Sounds of the Priam V185

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Priam V185
Country of Origin: United States of America
Introduced: 1990
Interface: ST-412 (MFM nominal)
Capacity: 70MB
Form: 5.25 FH (3")
CHS: 1166 / 7 / 17
LZN: 65535
WPC: 65535
Track-track: 3.8ms
Linear access: 11.2ms
Random access: 18.6ms
Rotational: 3600RPM
Media: Sputtered metallic
Disks: 4
Actuation: Rotary voice coil
Feedback: Servo surface
Lift/Lock/Park: Auto park / Actuator lock
Brake: Dynamic
Service life: 20,000 hours
Related models: Vertex V185, InnerSpace ID62-AT-D2, Priam V185R (RLL certified)
Failures: Capacitors
Settings: aioinc.ddns.net/HOST/TH99/h/tx...
My thoughts:
I'm not a huge fan of voice coil drives, but I do have a few to show off. Many members of my Discord server have interest in them, and so I've dubbed April "Voice coil month."
This drive is fast, really fast. This may be one of, if not the fastest ST-412 interface drive ever made. It is also no slouch in terms of capacity. This was the last traditional Priam drive - After this, there was a merger with competitor Atasi for all future products. This is also the last drive to bear the Vertex name. These drives, unfortunately, have a pension for exploding tantalum capacitors in their old age. ‪@TheMajorTechie‬ can sure tell you all about that. My example works flawlessly, but for how long, I do not know.
Being Priam's last, I thought it would be fitting to make it the last drive for voice coil month.

[@TheDiskMaster]

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[@QuantumDriveEnjoyerQDE]

This is probably one of the fastest MFM drives I have seen. Very cool drive.

[@TheDiskMaster]

It's probably one of the fastest out there. Thanks!

[@leecremeans5446]

18 ms average seek is incredibly fast for an ST-412 drive. It's actually impinging on ESDI territory, things like the CDC Wren III.

[@TheDiskMaster]

It actually has a faster seek than some 3.5" SL IDE drives!

[@matthewsvideos8235]

I have the 65 MB version operational. My 40MB version died last year shortly after I did a video on it. Starting an air raid siren. Hopefully something that can be repaired.

[@TheDiskMaster]

Apparently these drives have issues with tantalum capacitors shorting. It may be a result of that.

[@douro20]

MPI/Control Data/Imprimis drives often have issues with tantalum caps as well.

[@TheDiskMaster]

Indeed, I think most computer equipment from this era is beginning to really suffer.

[@cdos9186]

Can't go wrong with a Priam! I do not know what kind of failure mode they have they are so reliable, at least in terms of the mechanical aspects. The PCBs can give issues, but the heart of the drive seems to always keep going. Also I never realized how fast these were, what is similar in performance to it from the same time would you say?

[@TheDiskMaster]

This is the fastest MFM drive I've ever handled, and the V185R is probably the fastest RLL drive out there as well. I don't know of anything from this time period that matches it's performance. It would be some early IDE voice coil stuff.

[@cdos9186]

@@TheDiskMaster Neat, I would've thought the Maxtor XT series of drives would be similar in performance but that doesn't seem to be the case. I wonder how Priam made the drive so quick whether it was good design or a combination of faster electronics and and a well designed mechanism.

[@TheDiskMaster]

​@@cdos9186I'm not sure how the XT-2000 series performs since nobody I know has a proper working unit, but the XT-1000 I know is not as fast as this. Not sure what all Priam did in pursuit of performance. We can only speculate.

[@cdos9186]

@@TheDiskMaster Also the prices that people are starting to want has dramatically increased for those XT-2000 series drives I noticed. I should've gotten one when they where more common and for pretty good prices, but now it is just out of control. They do sound neat, but the performance definitely isn't the same as these Priam drives. Not that it is a big deal, just I think the Maxtor drives have more mass to the actuator and are slower since they have to move a heavier actuator around. I think what Priam did to get the performance was know how to make a good drive : ))

[@TheDiskMaster]

​@@cdos9186There's a difference between a good drive and a fast drive. The CMI CM-5412 is just about the fastest drive of it's class and is still pretty universally hated. Even mine died during recording. I agree, the increased weight of the actuator will reduce the performance of any drive design. Maybe someday I will stumble onto an XT-1140 or XT-2190 that actually works.

[@weymouthladuk]

Super fast hard disk

[@TheDiskMaster]

Truly, at least for it's time. This is one of the, if not the fastest drive out there for this interface type.

[@bobjoe2827]

The Bull S.A. D585 is a rebadged clone of this drive. I suspect that their other drives (at least those listed in the hard drive bible) are also rebadged Priam/Vertex drives, however I don't have examples of those to confirm it.

[@TheDiskMaster]

The Bull D510 is a Seagate ST-412 built under license. I don't have one but I have seen photos.

[@bobjoe2827]

@@TheDiskMaster That makes sense, there were a lot of smaller makers that either licensed or rebadged other makers drives. I recently found an "RMS 526" hard drive at the steel mill where I work (sadly broken far beyond repair) that is a rebadged Disctron D-526 hard drive.

[@TheDiskMaster]

​@@bobjoe2827oh wow! You found an RMS? I have been searching for one of those for forever. If you would like to be rid of it, I would be very interested to take it off your hands.

[@bobjoe2827]

@@TheDiskMaster At this point that drive (the RMS) is just a static display. The head assembly is missing, the board is blown (it will not spin up) and it gave its one good platter to fix my CMI CM-3426. The TR department at the mill had opened it and removed the entire head assembly and destroyed all but the bottom most platter to prevent recovery. I threw some old 251 platters in it to make it seem more complete, but that is all I could do with it. If you are interested in it let me know.

[@TheDiskMaster]

Ouch. Is the lid still with it / Does is still say RMS on the back? I would still be interested if it is at least that much in one piece.

[@thegeforce6625]

Good god is this thing a rocket ship. I wonder if a fast 286 or slow 386 would be able to keep up at a 1:1 interleave. (Pretty sure a XT class machine of any speed wouldn’t be able to though)

[@TheDiskMaster]

My turbo AT at 20MHz could manage to keep up with the IBM 0665-53 at RLL code with 1:1 interleave, so a 386 could surely best this drive. What would really make it fly is a 10 megabit ARLL controller like a Perstor PS200AT.

[@thegeforce6625]

@@TheDiskMaster is the 0665-53 faster than this drive?

[@TheDiskMaster]

@@thegeforce6625 No, this drive is definitely faster than the 0665-53.