Where to buy an XF551

[Themegaman]

Looked on eBay but nothing...

 

Im looking for a XF551 that is not stained and that works well.

 

With that said, where can I find one?

 

Whats the market for these?

 

Plenty of 1050s are available on eBay, which leads me to believe that the XF551 may be a good drive or in short supply and is relatively rare.

[+Nezgar]

You can buy reconditioned or new XF551's from Best Electronics: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/8-bit_.htm

 

Yes they are rare on ebay... I think it's more that they are just rare in the field since they came out so late in the game when most people had moved onto PC, ST, Amiga, Etc. Just like seeing WST (hong kong) 1050's is pretty rare on ebay, they're usually the older Tandon (singapore) drives.

 

I've had one on my wish list for a while, not that I really NEED one as I already have a stack of 1050's I've restored, but just to have one.. Will eventually include it as part of a larger order from Best, expecially since I'm in Canada. I would have loved to have a DSDD drive back in the day, and muck around with the hacks to enable a 720K drive, internal or externally as a second drive.

 

Edit: B&C Computervisions also sells reconditioned XF551's, as well as replacement PCB's, CPU's, ROMs, manuals, etc.

http://www.myatari.com/atarixlh.txt

 

I've read lots of reports of the PCB's being fragile, and damaging easily with insertion/removal of the SIO plug, and the SIO plugs weren't anchored to the PCB well, if at all?

Edited November 27, 2017 by Nezgar

[+Larry]

What are you interested in -- 5-1/4" or converted to 3-1/2' micro floppy (720KB)?

 

Unless you want to use it as a 720KB drive, for many folks, a 1050 with Happy is a better choice. (But I know a lot of folks who just love their XF's.)

 

-Larry

[Themegaman]

5 1/4.

 

I grew up with the 130XE and dual XF551s.

 

Looking to have the same set up for my son.

[Guest]

they do tend to crop up frequently on ebay.de

- none at present tho at a reasonable price

and one at a very high €446 !!!

[576XE]

One word...

 

And be aware that XF551 is very sensitive to PAL/NTSC host computer.

I mean that if you have PAL machine then you must obtain PAL version of XF551.

And if you have NTSC computer then take NTSC version of XF551 Drive.

 

zen