Which drive: 1541-II or 1571?

[Smokeless Joe]

I'm just getting started in the C64 world. I scored a C64c and I have an SD2IEC controller on the way.

 

But what's recommended for those times you need a real floppy drive? I gather that the 1541 is kinda of a dog, but the 1541-II and 1571 seem to be more popular.

 

The thing that worries me is this paragraph from Wikipedia:

 

"The 1571 is not 100% low-level compatible with the 1541, however this isn't a problem except in some software that uses advanced copy protections such as the RapidLok system found on Microprose and Accolade games."

 

I mean, damn, Microprose and Accolade had some serious games. I'd really prefer to be compatible with them. Or is this not a big deal?

 

Thanks,

 

- Joe

[CRTGAMER]

All three drives have basically the same read speed. Get an EPYX Fast Load cart. I like the swing arm design better then the drop down flap of the early models.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_1571

 

The Commodore 1571 is Commodore's high-end 5¼" floppy disk drive. With its double-sided drive mechanism, it has the ability to use double-sided, double-density (DS/DD) floppy disks natively. This is in contrast to its predecessors, the 1541 and 1570, which can fully read and write such disks only if the user manually flipped them over to access the second side. Because flipping the disk also reverses the direction of rotation, the two methods are not interchangeable; disks which had their back side created in a 1541 by flipping them over would have to be flipped in the 1571 too, and the back side of disks written in a 1571 using the native support for two-sided operation could not be read in a 1541.

 

The 1571 was designed to accommodate the C128's "burst" mode for 2x faster disk access, however the drive cannot use it if connected to older Commodore machines.

 

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

The Commodore 64 cannot take advantage of the 1571's burst mode (without some in-depth modification,) but can still use its double-sided and MFM capabilities -- this means more contiguous storage space on Commodore disks and the ability to read MS-DOS-formatted floppies (not the 360k, IIRC.) I do not have problems with the '71 loading any of the games I own, but YMMV. I cannot remember how well the Epyx FastLoad worked with the 1571, but I know WarpSpeed works great (but is difficult to find.) I have since moved on to JiffyDOS, with the exception of having frequently used WardSpeed's ML monitor and disk editor.

 

You might be able to turn up a 1541-II less expensively. It works just like the old 1541s but is smaller and cooler.

 

The short story from me on this is to just find a nice one of either for a good price and I think you will be just fine.

[carlsson]

Of course one of the reasons why the 1541-II is cooler is because it has an external power supply, unlike both the 1541/1541C and 1570/1571. There was a promised 1571-II but it never went into production as far as I know. Possibly though the internal PSU in the 1571 is of better quality than the external ones that came with the 1541-II. Fortunately the 4-pin DIN power connector is reasonably easy to source if you like to build your own 5V + 12V power supply once the original supply dies.

[7800fan]

Unless you need the double sided disk mode and can remember to send software command to enable it on C64 or are planning to get a C128 later, stick with 1541. 1571 is slightly more expensive on the average and always boot in 1541 mode by default when it's connected to C64 or when you boot C128 while holding down C= key to go directly to 64 mode.

 

AFAIK no C64 software took advantage of 1571 feature, only some 128 software.

[rpiguy9907]

I'm just getting started in the C64 world. I scored a C64c and I have an SD2IEC controller on the way.

 

But what's recommended for those times you need a real floppy drive? I gather that the 1541 is kinda of a dog, but the 1541-II and 1571 seem to be more popular.

 

The thing that worries me is this paragraph from Wikipedia:

 

"The 1571 is not 100% low-level compatible with the 1541, however this isn't a problem except in some software that uses advanced copy protections such as the RapidLok system found on Microprose and Accolade games."

 

I mean, damn, Microprose and Accolade had some serious games. I'd really prefer to be compatible with them. Or is this not a big deal?

 

Thanks,

 

- Joe

 

 

With a Commodore 64 you will not get any additional speed out of the 1571. It requires a C128 for burst mode and you only get the burst mode in C128 modes, not when running in C64 compatibility modes.

 

The 1541-II has the advantage of an external power supply, which means it runs cooler and is less likely to toast itself :-) But there might still be the odd game not compatible with its half-height mechanism. I don't think it is all that many games because the 1541-II came out in what 1986? Most of the AAA games for the C64 came out between 1986 and 1991.

 

All the Commodore drives for the C64 are complete computers in themselves with a CPU, ROM, RAM and I/O interface, so the heat can be an issue.

[+SpiceWare]

AFAIK no C64 software took advantage of 1571 feature, only some 128 software.

My BBS software did. One issue with running a board was you ended up with lots of little text files, which filled up the directory space (144 files max) long before you'd even get close to using up all the file space on the disk.

 

The 1571 would let you treat each side of the disk as a separate single-sided disk, thus doubling your max files to 288. It's been a long time, but after looking at this it had to do with putting it in 1541 mode then using the head select utility command "U0>H0" for side 0 and "U0>H1" for side 1.

 

For the same reason my BBS software supported the subdirectory feature of the 1581.

[+OLD CS1]

AFAIK no C64 software took advantage of 1571 feature, only some 128 software.

 

To name a few: GEOS v2, many BBS programs, IIRC WordWriter 6, numerous disk utilities (including copiers,) and Big Blue Reader (BBR64.) Again, no speed advantage except for custom serial speed enhancers/fast-loaders.

[landgraf]

As has been stated the C64 itself can't utilize the burstmode of the 1571. However, the nibtools can, so if you plan to make images of your copy protected original disks the 1571 plus a ZoomFloppy interface may be a good choice.