Is it time to dump SCSI?

[Crimson]

Ok, I am going back and forth on whether or not I should dump my full SCSI system and move back to EIDE.. My setup:

Adaptec 29160 U160 SCSI Card
Quantum Atlas 10k II 36 gig 10,000rpm Ultra 160 drive.
Plextor 12x10x32x
Pioneer 5x Slot load DVD
Zip Drive

All SCSI of course.. My DVD is dying, it would read disks very well.. so I was looking for a new DVD and there are really only 2 SCSI DVD's being made right now, the Toshiba 10x and a Pioneer 10x... both look like they are decent but not up to speed as far as DAE and sub-channel reads..

SCSI burners are only up to 16x max I think, with Plextor seeming to no longer want to support SCSI..

My zip drive I hardly use so who cares...

The Quantum Atlas is one of the fastest 10k drives made.. huge cache, but WD's new 7200rpm 40 gig/platter 8 meg cache drives are right up there with some of the 10,000 rpm scsi drives...

The Adaptec card is a really good card as well...

So, do I sell all this SCSI stuff and buy a 40x Plextor burner, 16x DVD, and 120gig WD hard drive? Or keep the SCSI stuff and hope for support in the future.. Hard drives seem to be coming out slowly for SCSI, but everything else is stalled... I suspect I could sell my current setup for close to what I could buy the above for..

So, what do I do? Sell it, keep it.. I'm torn.. I still strongly believe SCSI is better than EIDE, but when the performance is at least close, and the cost is half for EIDE, and the speeds for CD-RW's and DVD's are faster.. I am tempted to jump ship..

 

[Leokor]

I would probably replace the optical drives. SCSI has no future there, for many reasons.

I would probably keep the SCSI hard drives. If you need expanding your storage, you could add an IDE drive. Nothing forbids you to mix and match.

Leo

 

[Hender]

Don't drop SCSI just yet. EIDE has a lot of perks going for it, but remember, EIDE is a bandwidth hog, and the new drives STILL aren't up to overall SCSI speeds. Occasionally, an ATA-133 drive will past SCSI, but overall data transfer rate is still higher with a SCSI drive. EIDE takes up a lot of CPU time, too, even on fast computers. Ever try downloading a 100+ MB file from IE and then waiting for it to move out of the cache and into the folder you specified? Try doing things while that's happening with an EIDE drive. Then try it again with a SCSI drive. SCSI takes up less CPU time because it has a dedicated controller that's not being used by other components in the system. For heavy video editing people, SCSI is still a requirement, as EIDE just hasn't caught up yet with SCSI in all fronts.

Plus, it's much, MUCH cooler.

There is a 24X SCSI burner on the market, if you must have it, the Sanyo BP5. I have the 10x Pioneer slot-loading model, and it's just fine for DAE. Granted, I don't have anything to compare it to right offhand, but it's performed all the DAE I could want at a fast enough rate.

Plus, what are you going to be doing in the next year or so that will require you to have the so-called benefits of EIDE? If you must upgrade, wait until next year when serial ATA will start appearing (they say it's supposed to start appearing this year, so I'm being realistic) and then you can make a move to an ATA bus that will at least have some other benefits and you can once again be "cutting edge", as if SCSI isn't already.

Don't drop it just yet. It's still got more going for it than you may know.

 

[RSMemphis]

There is nothing wrong with using IDE for optical drives and SCSI for harddisks.
The problem really is that there is not enough demand for SCSI optical drives.

 

[CQuinn]

You didn't say what the rest of your setup is
(Case, motherboard/chipset, type and number of IDE controllers)

DVD and CD drives have gone to IDE becuase that is where the mass market is,
and those devices do not benefit as much from SCSI as hard drives can. Also
devices have been moving towards firewire and USB for options when the user
might need an add-on that can go ontop of thier existing configuration.

The WD comes closer to SCSI performance in burst and possibly sustained
transfer rates (and comes close to SCSI prices along with that), but it cannot
come close to the access times that the Atlas 10k II is giving you, making it
a much better choice for running the OS and applications between the two.
And that's also not taking into consideration the greater performance
that the Atlas 10k III has over the previous model, due to the higher
data density used on the platters of the newer model.

