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Buying a SCSI controller, want opinions on drives

F

Flatline

Golden Member
I'm in the process of picking up an Adaptec 29160N Ultra160 SCSI controller. I'm looking at 10,000 RPM drives to go with it, and I would like to hear some opinions on drive performance and reliability.
In my experience, IBM seems to be the best all-around brand for SCSI drives, with Seagate coming in right behind; I also know that these two brands of SCSI drive are highly reliable.
However, Fujitsu has just come out with its MAN series of drives which are reputed to be extremely fast, quiet, and cool (for 10.000RPM SCSI at least).
My servers at work all use Seagate and IBM drives, so I don't have any real-world experience with Fujitsu or Quantum SCSI drives (although I HATE Quantum's IDE drives).
Any opinions?
 
Don't have the $$$ to drop twice the price of a 10,000 RPM drive on a 15,000 RPM drive with the same capacity; besides, I don't have 64-bit PCI slots, which are pretty much required to make use of the extra throughput (I know the seek times are faster, but double cost doesn't quite make up for that-at least for me, unless they would be used for intensive database work).
 
Quantum/Maxtor Atlas 10K III drives are very nice, reliable and reasonably quiet price is agreeable too.
 
Seagate or Quantum. I have a bunch of both in u160 flavors and can say they both ROCK! I noticed Fujisu in your poll, didnt they stop making drives?
 
You can't go wrong with Seagate, but the Quaxtor Atlas 10K III is just as reliable and performs quite a bit better, so that should be your choice. If you want 15K, it's Seagate and then everybody else. The X15-36LP costs a bit under $300 (18GB), while an Atlas is in the $200 range, so the X15 really isn't twice as much, but still carries a premium.

You don't need 64bit PCI for any single/dual hard drive setup. Even the mighty X15-36LP can "only" manage a smidge over 60MB/s. With 2 you can hit 120MB/s which is creeping up on the real world limit of 32bit 33MHz PCI, but still not enough to require any faster PCI variant.

Fujitsu cancelled their IDE line, they still have a SCSI line.
 
there is a review on the other site where the new scsi fugitsu drive is quiet and the heat produced frm it is at 46 degrees for a SCSI drive at 10,000RPMS.

Not sure on the model number or the price. It's at that tomshardware place.

Give that a lookin.
 


<< The Atlas 10K III is the best 10K drive you can buy. Its much faster than any of IBM's or Seagate's 10K drives. >>

Not to mention a lot more reliable than IBM. Seriously, don't go with an IBM drive. I've gone through 3 in the last 18 months before (kept getting ones cuz I'd just rma the bastards). Finally got sick of dealing with 'em, and got a seagate. No problems as of yet (12 months later).
 
I have had a lot of different brands and have never had a bad SCSI HDD. You will get 50 opinions and the only likely bad refs you will get are the peeps who got unlucky and got a bad version of a particular brand. Every maker has a good line, some years better than others, some interfaces better than others, etc. My best performers have been Seagates, for durability and performance. But thats just my experience. Go for the best performance you can get for the money. Since you appearantly dont have a lot of SCSI experience you may want to go with a moderately priced setup and later if you still think SCSI is what you anticipated it to be you can go for better. Check out the forsale forums, they have lots of nice SCSI drives used you can experiment with CHEAP. No sense spending 500 or more for something that you will end up selling for half that 6 months from now. I love my SCSI, but others prefer IDE.
 
Actually, I have lots of SCSI (and RAID) experience and I firmly prefer SCSI to EIDE; it's just that my SCSI experience comes from our servers at work and all of those (except for the Sun machines) use IBM and Seagate drives.
What I wanted to hear was the preferred brands and series of SCSI drives from other professionals so that I could make a more informed decision on my drives instead of just sticking to the two brands I have used so often at work; if I heard several Fujitsu horror stories, for example, I'd probably be a bit leery of their drives.
What I've seen is that there doesn't seem to be a huge discrepancy in quality control for SCSI (there arguably is one for EIDE drives), and so I can take your advice and buy the best performance for the $$$. All posts are still welcome here, however, as information can do nothing but aid me in my quest for the best price/performance 10,000 RPM drives.
 
Seagate makes the finest SCSI drives, hands down. The X15-36LP is in a class of its own.

Quantum (Maxtor) are great also ... the 10K IIIs in particular. Not quite as speedy on the seeks, and you give up a few MB/s, but they're considerably cheaper.
 
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