FOR TESTING A2000 020, 4MB fast, 2MB chip, 3.1 OS in ROM A3000 40Mhz 040, 32MB fast, 2MB chip, 3.1 in rom. A4000 25Mhz 040, 48MB ram, 2MB chip, 3.1 in rom. (2) Comports 8 port serial cards (1) 4.3 gig Quantum Grand Prix (1) 1 gig Toshiba (1) 1 gig IBM OBI drive. (2) 540MB junker stock IDE drive on 4000 IDE controller INSTALLATION Installs in any of your 4 or 5 ZorroII/II slots. It only uses ZorroII tho. It slides in a little rough, but fit into the Zorro pins just fine in the end. Unfortunately, at least in my A4000, the back end face plate on the card was too large to screw onto the mounting slot in the back. So instead it just sits there, still firm enough for very safe use. The installation of the driver software is very easy, the disk is even bootable. There is no copy util or install script. The programs are just there to use, you can copy them if you want. The software itself wasn't to bad for configuration a drive. The dkbscsi.device is built internal on the rom of the card I assume. You can access it, via hdtoolbox/etc but it is not on the disk or in devs:. I like it this way. REVIEW The card comes in a Red good looking box packed into some foam packed around it. The card itself? My initial view was a bit dissapointing, the card is a utteryly simply design. I could have designed this layout myself. :) I got it installed in my A4000 and looked to for the small "1" the manual said would be there to show pin 1 of the SCSI 50 pin connector. There was no 1 and the small arrow that was there just didn't register in my head. Now, on the other 5 SCSI 1 & 2 controllers I have had over the years have never had a problem if you accidentally installed the cable on upsidedown. In other words, pin 50 on pin 1. The HD activity light just lit up and nothing worked until you reversed the cable. Well, I plugged in my 3 SCSI drives, properly terminated, properly configured, but backwards on the SCSI cable, and turned the power on. I looked down and watched a tracer get white hot and blow right off the card! I was quite mad about this. I couldn't believe that this caused a problem, I have reversed SCSI connectors on my Warp, an A2091, A Fastlane, the 3000 stock cont, and a GVP 040 card without ever a problem, let alone smoking the card! Anyway, got the ol soldering iron out (the card no longer works at this time of course) and ran a bead of solder over the old trace. Got it working, I wasn't in the mood to ship this back to DKB the day I got it. :) So I reconnected my drives, correctly this time, and tried to boot the SCSI bus light just lit up and wouldn't shut off.. I moved my drives around and SCSI ID's around and it still wouldn't boot. So I had to do it, I forced myself to open the manual and searched for an answer.. Here is what I found: "The RapidFire board uses passive Termination. Some of the newer SCSI drives such as the Quantum Trailblazer series, include an active terminator, which should not be used with the RapidFire. If your drive uses active termination, consult the drive manual for information on how to disable it" Well Termination was already completely disabled on the drive. I tried EVERY possible config on this SCSI chain over a 3 hour period this card had no hopes of working with this very widely sold drive. I called DKB tech and he told me I could get it working if I took off the termination jumper (which I had done) and that I could get this drive working, he asked if I would like to ship my setup off to him and he thought he could get it working. I decided just to wait for my CyberStorm060 and SCSI modual to use my 4.3 gig drive now...I thanked him for his help and gave it another 30 min of trying with no luck. I don't think he could have got it working either. My Quantum GrandPrix 4.3 gig drive works great on my Warp SCSI on my 3000, and it even worked GREAT on my A3000 slow OLD scsi bus! I am now successfully running my IBM and Toshiba drives on the DKB card. I have no choice but to run everything this way because, when I moved my BBS (vrb.com) to an A4000 I lost my 40Mhz 040 3000 Warp and it's incredible SCSI speed. The Warp wouldn't boot in my A4000. So, until the CS060/SCSI II is available, I had to find a quick SCSI II solution. I can't wait to get my Warp converted for the 4k or my CS060, I miss my 4.3 gig drive as well as decent speed. As for RAM, I took 8 MB off my new A4000's motherboard and put it on the card thinking it would have better memory access than the pitiiful A4000 mem bus, the DKB card was very easy to configure, 2 jumpers moved and it was ready for my simms. The jumper config is printed on the card which is a very good idea. To help with overall Speed on my system I went ahead and installed AFSpro and telneted to their support site and got the newest beta of the software. Boy did this help! AFSpro cut my boot time in half! I now wasn't so distrought about the SCSI performance as I was. DOCUMENTATION It has a 10 page (or so) manual with it. The Manual is fair and explains about everything you need to know to get the card running well. Pretty forward and simple. LIKES This is a tough one. After what I am used to in SCSI cards, this card is nothing wonderful. I do like the fact that you can mount a very small 3.5" drive on the card itself, this helps out users that don't have room anywhere else in their system. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS The card design is so simple it seems like a first project from a highschool Electronics class. When the card blew a trace I couldn't believe my eyes. The 50pin connector was so tight I couldnt pull off my cable the first time and ended up gently prying it off with a tiny screwdriver over a 4 minute period. The next 50pin connector that I crimped onto my cable, I oiled with a nonconductive lube. This seemed to help, but not much. I 2 SIMM sockets where generally fine, but when I installed ram in them, I wasn't comfortable with the hight in relation to the card above it. The simms where actually touching one of my comports cards. The RAM speed was only 16 bit access. (or so I was later told) and was actually slower than the 4000 stock memory, which is SCARY! So I put the 2 4MB simms back on the A4000 motherboard. The SCSI speed? It is not fast or wide SCSI2 so it was not much faster than the old stock A3000 speed. I guess the card does it's job, but for $149 retail it is a complete joke, a card like this would be a great deal for those low end users needing SCSI if it costs about $60 at most. It must have about $15 worth of OEM parts on it. I have always liked DKB and I am GREATLY looking forward to their new 8 port extremely high speed serial card to run my internet BBS on, but this card just doesn't do it for me.... Or anyone, for $60 this would be a great card for some people. But for $150, it could do much better. I hope their super serial/parallel/ethernet card is as much of a Godsend as it sounds like it will be when it ships in late August. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS It can't compare to my Warp Engine SCSI II and the only other card I have tested with these drives is a A2091 card which is a SCSI I old C= card, the DKB is much faster than it. BUGS None VENDOR SUPPORT I called DKB to get help with my Quantum drive, well to get it working with the DKB card that is. At first I was treated like I didn't know a whole lot about drives, once I comfirmed my abilities with him he was pretty darn nice and tried to be helpful trying to find me some Quantum settings, he couldn't find them, but that was alright I nothing was going to get this drive working. WARRANTY 1 year Warranty. Full repair. Customer must pay shipping. Unknown if selling the card will transfer warranty. CONCLUSIONS Overall, a good product, for 1990. If they would sell the card for around $60, what is it worth my review might have been much more favorable. I know DKB has some serious smart people there, I can't understand why they didn't use just a little bit more brains in the design of this card. ** (2 stars out of 5) COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1996 Aaron Smith "Amiga, computers for people who want more than just a PC." Finger mustang@vrb.com info@vrb.com recent@vrb.com who@vrb.com A3000 Warped 040/40Mhz 16MB/2gigs, 17 serial ports, OS3.1 Visit my Cnet-Rexx-AWS Integrated Web page www.vrb.com! A4000Tower 060 or PPC soon! Call me via AmiPhone! END ===