40 vs 80 GB drives + Memory upgrades

[remixrick]

Hi all,

Do the Fusion 6HD's still come with 40GB drives or has Alesis switched to 80 GB? The Alesis site says they're 40GB but I've seen both on eBay so I wasn't sure if there had been a change somewhere along the line. Also, I've heard that Sweetwater upgrades the ones the sell to 80GB.

The memory upgrades seem rather pricey when compared to the cost of memory for PC's. Any idea why there is such a price difference? Is aftermarket memory available at a significantly better price?

Thanks!

Rick

[gwenhwyfaer]

40Gb is what Alesis specify, so you'll get at least 40Gb. On the other hand, every so often it gets hard to find stocks of 40Gb drives, at which point Alesis have to use the next one up.

If Sweetwater fish around inside your Fusion, I hope they're also prepared to honour the warranty, because I can't see Alesis doing so.

The memory on the expansion is PC166 SDR memory, a type of memory which was only ever used on graphics cards. So no DIMMs, because nobody ever made PC166 DIMMs; and no mass production discounts, because PC166 isn't common. As for why that particular type of memory - I'm guessing that TI are the people to ask; the answer is probably somewhere in the datasheet for the 320c6713 (the two "voice engine" DSPs in the Fusion), but I'll bet the RAM clock has to be synchronised with the DSP clock. Personally, I'd rather have the extra 25% of DSP power. In any case, 64Mb per engine isn't exactly a small amount of RAM - and the amount of RAM available is quite insignificant if you intend to make extensive use of the other synth engines.

Embrace the "limitation". Abundance does not feature on invention's birth certificate.

(Of course, to those of us who remember when samplers used floppy disks as their only means of mass storage, it's arguable that 64Mb doesn't actually constitute a "limitation" in the first place...)

[neomad]

Hello: I bought my fusion last June, and I got a 80g hd ...

[remixrick]

Hi Gwen,

Thanks for the info. I never thought of the warranty ramifications of Sweetwater's upgrades. I imagine that they worked it out with Alesis ahead of time but would not have thought to ask them. As they say in the software quality assurance biz: good catch!

Here's the look on the face of the first guy to find out that his warranty has been voided: Here's how the people who read his post on the forum would respond:

When it comes to realistically emulating instruments more memory is almost always better. Also the better to preload before live gigs. I suspect that if the Fusion market takes off that 3rd parties will develop memory boards at attractive prices.

Thanks again for your reply ... Rick

[Clay:Dog]

I just got my Fusion a couple of weeks ago from Sweetwater and asked about the 80gig hard drive and I was told by the service department that it's actually only a 40 gig hd, that the 80gig was just a marketing mistake. But who knows what's right.

DM

[lildave]

I got my Fusion 6HD back in March sometime and I have an 80GB hard rive. I read that Alesis ran out of 40GB or maybe the company they were using ran out of 40GB so they started using 80GB for about the same price I think. I don't think it's a marketing mistake. The proof is in the pudding here.

[andrews928]

I received a new from the factory Fusion 8HD is November 2006, it had a 40GB HD.

[nuno]

I bought mine from thomman a few weeks ago and it came with a 80Gb drive.

[stuart]

I got my 8HD as a special order through my local music shop from Alesis UK on 30th November and it had an 80GB drive fitted. The box had a stricker on it stating that the box had been opened by Alesis UK, presumably to fit the drive and update the OS version to 1.24.

[Hollow Sun]

80GB is pretty much standard issue now (though there may be a few floating around with 40GB).

My understanding is that Alesis' supplier stopped stocking/discontinued their 40GB drive and the 80GB was the only option. I gather as well that there wasn't much difference in price (though not sure about that).

Even if you get one with a 40GB drive, that's still pretty hefty. I have loads of samples on my 40GB drive (understandably) and I don't think it's even touched 10% used! And you could have thousands of VA/FM/PM programs on disk and they wouldn't even make a dent on a 40GB drive's storage!!

I guess the 80GB drive is most useful if you plan on doing a lot of 8-track recording but for ordinary use, 40GB is more than sufficient.


Steve

[andrews928]

"My understanding is that Alesis' supplier stopped stocking/discontinued their 40GB drive and the 80GB was the only option. I gather as well that there wasn't much difference in price (though not sure about that)."

My recently purchased 8HD had a Maxtorl 40GB drive> Most mfg's WD, Seagate, Hitachi,etc. pretty much have discontinued 40's. We build a lot of computers and I still can get 40's but the price difference to upgrade to an 80 is $2.00 and these probably will be on the endagered species list because of SATA drives.