How much to set up a 60+ gig SCSI setup?

[Zebo]

And what equipment do I need. What kind of performance difference will I notice when loading screens in BGII?

TIA

 

[soulm4tter]

Whats BGII? It will be expensive. I would only go SCSI if you're willing to go top of the line or near to of the line. I would say a minimum of $850 with an U160 card. My suggestions are Atlas 10K III 73GB or 2 36GB, 2 IBM 36LZX 36GB, or 2 Cheetah 36XL 36GB. All range from $750-800. Or you could go all out and get 2 Cheetah 15X-36LP for about $1000........

 

[Zebo]

BGII is Baldur's Gate II which has massive load times between different parts of the realm.

Wow 1000+ !! expensive but is it worth it?

 

[soulm4tter]

that all depends on the value you put on HD performance. To me as a home user/gamer i think it is. You don't need 60GB however. I got a good 18GB 10K Cheetah that i run my OS and apps/games from. Games (maps/levels included) load significantly faster and the system overall is much more responsive than say running off an IBM 60GXP IDE drive.

So for $400-500 you could get a nice 18GB drive and an U160 card. And to me its worth every penny.

 

[pm]

soulmatter's post is good advice. Only go SCSI if you go for the high-end, and the recommended drives are the ones that I would recommend too. His prices are pretty realistic too.

You could cut down prices slightly by switching from a Ultra160 card to an Ultra2 card (Ultra80) since the bandwidth isn't likely to exceed 80MB/s too often - particularly not since you would mostly be pulling off of either one drive or another. This would shave about $50-75 off of the cost. Not much but a start.

The second, and more effective way, to save money would be to buy an 18GB (~$165 for the 36LZX) and the card (~$125 for an Ultra2 Tekram DC390) and then use this with an IDE drive. Put the files that take up room and don't require performance on the IDE (MP3's, photos, etc.) and the games and OS on the SCSI drive.

Will it make a big difference? Not a huge difference, but it should be noticeable. It won't be a waste of money, but it may not make a big enough to justify the cost.

 

[Zebo]

Thanks guys. Hybrid does seem the best deal for me.. What kind of real world performance would I see using the U160 w 15K rpm drive. It takes 37-41 seconds to load a map all because it's reading the HD and I'm using a 5400 rpm ata100. Also how about the adaptec 19160 for $140?

I hope Modus is'nt reading cause I know what he'd say.

 

[pm]

I would think that this would drop by about half if not more... but it's hard to really say since I have no experience in map loading times in BG2, and a lot more of it will depend on the rest of your system (CPU, memory speeds, etc).

$140 is excellent for the 19160. But if you are getting a 10krpm U160 drive, you don't need a U160 card - any more than if you buy a 7200rpm IDE drive, you need to get an ATA100 adapter. You might want to buy one to be future-proof, but you don't need it.

 

[ChrisIsBored]

You might even think about just getting 3 9.1G SCSI HDD's and put them in a RAID 0 or RAID 5 array. It'll be even faster. You don't need a lot of HD space, just enough to fill the OS, and your games. Get yourself a few IDE drives as your spares so you can put all the extra junk that you don't really need the speed for.

That's how I have it at home... the 80G IDE is perfect for storing all my multimedia files...

 

[bacillus]

<< I'm using a 5400 rpm ata100 >>


while I use scsi myself, a 7200rpm ide hdd should noticably speed up your system without the need to spend big bucks on scsi!

 

[TallBill]

heh.. why not just go dual palaminos? the tyan boards have u160 controllers onboard..

 

[Kcucumber]

The KT7-Raid HPT370 w/ 2x 30.7gb ibm 75gxp is awesome . I have them separated and test them out. The raid setup surely boost their performances. Games, applications, installing..everything is so damn fast now..YOu've got to get this combo. SCSI costs too much man. Just go for raid setup, it's very fast. trust me. have 3 HDD. 2 the same for raid 1 for back up.

I have 2x IBM 30.7gb 7200rpm HDD, I put them in Raid 0. I install games, applications, and OS. It boost performance dramatically everytime I start a game, run an application, and start windows.
Then I have my Maxtor 13.5 7200rpm for backup. I put all the important files on here, just in case my Raid die, i still have some back up. The maxtor is so good to me, it never die on me ever. I've done nasty stuff to it and it treated me so nice. So damn stable.



If you consider Burner combos, the TDK 24x/10x/40x and Toshiba 16x DVD compatible with clonecd.
Damn this combo Rips/Copy cds so fast...I can't imagine what I would do without This combo.

I got 2 extra stuff that is for back up use.

The kenwood 52x truex for playing "retail games"
Maxtor 13.5 gigs for back up.


I think I have the best storage Combos. I have the total of 6 drives all on my Mid 300watts case. I took out my floppy drive and made a Window's boot cd so i never use floppy again.

 

[bacillus]

<< If you consider Burner combos, the TDK 24x/10x/40x and Toshiba 16x DVD >>


actually the toshiba is pretty mediocre when it comes to DAE extraction & dvd ripping!

 

[soulm4tter]

IDE RAID.....ewww

Hard drives spend the most time looking for data and this is why SCSI drives with much lower access times will perform much better than an IDE RAID 0 configuration. Unless you're using large contiguous unfragmented files, the hard drive has to stop reading to find the next file, which puts a premium on access/seek times. SCSI owns IDE RAID 0

 

[ChrisIsBored]

I have to agree... IDE RAID blows...

 

[Cuular]

Using an adaptec 39160 and quantum 36GB with 16MB cache on the drive, it takes on average about 9 seconds to load up a level in BGII. that 36GB drive is about 300.00 - 350.00, and the controller is aorund 200.00. Chek the hotdeals forum here for a link to it.

Total cost for 36gb of fast scsi around 500.00.

I can give you the exact model of the drive when I get home if you want it.

 

[Smbu]

<< Using an adaptec 39160 and quantum 36GB with 16MB cache on the drive, it takes on average about 9 seconds to load up a level in BGII. that 36GB drive is about 300.00 - 350.00, and the controller is aorund 200.00. Chek the hotdeals forum here for a link to it.

Total cost for 36gb of fast scsi around 500.00.

I can give you the exact model of the drive when I get home if you want it. >>


I'm pretty sure that Quantum/Maxtor does not make any drives with a 16mb cache. The largest they use is 8mb, which is what I have on my 36GB Quantum Atlas 10K II and that is the same amount on the Maxtor Atlas 10K III. As far as I know Seagate is the only company to put 16mb of cache on their drives and that is only on the AV series of their drives. My 36GB Seagate Cheetah 36LP 10krpm U160 drive only has a 4mb cache, but the AV(audio visual) version of it contains 16mb.

Cost really does depend on where you buy the stuff and whether it's new or not. I was able to buy my Adaptec 29160 U160 card w/cables from somebody in the AT FS/T forums for $130 like 2-3 months ago and my 36GB Seagate Cheetah 36LP drive I bought used from somebody on Ebay for $160(still has over 4 yrs on the warranty though). So I paid about $300 for a pretty nice 36GB 10k rpm drive and U160 controller. I don't use the Cheetah as my OS/Programs drive since my Atlas 10K II is faster.