interested in scsi x-15 ,,,15,000 what is the diference in pins

[desktopsilver]

i look at the x-15 and they have them listed with 80 pins, i think like 68 pins ,50 pins etc what is the difference,,,,,also on the ultra 160 controller cards they have 29160 cards with slightly diferent part numbers ending in like lw ,,,or somthing like that ,,,they also have 1 and 2 chanel and 32 and 64 bit cards can someone sort this out in ,,,,common terms,,,,,,which is best for a home enviroment with fast load times and transfer rates in mind

 

[Pariah]

Someone else may want to go into more detail, but here are the quick and short answers. A home user will always want 68pins for hard drives. Channels are the same as IDE. In its most basic form you can replace channel with port/connector though this isn't always the case. For simple setups, 3 HD's or less, one channel is plenty as you can have up to 15 devices per SCSI 160 cable. 32bit is the standard PCI slot on mainstream motherboards and is all you will need. I haven't seen a 29160LW, but 29160N is the 32 bit version, 29160 is the 64bit version, and 29160LP is the low profile version for rack mount servers which you don't need to worry about. A better option for you if you want to go with Adaptec is the 19160 which is limited to windows support but cheaper. Most of these differences are not performance related for home users but convenience and usability related, most of the features aren't of any use to home users.

 

[Hanpan]

I will do my best to address your questions.

50 pin is ultra scsi and possibly some some older scsi standards like scsi-2 (not sure at the moment)
68pin is uw scsi and also u2w u160 and u320 scsi. Those have 40.80,160, and 320 MB's per second throughput respectively per channel.
80pin was developed so that you can have both the data (what the 68 pin does as well) and the power (4pin molex connector) in one connector. This alowed for hot swapping amongst other things. 80pin -> 68pin converters are available as well. 80pin drives are often cheaper but you have to add in teh cost of a conveter as well.

There is a 29160 lp which is the low profile card for servers and pc's that need lp card's. There is also a 29160N which is a lightly less capable version of the 29160 but fine for most people.

The two channel cards simply have an extra channel which allows for 15 devices per channel x2 or 30 devices. Be aware on adaptec cards the 29160 always you to use different speeds on a channel and still get the most out of each. On most cards such as the 39160 each channel will only run at the speed of the lowest card on it.

All adaptec scsi adapters (non -raid cards) are not 66mhz cards. However some like the 29160 and the 39160 support 32 and 64 bit pic slot which allow for greater bandwidth.

What does it boil down two. ON a single hdd even if you buy the fastest hdd availavle today the seagate cheatak x15-36lp you will only get about 60MB's per second. So any u160 card with one channel will be more than enough. If however you wish to run multiple devices or raid the story is differnt.

SOme notes.

32 bit 33mhz pic (most common and what your motherboard has unless stated otherwise) has bandwidth of 133 MB's per second
64bit 33 mhz has twice that at 266 mb's per second.
Most 64bit cards will work in 32bit slots (the adaptec cards will) however sometimes differt slots use differnt voltage in particular 64 bit slots and 64bit 66mhz slots so you should be aware of htis as well.
IF you run both 33 and 66 mhz cards on the same pci bus the bus will usually run at the lowest speed (in almost all cases.)

I hope this clears up at least some of the confusion. If you have futher questions feel free to pm me with them.

 

[Vegito]

Basically the difference for 68 & 80 pin are for desktop and server applications.

Server usually use a SCSI backplane which is a big card mounted in back of the drive bay to accept these 80 pin drive which has power supply through it so you use it like a removable hot swappable drive.

68 pin are usually for desktop that doesn't have a backplane.

And the rest are well answered by Pariah