LanParty NF2 - what kind of SCSI Drive ?

[phpdog]

Hi ,

I've never bought or used SCSI before but i just bought a LanParty NF2 and i was wondering if anyone could give me any info on what would be the best or if this board can even take an SCSI drive .... I dont know i would appreciate very much any info on this ... thanks

btw : this is the SCSI drive i was bidding on in ebay

Compaq 18Gb SCSI drive : SCA-80

 

[mechBgon]

I recommend letting someone else win that auction, if at all possible.

Get a Fujitsu MAS-series 15000rpm drive with 68-pin connector, an Ultra160 or Ultra320 SCSI card, and an Ultra160 or Ultra320 SCSI cable and LVD terminator. nForce2 is well-suited to PCI SCSI cards and the Fujitsu MAS-series drives appear to be the fastest drives on the market, overall. Can't wait to see Seagate's answer to the Fujitsus... it's about time for a Cheetah 15k.4.

Newegg has the drives (starting around $190) and suitable LSI Logic SCSI cards ($38). You can get a good buy on a 68-pin SCSI cable with LVD terminator at coolerguys for about what Newegg charges for the terminator alone (ok, but Newegg's terminator has a nifty LED on it ).

 

[phpdog]

18.4 gb Fujitsu MAS-series 15000rpm $180

Thats an amazingly superfast drive but i think if i was going for that id have to wait a while and get some more cash.

At first i was only wanting a SCSI for dvd , mp3's but now i think im going to just do the full system.

Im only running 7200 rpm just now , so upgrading to 15,000 would be great ..... thanks

BTW ... how difficult is it setting the drive up ... ive been reading a few reviews and forums and they seems a few people have problems with the terminator mostly ... as a first time user do you know of any site to help with this anyone ?

 

[mechBgon]

The concepts aren't much different from IDE on the surface. You know how IDE drives can be Master or Slave using a jumper? SCSI drives work similarly, except that instead of Master or Slave, there are ID #'s 0 through 15. Easy enough, just leave #7 vacant for the SCSI card and make sure none of the drives are jumpered for identical ID #'s.

The terminator goes at the far end of the cable from the SCSI card, and the first drive goes on the plug closest to the terminator. Not too tough there.

I have to question picking the fastest drive on Earth to use for bulk storage of MP3's and such. Most people go the other way and pick a high-capacity IDE drive for bulk storage, because retrieval of media files isn't a very demanding task and the cost per gigabyte is far, far lower. Where a 15000rpm SCSI drive will be nice is if you install your operating system and programs onto it, for fast program launches and a responsive feel.

 

[phpdog]

Yeah ,

at first when i was going to buy like a 15-20 gb 10,000 rpm i would use it like to try it out for the first time and see what its like , but now im getting a 15,000 drive it would be a waste of money to use it for just media file .

Im going to just put my system on it , and use my current HD Maxtor 7200rpm to store media files.

Anyway thanks .... so i need :-

SCSI Drive 15,000rpm
terminator ( lets hope arnie has some spare time )
SCSI cables

 

[mechBgon]

And you need a SCSI card. The motherboard doesn't have SCSI support built into it. The $38 LSI Logic at Newegg is good... I have one of them, and it works well.

 

[phpdog]

thanks for all the advice and help ... this will be my first SCSI setup so thanks for helping with all the basics that i need ... all i need now is to get the rest of the money for the 15,000 drive .
Im gonna just hold out for that for sure ... because i know that if i buy a 10,000 within a few months i'll be wondering what the performance increase of a 15,000 would be like . :

So i'll get saving ... thanks :beer: