NuCF — Super Fast PDS-slot Hard Drive by ZZJ

[JDW]

I recently purchased the latest creation by @zigzagjoe called NuCF. Here's his sales thread offering all the details.

It's faster than any SCSI hard drive because it installs in the PDS slot of an SE/30, IIsi or IIfx.

Below are my SE/30 benchmarks (with the IIfx at the end, created by ZZJ). Note that my SE/30 has a 50MHz CPU-socketed Daystar PowerCache installed (with PowerCentral loaded, caches enabled). Previously, I was getting the best scores overall with MacSD by @YMK. MacSD even beats BlueSCSIv2 (a great, fast product) in most of my benchmarking on SE/30 machines. But because NuCF bypasses SCSI altogether, it gives you some serious performance increases, as shown below. BTW, I still love MacSD. It's really fast and has great features, which makes the sheer speed improvement by NuCF all the more impressive.

MacBench 3.0​

Norton System Info 3.5.3: Disk Ratings​

Norton System Info 3.5.3: Detailed Ratings, Absolute​

Norton System Info 3.5.?: Detailed Ratings, Absolute (for Mac IIfx, created by ZigZagJoe)​

I ran those benchmarks with NuCF installed in my SE/30 which has ZZJ's LCD color kit.
You can stack PDS cards, and the photo below shows the 30color video card sitting atop NuCF.

ZZJ's Comments on BenchMark Results​

I was told that "sequential performance" is faster than a 68030 Mac really needs, but that the "random disk access" is the benchmark result where you'll see major improvement and which gives you the overall feeling of speed from NuCF. ZZJ went on to say that most SE/30 accelerators cause some loss of measured benchmark performance (especially sequential) when using NuCF. He cited an example of the Carrera accelerator as having a "bad bus translation implementation" (when benchmarked alongside NuCF). But he added that "random access" performance is not significantly impacted by accelerators, so it's of little consequence in use.

Lastly, his sales page on the 68kMLA also says this:
IIsi/IIfx overclocking is at your own risk; much beyond stock clocks will start pushing the CF write cycles out of specification. PIO-6 cards might be okay with it, either way, YMMV. Nor have I tested any SD-to-CF adapters or CF extension cables - they may work, but no guarentees!

Minor Installation Caveat​

You will need to bend the left side metal tab on the SE/30 chassis to avoid shorting the card you have stacked atop NuCF, as shown below.

Performance Tweaking​

Performance can vary by the CF card you use. ZZJ's recommended cards are all vintage CF cards from about 20 years ago, but apparently, modern CF cards will work too. To be safe, I tried purchasing his most recommended CF card (InnoDisk ICF9000), but the EBAY seller ran out before I could lock in my order. I then chose his 2nd best recommended card, which was also a used vintage card — SanDisk Extreme IV 8GB. I purchased it on EBAY and had it shipped it to ZZJ so he could ship that to me along with the NuCF, which was important since I am located outside the USA.

We need to get more NuCF users to chime in about how performance differs from card to card. So if you own a NuCF, please run System Info 3.5.3 (or 3.5.5) and post your own bar graph for Disk Ratings and create your own MS Excel graph too. I've attached the Excel file I created to make it super easy for all of you to rework it with your own benchmark results.

I hope this info is helpful.
Have fun!

 

[Nixontheknight]

Will it work with a Centris 650?

 

[JDW]

Will it work with a Centris 650?

I cannot speak on behalf of the creator, @zigzagjoe , but my guess is No, based on the fact he only specifically mentioned the SE/30, IIsi and IIfx machines. It's a PDS card, not NuBus. Normally cards that work in a IIsi and SE/30 would not work in a IIfx, but he did some engineering trickery that made it work.