Help me get that warm scsi feeling inside...

[Syborg1211]

Ok so I think I've finally convinced myself to go scsi. The price isn't that big of a deal though the lower the better. I do know some about scsi but not nearly as much as I'd like so just treat me as a newbie though I'm not. I'd like to know what the good drives out there are, what good cards, and I dont know about the different kinds of connections?

How about recommending two good setups - a good performing but good good value and a good performing but a tad more pricey. Heck, what's also the best setup I can get?

 

[Chaotic42]

Here are some things to remember:

-Buy LVD, not SE
-Controllers are mostly 68-pin. 80-pin drives are cheaper but need expensive adapters or SCSI enclosures
-You need termination at each end of the cable
-Controllers and drives are all the same to SCSI
-Cheap cables only get you problems
-The adapter is usually ID7
-The adapter is a terminator
-Some drives can terminate

Easy SCSI:

LSI U160 Single Channel controller: $42
Seagate 15K RPM 18GB (ST318453LW -X15 ): $195
Cable: $20
Terminator: $15

That will get you good performance. I have the same thing except for I have a 10K drive instead of 15K. The drives get very warm and can be louder than IDE. That controller won't do RAID, and it's 64-bit. You can use it in a 32-bit slot though. If you only have one device, it doesn't *really* matter, except for the fact that it's sharing the bus with everything else.

Expensive SCSI:

LSI Logic MegaRAID SCSI 320-1: $359
4xQuantum Atlas 15K 36GB (8C036J0): 4*$339= $1356
Cable: $20
Terminator: $15

Put those in a RAID 10 config. It'll scream (literally)

I'm no SCSI expert though, so maybe someone with more experience can provide better alternatives/info.

 

[mechBgon]

The two top-performing drives appear to be the Maxtor/Quantum Atlas 15k and the Fujitsu MAS-series. I saw an interesting note on the LSI Logic $42 card at Newegg: evidently you can't set up WinXP from scratch on it, which is just strange when you consider that Win2000 has this card's drivers built-in

I would lean towards Win2000 and you may get best performance by converting your drive to a Dynamic Disk in Windows Disk Management (easily done, takes a couple clicks and two reboots).

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
The two top-performing drives appear to be the Maxtor/Quantum Atlas 15k and the Fujitsu MAS-series. I saw an interesting note on the LSI Logic $42 card at Newegg: evidently you can't set up WinXP from scratch on it, which is just strange when you consider that Win2000 has this card's drivers built-in

I would lean towards Win2000 and you may get best performance by converting your drive to a Dynamic Disk in Windows Disk Management (easily done, takes a couple clicks and two reboots).

That's a bunch of crap about the XP thing. I noted that in my comments on the card. I don't know where they got it from. I've done it twice.

Maybe Newegg is crazy....

 

[mechBgon]

Thanks for the reality check Chaotic42!

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Thanks for the reality check Chaotic42!

You know I wasn't griping at you, right? I always worry about stuff like that.

The chip is just a really common Symbios chip. Linux 2.2 has it enabled by default, and so does Windows XP. You don't need to push F6 at the beginning or anything. I was relived. I thought it would be a nightmare!

 

[Trashman]

Definitely get the Seagate 15.3K...nice drive :beer:
Adaptec, Tekram and LSI are all good controllers, match any of those to that Cheetah and you'll be set.
....and yeah, make sure the drive is 68-pin...don't even mess with 80-pin and adapters.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Thanks for the reality check Chaotic42!

You know I wasn't griping at you, right? I always worry about stuff like that.

The chip is just a really common Symbios chip. Linux 2.2 has it enabled by default, and so does Windows XP. You don't need to push F6 at the beginning or anything. I was relived. I thought it would be a nightmare!

No offense taken, I'm glad to hear that it does work

 

[Syborg1211]

What controller would I use if I wanted to raid two of the seagates together? How's the performance boost from raiding them? Should I just get 1 36gb en lieu of 2 18's?

 

[mechBgon]

ClubOC RAID0's some Cheetah 15k.3's on a 64-bit 66MHz single-channel Adaptec 29320-R: Bib required!

93000+ HDD score in Sandra (if anyone even cares)
130Mb/sec+ sustained throughput, peak (32-bit 33MHz PCI maxes at an effective 120Mb/sec)
Sub-4-millisecond average seek, 0.2ms track-to-track seek
Command queueing
Fluid bearings
5-year warranty

and the Fujitsu MAS's are faster yet :Q I found out the Fujitsus do have fluid bearings, but StorageReview finds that they put out more noise than the 15k.3 does: SR review

If it were me, I'd go with two standalone 18Gb drives, not in RAID, with identically-sized pagefiles on each. You can read from one drive while writing to the other, and Windows will have two pagefiles to choose from for efficiency.