Banx Stackable Disk Box - 110 capacity
                 œ13.99 from Special Reserve
                      By James Judge

OK, OK, I know a disk box is a strange thing to review in an
adventure mag but, if you read my letter in last month's Syntax,
you'll understand why I'm doing it.

About once a year I find my disk collection has outgrown my
present disk box capacity so I go looking for a newer, bigger,
better disk box and this year it happened to be the Banx one.
What attracted me to this particular one was it is stackable with
others of its kind.  'Great!' I thought. 'As I expand my disk
collection I can gradually build a wall of these drawers and never
have to worry about putting the boxes on top of tables etc.'

Off I sent the order to Special Reserve and about three weeks
later it arrived in a massive box.  I ripped off the packaging and
looked at the grey plastic case with yellow and blue drawer front
and I felt slightly disheartened - it was huge!

Oh, I knew it was designed to carry 110 disks but I thought the
designers would have put two separate compartments each carrying
55 disks but oh no, they made it so 110 disks all go in a straight
line. This does make quite a few problems - the biggest being its
length. Closed it is a meagre 40cm long but if you wanted to get
to the back disks the whole things measures in at about 80cm long
- a right pain up the backside!

So now I was presented with the problem of finding it a home.
Having my room the way it is - very comfortable with all my
computing needs an arm's length away - I had to place the
monstrosity beside my second disk drive to the right of my
computer. This all seems fine in the mornings when the desk is as
clear as can be (sometimes) but, after a hard day's adventuring
with maps, notes, books, pencils, screwdrivers (yes,
screwdrivers), catalogues and disks scattering most of it
(especially the right side as I'm right handed), I find I have to
mount a major clean up operation to get the darn thing open.

Even without the clutter you must have quite a few disks in the
box before you can even attempt to open it with one hand (too few
and the drawer refuses to come out unless you hold the case and
give a hefty yank). And even with the correct amount of disks in
it you find the thing slipping and sliding all over the place as
there is nothing coming near to grips on the base so, to overcome
this problem, you must buy some of those foam feet thingies.

This is not the major down point about the box though - what
really annoys me is that there are only four dividers which come
with the box and using other dividers form other disk boxes
doesn't work - they are too small.

Also you can only put about 90 disks in the actual box because,
unless you take the drawer right out every time you use it, you
get your fingers lodged between the drawer and case or you can't
reach the last five or ten.

Overall an utter disaster.  There are loads of things which could
have been improved on with this box but the designers seemed to
have left them out.  I definitely know which disk box I WON'T be
buying next year!

@~I've bought various disk boxes over the years. Now I have gone
@~over to stackable storage boxes from the local big DIY stores.
@~Homebase sell one called Curver. The second size box is 23cm x
@~15cm (about 9" x 6") and comes complete with a lid for about œ3
@~or œ4 and takes around 70 disks quite comfortably. They come in
@~jazzy red, blue, green, grey and black. Before that I used
@~cheaper Addis (I think) ones from Texas but they didn't have
@~lids. However, even those stacked well. I'd rather have a number
@~of small boxes than a few huge ones which can get unmanageable
@~as (a) they get too heavy to shift about and (b) I can never
@~remember which disks are in each box! ... Sue