The arena where the WD really shines is in comparison to other fast IDE
drives of the same generation.

Why does this have to be an either/or proposition? Can your system not
support SCSI and IDE at the same time? Even if you change over to an
IDE DVD drive, and perhaps add-on an IDE Hard Drive for additional storage,
the advantages SCSI has over IDE in terms of device handling still make it
too beneficial to throw out if you already have it working. Especially
since you already have multiple SCSI devices going.

 

[Crimson]

Yeah I suppose I could keep the SCSI HD and dump the optical drives... But I like being 100% scsi.. I just wish there were more options for SCSI optical drives.. I don't NEED a faster DVD or Burner, but it would be nice to have that option at least.. The rest of my setup:

Abit KR7A (Non-raid)
Athlon 1800+ OC'd to 1.7ghz
512megs Registered PC2100

 

[Goosemaster]

sanyo does make a 24x SCSI burner you know....

 

[kyoshozx]

I use to run a full scsi system, but now i've replaced the optical with IDE drives. I still have my SCSI harddrives and I definately wouldn't advise in going back to ide. Benchmarks only tell half the story, the lower seek time of scsi really makes your system feel SO much more responsive.

I also totally agree with Hender about downloading huge file from IE and waiting it for it to move out of catch. Basically it takes about twice the time for me it to copy out of catch from IE to my ibm 75gxp than instead of my cheetah 18xl which is an older 10k scsi drive.

 

[Whitedog]

<<But I like being 100% scsi.. >>

Why?

What difference does it make if you have a mix of drives? Definately keep the SCSI hard drives... No matter how good IDE gets, I'll never use them again over SCSI for the reason of "data integrety" SCSI is 10x more reliable with your data than IDE. Do your own research, it's true.

Also, someone mentioned the Access time being faster... This is ABSOLUTLY what seperates SCSI from IDE.

I'll always run SCSI HDD's and IDE DVD/CD drives... It spells "practical"

 

[Vegito]

I drop scsi when serial ata comes out...

anyway you can always buy the ide dvd rom and slap on a ide -> scsi converter, to 50 pin or 68pin... and it'll run off ur scsi card... adapter is around 78 bucks.. which is price of a scsi dvd rom...

yamaha uses it for their ide/scsi drives.. 2100e or something.

 

[GoSharks]

<< I drop scsi when serial ata comes out... >>



may i ask why? s-ata is not going to bring you those sub 9ms access times

 

[Tsaico]

I vote for dropping the scsi opticals and keeping hds on scsi... That is what I did eventually with my all scsi system... just replace those oticals too often to keep buying scsi.

 

[WebDude]

I had a similar all scsi system and faced this same question several months ago, when my 8x CDRW drive was seeming too slow. I now have a mixed system, and have no problems.


I too am running a Quantum Atlas 10k II off an Adaptec 29160 U160 SCSI Card. One thing you might think of is upgrading the hd to a Seagate Cheetah X15 36LP. It should offer a signifigant speed boost over the Atlas, if my reading of the specs on Storage Review is right. And prices on these drives have finally begun to fall. Z-buy.com has the 18 gig model for $249, with $5 shipping.

WebDude

 

[Moohooya]

Thanks all for the info. I'm SCSI but need a DVD and/or CD-RW. Couldn't find a decent SCSI one, and was wondering about going IDE. Guess I'll be going IDE optical.

Also need a decent new SCSI drive. 10K, 18 or 36G. Would rather keep the price low as I've just spent too much on a new dual system. What would ppl recomend? At one point the 10K 18G's were down around $140, but they seemed to have crept back up for $160s

Thanks all
Moohoo

 

[Goosemaster]

<< << I drop scsi when serial ata comes out... >> >>





<< may i ask why? s-ata is not going to bring you those sub 9ms access times >>




I disagree


After regarding htis article, you will notice, that SCSI isn't going away. HTat would cost companies too much money. Instead, they will use SCSI protoclos OVER the Serial bus