I swich over to SCSI...

[Radboy]

Yeah, that's my SCSI guide .. glad u like .. the info came from threads like this & first-hand experience. Might wanna check out the 2nd post in this thread (by Santilli).

 

[ManuTOmanU]

ok...Lets put it together:Tekram is definitely the cheaper way, but doesn't have any kind of support.On the other hand the 29160... It has support and works fine... but costs about 200$ with 2 or 3 cabels included...Heck no... I don't know...Result performance of these cards is about equal, but the is a little difference in price and support...does anybody not agree?Now the HDD: all I want is a brandname 10 000 RPM 9GB drive with good accesstime,...Now how about comparing all those things with a eide CD ROM?no problems?

I will...

now one more things... where can i find a site that tells me all good deals... like this one you posted a little bit earlier Radboy...

I am sorry I probably should know...but i don't..

pricewatch doesn't give me such deals...

 

[TimeKeeper]

<< You fool!

First of all, why do you refer to it as &quot;investing&quot; in SCSI? Are you just trying to invest in our slowing economy or something?

Since you asked, I think it's a waste of money. What is it that you're doing that you think requires SCSI? >>



Funny.................
NOT everyone use their PC just to web, game, etc....
Just try to encode half hour of AVI to MPEG2 even in IDE RAID, and tell me how long it would take!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Manuel;
Welcome to the SCSI!
I have 390U3W/ Imation(plextor) 8X20 CDR, 3-18.2GB WD enterprise U160, 1 Seagate SE drive. Use update firmware to 4.18 and use LSI driver that will put some smile on your face.
I heard lots good thing about X15, but way too expensive. I love my WD Enterprise.

Since your going to buy SCSI HD, IDE CD-ROM will not slow down your system, but again, for $20 more...you can get yourself a SCSI CDROM.

Just get a RETAIL version 390U3W, it will come w/ Active Terminator, LVD cable, UW and S-2 cable. Way too easy to set up w/ tekram.


SonicFlux;
Have your Jumper 4 open, that way, Secondary channel (UW,S-2) will NOT share same IRQ w/ LVD channel. Also, upgrade your BIOS, and use LSI driver of SYM53C1010 chip.

 

[ManuTOmanU]

rahvin this is the chip that is on both Tekram cards...

LSI Symbios 53C1010 Dual-Channel Ultra160

yahoo.... lol

 

[Tweakin]

I have been using SCSI for some time now, and I also consider it an investment in my system. I have upgraded my MB and CPU 3 or 4 times, yet my SCSI gear always follows. I don't think a 160LVD drive will spank that much harder then a 80Meg LVD, and you can find some nice IBM 18zlx's pretty cheap now that the 160 models are mainstream. Since you are most likely only going to have one or two drives on the Ultra bus, the burst rates will probably never be seen so I might suggest a 160 Controller for future growth and save a few bucks and go with some Ultra2W LVD Drives. If you choose the Tekram, you could have dual 68pin internal connections. One would be for your lvd drives, another could be used for a Plextor UltraPlexWide 40x CD-ROM, and you could use the internal 50 pin connections for your Plextor 12/10/40Tsi Burner and maybe a 2 Gig Jazz Drive or Zip Drive. Hope this helped

 

[Hard_Boiled]

You can't go wrong with the setup Radboy suggested in his first post. Basically I would recommend anyone who is interested in SCSI to buy the Tekram DC-390U2W. It's 80 MB/s max instead of 160 MB/s, but you will never reach either. The card has a great price, performs as well if not better than similar Adaptec cards, and comes with all the SCSI cables if you buy the retail package. I use this card as do many others, and nobody ever has trouble with it. That is a nice burner too(plextor 12x), although any decent burner you throw on the SCSI bus should suffice.

As others have mentioned, any good 10K drive will serve you well. The Atlas drives and the IBM drives are very good. Hell just about all 10K drives are very good, except for some older Cheetas from when 10K drives were first brought out. CD-ROM is the one component that you definitely don't need to be SCSI, but if you're buying a new CD-ROM anyways give the Plextor UltraPlex a look. Either the 32x or 40x would be good, reads everything and would go nicely with a Plextor burner.

edit: Manuel sounds like the DC-390U3D is a dual channel version of the DC-390U3W. Sounds like TimeKeeper likes his card and thinks it is easy to setup. In that case I'd say you can't go wrong with either the DC-390U2W or the DC-390U3W.

 

[ManuTOmanU]

OK...That is all i need...Dual cannel's advantage is to add twice as many 160 devices, isn't it. so that would add up to a combined speed of 320 MB/sec where the DC-390U3W adds up 240MB/sec.OK...

 

[Sir Fredrick]

Unfortunately, the bandwidth for PCI is much lower than that.

