Disk On Modules and Falcon. Questions.

General discussions or ideas about hardware.
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Zarchos
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Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2017 4:01 pm

Disk On Modules and Falcon. Questions.

Post by Zarchos »

I hope it is the right place to ask ... if not, please just delete.

What do you think of Disk On Modules for the Falcon ?
Does it work ok, whatever the brand ?
I am tempted to prefer this solution instead of CF or SD cards, for various reasons :
- no need of a converter (thus eliminating an apparatus in the chain)
- CF or SD cards were made for storage, not for continuous 'disk' accesses (but here tell me if I am wrong).

So if that is ok for the Falcon : knowing how fast it can go to transfer data, which specs should I choose for the DOMs ? (which specs shouldn't I choose, knowing high specs cost more, and well anyway the stock Falcon couldn't exceed its max capabilities).
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rpineau
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Re: Disk On Modules and Falcon. Questions.

Post by rpineau »

DOM are spawn from hell .. trust me I work in the IT industry with a LOT of servers... DOM are always the first thing to fail on a server.
This happened so many time that we decided to replace them with small SSD (32GB) across our whole data centers (about 3500 servers total were updated, we had a big celebration where we lit all the DOM on fire in a pit).
Also ... DOM are a lot slower than regular disk.. and slower than CF from what I've seen.
So if you don't value your data .. get a DOM, if you do, get a CF adapter with a good quality CF.
You can also get one of the cheap IDE to SATA adapter and get a small SATA SSD, that would be the best solution for speed and reliability... but I haven't tested this on an Atari yet (did on a friend PC).
Rodolphe
Working ones : MegaSTE (68020) / TT030 / Falcon with AB040 & Eclipse / 1040STF
Need testing : Falcon with CT2
Zarchos
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Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2017 4:01 pm

Re: Disk On Modules and Falcon. Questions.

Post by Zarchos »

rpineau wrote: Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:28 pm DOM are spawn from hell .. trust me I work in the IT industry with a LOT of servers... DOM are always the first thing to fail on a server.
This happened so many time that we decided to replace them with small SSD (32GB) across our whole data centers (about 3500 servers total were updated, we had a big celebration where we lit all the DOM on fire in a pit).
Also ... DOM are a lot slower than regular disk.. and slower than CF from what I've seen.
So if you don't value your data .. get a DOM, if you do, get a CF adapter with a good quality CF.
You can also get one of the cheap IDE to SATA adapter and get a small SATA SSD, that would be the best solution for speed and reliability... but I haven't tested this on an Atari yet (did on a friend PC).
Rodolphe
Oh well !
Thanks for the infos.
What I had read was that DOM were created for industries, for environments where something sturdy and long lasting was necessary.
Pfew, thanks for these real infos : what I had read was propaganda.
mikro
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Re: Disk On Modules and Falcon. Questions.

Post by mikro »

I have a vastly different experience than rpineau. I'm using DOMs in all my Falcons -- small, reliable, directly connectable to the 44 pin connector. Simply hassle free.

On the other hand, find a good CF is like looking for needle in a haystack so no, for me are DOMs the only option.
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rpineau
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Re: Disk On Modules and Falcon. Questions.

Post by rpineau »

The DOM we used were supposedly high quality but remember .. these were in servers in data centers and were on 24/7/365
I will assume your Falcon is not up all the time so they probably won't fail as fast as the one we used.
It might also have been an issue with the particular brand we used ( https://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/SATADOM.cfm ).

Rodolphe
Working ones : MegaSTE (68020) / TT030 / Falcon with AB040 & Eclipse / 1040STF
Need testing : Falcon with CT2
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