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I need help with ultra 160 SCSI hard drive compatability...

J

jquintela

Member
Hi,

I bought a new fujitsu 36.7 GB 15,000 RPM hard drive for cheap. I want to use this hard drive, as a main hard drive for my new rig. If there aren't any motherboards that support this interface what could i do to make a socket AM2 motherboard compatible with this new hard drive? Any and all help is very much appreciated. I heard about SCSI pci cards, or SCSI controlers. And now, i am very confused. My main question is how can i use this SCSI hard drive with my new AM2 scoket motherboard?

interface type - 80pin SCA-2 (Hot-Swap)

Electrical Interface Speed: SCSI LVD ULTRA 160 - 160MBps 16-bit

Any and all help is very much appreciated.
 
You will need an add in card. Adaptec makes very good SCSI controler cards. There are many other brands as well. Normally, there are only a few workstaion class mbs that have SCSI on board.
 
Originally posted by: jquintela
Hi,

I bought a new fujitsu 36.7 GB 15,000 RPM hard drive for cheap. I want to use this hard drive, as a main hard drive for my new rig. If there aren't any motherboards that support this interface what could i do to make a socket AM2 motherboard compatible with this new hard drive? Any and all help is very much appreciated. I heard about SCSI pci cards, or SCSI controlers. And now, i am very confused. My main question is how can i use this SCSI hard drive with my new AM2 scoket motherboard?

interface type - 80pin SCA-2 (Hot-Swap)

Electrical Interface Speed: SCSI LVD ULTRA 160 - 160MBps 16-bit

Any and all help is very much appreciated.
Click to expand...

The money you saved in buying that will be spent in buying SCSI adapters and cabling.

I'd suggest returning it and getting a normal $99 300GB 7200 RPM HDD, unless you've got a specialized need for that particular drive.
 
yeah i figured. I am going to sell it. How much would you think i can sell it for?

Oh and the cheapest pci controller i can find is the Adaptec 19160 U160 SCSI 68pin PCI Controller. I can buy it for about 20 to 25 bucks, but is it worth it? Also, isn't it more complicated than just buying a pci controller in order to get the SCSI hard drive working. For example, i heard that windows xp service pack 1 is needed for the driveers on the pci controller to work, because service pack doesn't support them.
 
Typically it's just cabling + interface + drive - it's very simple, but your mileage may vary. If you aren't familiar with the technology, it's typically best to stick with simple IDE connections, cables, and drives.
 
so what do you think i should do then, buy that cheap SCSI pci controller, or should i just sell the hard drive? Whats a very reasonable price i could sell the fujitsu 15K RPM hard drive?
 
Uh oh, SCSI newbie! 😀

WinXP has native driver support for the Adaptec 19160, so setup will be as simple as with an IDE drive. You need an Ultra160 or Ultra320 LVD cable with a terminator (block thing that goes on the last plug of the cable), and because you have an 80-pin drive you also need an 80-pin-to-68-pin converter dealiebob.

Cable with terminator

Converter dealiebob

An older 15k drive like that will also need direct fan cooling. It won't have the greatest flat-out sprint speed but will be quick-seeking and resistant to bogging down under heavy I/O. The main tradeoffs are low capacity, runs hotter and makes more noise. Plus you use up a PCI slot and you have a big monstrous cable lurking in your computer. So you pays your money and you takes your choice. Hope that helped!
 
Oh, and if you get an Adaptec 19160, make sure you put the drive's cable on the card's LVD plug, and not the SE plug.
 
thanks for your help! Now, would you think its worth all of this to just use this drive in my new socket AM2 rig, or should i just sell it?
 
I dunno, it's open to debate. I'm a SCSI fanboy generally, but for most people, all they need to see is that they could have 10 times the storage space and they go for the IDE drive based on that, because they need to store their music, movies, whatever. Beyond that issue, there's heat/cooling and noise. If you want a drive that has snappy seek performance and don't mind the baggage that comes with it (low capacity, more noise, more heat, need for direct cooling, loss of PCI slot, big cable and additional expense) then the Fujitsu is a good pick, although it's obviously not a recent model since it's just Ultra160.

 
I'm using two Fuji 10K RPM 37s attached to an LSI Elite 500 RAID controller. I can't say it's noticeably faster than today's 300GB IDEs --- I would never buy them again.
 
keep it? Why would you like it? Name the price. Lets say about 75 bucks shipped. I know this hard drive goes for 170 bucks at newegg.
 
Originally posted by: jquintela
keep it? Why would you like it? Name the price. Lets say about 75 bucks shipped. I know this hard drive goes for 170 bucks at newegg.
Click to expand...
Not to rain on the parade, but remember... the ~$170 ones at Newegg are Fujitsu's latest MAX-series stuff with fluid bearings, not your three-generations-old MAM-series drive.
 
1. Go to the for sale forums.
2. Ask there. They can give you a decent price to illustrate value.

The prices you'd get here from the few people reading this thread _and_ interested in SCSI drives aren't indicative of much.
 
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