 

[PCResources]

<< Unfortunately, the bandwidth for PCI is much lower than that. >>



No, the bandwidth of the 32bit 33Mhz PCI bus is much lower, but the 64bit 66MHZ PCI bus is out, and the bandwidth of that bus is more than enough.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[Clinth]

I would stick with an Adaptec controller like 29160 this controller supports both 32 and 64 bit pci standards. Adaptec has got the best support by far then any other company I've dealt with. This alone is worth the extra money. For harddrives I would look toward at Quantum Atlas 10K II just my 2 cents.

Once you go SCSI you will never look back
Clinth

 

[AfterBurn]

Forget Adaptec, they are all name, no content and getting one is asking for troubles. I found this out the hard way, both personally and professionally. Like someone else said, go for a scsi card with symbios chipset on it. On my system im running 2 Quantum drives (Atlas V and Atlas IV), and im very happy about them. Havent had any probs with Seagate at work either.

Also keep in mind, you dont really NEED a U160 controller. For example, 2 Atlas 10K drives together can only just saturate(sp) an U2W channel, so unless you are going to expand that scsi chain with lots of highspeed devices (as in multiple harddisks), you can save some money by getting ie the Tekram DC390U2W.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

To my knowledge, most motherboards do not have any 64bit PCI slots, so I assumed that his motherboard does not either.

 

[soulm4tter]

The Tekram DC-390U2W is about $125, while the Tekram DC-390U3W is $175. A good Ultra160 drive can have burst speeds at 70mb/s+. For $50 more i suggest getting the latest interface. Another thing to consider is the 32-bit PCI bus. It maxes out around 100mb/s. Eventually the 64-bit PCI bus will be the standard.

The Tekram DC-390U2W does not support a 64-bit PCI bus, while the Tekram DC-390U3W does. For $50 more, you could get a controller card that will pontetially last much longer.

 

[Radboy]

The Tekram DC390-U2W can be had for $89 here (free shipping).

The U3W will last longer, but you won't notice the diff between the two cards now.

 

[NapalmHimself]

.

 

[Soccerman]

wow, finally I see a fair amount of people advocating SCSI.. normally everyone's like, oh just go IDE RAID. mlah! I laugh at that suggestion!

Sir Fredrick:

To my knowledge, most motherboards do not have any 64bit PCI slots, so I assumed that his motherboard does not either.

unfortunately that is correct, however it appears a new standard is appearing called PCI-x or something like that. it has pretty good promise, and we'll probably be more likely to find it on desktop motherboards, then the current 64 bit PCI @66mhz..

 

[damien6]

<< Forget Adaptec, they are all name, no content and getting one is asking for troubles. >>




Could you expand on that and provide details. I personally had nothing but good experiences w/Adaptec products and their after supports are awesome.
I bought an Adaptec 2940u2w off classified few years back (at a great deal back then), screwed up w/a bios flash by yours truly few months back and they replaced it at a nominal cost. This card had no warranty so I had to pay $35 or so for extended warranty and they overnighted a full retail package (cables, floppies, booklet, warranty card, etc...). Not bad for $35!
When I first screwed up that card, I purchased an Adaptec 39160 as a replacement and not too long afterward, I had a repeat performance w/the bad bios flashing again. That OEM card came with few years warranty and after contacting their tech support they overnighted a replacement right away. Hassle free. I woulld like to know what type of problems you faced w/Adaptec products.


For the best bang for your dollars, I would recommend Tekram but for over all support and most importantly after support, Adaptec hands down. Sometimes you really get what you paid for.

Who here has personally experienced heating problems w/X15 Cheetahs? I don't mean &quot;a friend of a friend&quot; rumors but actually felt it getting hot. My X15 must be broken because its barely warm to the touch and that was before I put a bay-cooler in front of it. Actually my Western Digital Ultra160 10k drive in the very same system runs warmer than the X15 Cheetah.

I have had bad experiences w/IBM drives where I received two DOA (one directly from IBM) on brand new drives. I wasn't that thrilled about their tech support who kept telling me to run their diagnostic ultility on a DOA drive if I wanted to get RMAs for them. Their manager couldn't answer how I was to run such ultility on a DOA drive.

To be honest, I consider SCSI as an investment of a sort and for the sums invested, I would rather have it around for a while. If you invest in an outdated products then it's just that much closer to its extinction. There's a talk of 15k IDE drives comming out soon and w/the progress of technology as it is, it'll just get faster. Lately we also see increasing numbers of 64bit PCI motherboards and faster memory chips. In regards to data tranferring, guess where the bottlenecks would be in the hardware side? If I was buying PC hardwares other than CPUs + video cards, I would opt for the fastest I can afford so I wouldn't need to &quot;upgrade&quot; them anytime soon. Then again, that's just me.

 

[ManuTOmanU]

Ok i see what you are talking...

Well I am going to get a new MB too so all new...My Mom needed a new computer so i told her that she could have mine in April ....

well anyway I think i am fine with that kind of info..

I see you all in that forum




l8r