Couple of SCSI questions.

[boshuter]

I have a chance to go from my 36gig 15k second generation U160 Cheetah to a 73gig 15k3 U320 drive. What I need to know is:

1. The 73gig is an 80 pin and I would have to run an adapter, will the adapter cause a performance hit?

2. I'm currently running an LSI U160 controller card, if I go to the U320 drive will going to a U320 controller offer any improvements? I'm using this on a regular desktop board in regular PCI slot.

Thanks for any help...:beer:

 

[Vegito]

1. in theory no, in practice, i have not seen any difference.

Basically a 80pin drive are for servers where the drive goes into a hot swappable bay, power and data in one connector. Unless the adapter is made of low quality parts, it usually will not hinder perfornce.

2. Yes you'll have more bandwidth, drive is probably smarter and faster, hard to tell if you can see a big difference or not.

 

[Chaotic42]

Your 160 controller can push 160MB/s. If you're running it in a normal PCI slot, that's already more than the slot can accept. There won't be any problems, but 320 won't be any faster until you move up to a faster/larger slot.

 

[Arcanedeath]

In general using an 80pin to 68pin adaptor will not cause a performance hit as long as the adaptor is rated for your speed, eg U160/U320, also as mentioned before in a normal 32bit 33mhz PCI slot going from a U160 to a U320 will not improve performance, the only real advantage U320 has on a normal PCI slot is slightly better ECC in the spec. thats about it (and doesn't really matter w/ only one drive w/ decent cabeling). Hope this helps...

 

[boshuter]

Thanks for the excellent answers

I was really concerned about the adapter, I was pretty sure going to U320 would be of little benefit, with the limitations of the PCI slot.