Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : Any info about Iomega (IOM)? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: emichael who wrote (49102)	3/1/1998 5:54:00 PM
From: Spank	Respond to of 58324

emichael, it's Fortune, not Money. anyway, here's the washington post's view of the SyJest's product: A SparQ, Not a Star By Daniel Greenberg Friday, February 27, 1998; Page N66 When you bought that shiny new computer, its 2-gigabyte hard drive probably seemed like a bottomless pit. But with games devouring as much as 600 megs apiece, impossibly huge hard drives quickly get stuffed to the gills. SyQuest's SparQ is like that hard drive, except it's not: You can save up to a gigabyte of files on it -- then eject the cartridge, insert another one, and max that one out too. (Actually, you'll get a little less than a gig, thanks to file-system overhead.) It's also easier to install than most hard drives, plugging neatly into the printer port. But the SparQ's software is not so simple, requiring two installer programs -- one of which runs in an antediluvian DOS window. The best part of the SparQ is its barely-below-$200 price -- not much more than Iomega's industry-dominating Zip drive, which offers one-tenth of the SparQ's capacity. That figure is also $100 cheaper than the one-gig version of Iomega's Jaz drive. Cartridges, at $39 each or three for $99, cost half to a third as much as Jaz disks. The worst part of the SparQ is the compromises SyQuest made to keep the price so low. It runs significantly slower than the Jaz (which comes close to regular hard-drive speeds) and performs only about half as fast as SyQuest's claims when copying large files, with even greater slowdowns when a lot of small files are involved. It also hijacks your computer when copying data: It relies too heavily on your processor to do its work, slowing down graphics and making the cursor bog down and sometimes disappear entirely. This makes the SparQ a poor solution for applications that frequently access the drive, such as games. Its lack of a faster SCSI connection may explain this sluggishness; it also makes the SparQ a non-starter for Mac users. An internal version of the SparQ is also available, which should be faster, but that also requires opening the computer's case. Finally, SparQ cartridges feel flimsier than Jaz or seemingly indestructible Zip disks, and inserting them in the drive is not a smooth process. Deciding whether the SparQ is right for you depends on what you want it for. If you need to back up your hard drive, you may be quite pleased; it's faster and more flexible than cheaper tape systems. But compared to hard disks and Jaz drives, it's slow and cumbersome. You can't beat the price -- but you can beat the performance. SparQ, SyQuest, Win 3.1/95, $199; syquest.com. UPDATE The Philips CDR 870 profiled in last month's CD-recording story ("CDs Without the Music Store," Jan. 31) can be hard to find; try Sears or New York-based J&R Music World (888/221-8180). Also, blank audio CDs (required in home-stereo recorders such as the CDR 870) carry a copyright royalty of 3 percent of their wholesale price, while blank data CDs for computers (which you can record as audio CDs with the right software) don't. c Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company