Re: Benchmark DLT1?

[Nick Holland <nick@holland-consulting.net>]

Not quite so simple...

Benchmark (the company) is an "alternative manufacturer" of the DLT
drive format developed by DEC and until recently, available only from
Quantum (though, of course, other people slapped their names on the
box).  They call their product "DLT1".

DLT1 is a 40G (real) DLT format for a price which is shockingly lower
than Quantum-based DLT IV format drives.  I think Kit (and I, and
probably a whole lot of other people) are looking for Real World
Experience with something that sounds too good to be true.  I think we
all agree the Quantum DLT is a good (but pricy) product, some people I
know go as far as to say it is the tape drive to which all others
aspire.  The question is, is the DLT1 as good, or is it a cheap
knock-off.  After all, if it is not as reliable as a real DLT, I'd
rather use cheaper DDS media and budget for a new tape drive every
year or so, than have a DLT drive eating $100 tapes...

There may be some connection between Benchmark and Tandberg, not sure
what:
http://www.tandberg.com/dlt/dlt1.html
(I got REALLY scared when I saw Tandberg use the same words to praise
the DLT1 as they did the TRAVAN format...though I haven't tried a
Tandberg TRAVAN drive, nor do I see any reason believe the TRAVAN
format itself is fatally flawed, just that my experience has been that
the products that have shipped and I have tried were junk)

Benchmark's site is:
http://www.benchmarktape.com/
but as of the time I write this, their site is displaying "Windows NT
error number 2".  For some reason, I find this unimpressive and
uninspiring.

Nick.
(on a never-ending quest for a cheap and reliable backup system that
uses cost-effective media)



Hans-Guenter Weigand wrote:
> 
> kit@kithalsted.com (Kit Halsted) wrote:
> > Has anybody used a DLT1 drive under OpenBSD? Good? Bad? Ugly? The
> > only mention of them I see in the archives is Nick Holland asking for
> > info back in September, & I'm hoping for a more definite answer than
> > the "most SCSI tape drives" bit on the 1386 hardware page.
> 
> I don't know which model you mean with 'DLT1', but I had a DLT4000,
> which worked without problems.  Now I own a DLT7000, the best tape drive
> I ever had.  DLTs are very fast, you possibly need to tune your disk
> configurations, so that the disks can source the amount of data the tape
> drive swallows per second.
> 
> AFAIK, DLT drives have correct SCSI implementations.  You surely won't
> run into problems with any DLT.
> 
> -hgw

-- 
http://www.holland-consulting.net/