Contemplating SCSI...(Read In)

[bob332]

here is the situation. i need to purchase a scsi card (currently i am using some scsi cd-roms, but later will probably install a 15k rpm u160 hdd), i found some good deals on ebay for the adaptec 29160. my question is this - since i am going to be using m/b with 32bit pci slots for the forseeable future, i don't know if/when i will get a m/b with a 64bit pci slot. should i get one of the 64bit cards or go with the 29160N, the 32bit card? will the 64bit card be equal to a 29160N in a 32bit slot, or is there some other problem? will a ata133/7200rpm 8mb cache hdd be faster, since the new m/b will have ata133 on it?

 

[ProviaFan]

A 64bit PCI card will usually work in a 32bit PCI slot, but the performance won't be as great. I doubt you could tell the difference with only a couple drives that are not in RAID.

IIRC, hard drives peak out at somewhere around 60MB/sec (some may be a little higher, but not much). Most IDE hard drives don't come quite near that. Thus, ATA/133 is not going to help you any more than ATA/100 (or presumably ATA/66) would.

 

[bob332]

Originally posted by: jliechty
A 64bit PCI card will usually work in a 32bit PCI slot, but the performance won't be as great. I doubt you could tell the difference with only a couple drives that are not in RAID.

IIRC, hard drives peak out at somewhere around 60MB/sec (some may be a little higher, but not much). Most IDE hard drives don't come quite near that. Thus, ATA/133 is not going to help you any more than ATA/100 (or presumably ATA/66) would.

would it be better to just get the 64bit version, in case i get a m/b with 64bit pci on it in the future?

 

[GoSharks]

yes