[Debian-uk] Linux Expo?

[Charles Briscoe-Smith]

On Fri, Oct 04, 2002 at 09:58:38AM +0100, Steve McIntyre wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 04, 2002 at 09:35:16AM +0100, Philip Hands wrote:
> >Assuming that 48x means what it says (unlikely, I know --- I'll do some
> >tests this evening) we should be able to knock out a CD per drive every
> >two minutes or so, which is about 180 CDs per day per drive (assuming
> >some poor sod(s) devotes there entire concentration to burning CDs at
> >all times).

IMO, 48x (or even 40x) is likely to be the maximum speed at CAV,
so it'll be slower than that on average.  I'd agree with Steve that
more than 16x is contraindicated in terms of compatibility.  (In fact,
I had a DVD player that wouldn't read CD-Rs written at more than 12x.
The player was otherwise defective and its replacement reads 16x disks,
but it demonstrates the point...)

> Don't forget that to drive 7 IDE CD-R drives you'll need (at least) 4
> machines. They won't do 48x reliably, either, unless you dedicate a
> machine to each.

(Not true, I suspect; it should be theoretically possible to get many
more IDE devices connected to a single machine, each on their own IDE bus,
simply by stuffing extra PCI-IDE interface cards in.  OTOH, I've not yet
been able to get anything but IDE HDDs to work efficiently on add-in
IDE interfaces.  That configuration problem aside, though, I'd expect
a machine with enough PCI slots and a decent processor to be able to
feed at least 6 CD writers at 16x off a couple of mirrored IDE drives by
using 3 add-in IDE cards.  I've just tried writing at 16x on both my IDE
writers at once, reading two different CD images off the same IDE disk,
and it uses 30% of my 700MHz Cyrix processor's time and 25% of the disk's
20MB/s bandwidth.  With a big FIFO buffer, this setup should be reliable.
The only potential problem I'd anticipate with scaling up to 6 writers
would be PCI bus bandwidth.)

> >I can also get CD blanks for about 12p each, and PVC sleeves for 1.75p
> >each (ex VAT).  John may be able to do prices near these, which would be
> >better, since he has a use for CDs & sleeves that are left over.

I've generally been getting blanks for 15-18p each (inc VAT) from a
computer market, but Steve convinced me that branded blanks would be
reliable enough to not need verification after writing.  I generally
verify all my cheapie disks after writing, which almost doubles the
time taken to produce them, because I've previously had up to about 5
defective disks per pack of 100 blanks.

I was planning to get 200 or so Verbatim branded blanks for use at the
show at 24p each, plus sleeves at 4p each and full-face labels at 6p
each (all inc VAT).  Phil, can you get branded disks at a better price?
(Hmm.  I wanted to order by 2:30 today to get them by Monday, but I've
missed that deadline now. ;))

-- 
Charles Briscoe-Smith             Hacking Free Software for fun and profit
Do you still use counterfeit vowels?  -- Dilbert, 27 September 2002