looking for tekram scsi card... which?

[substance12]

i need a scsi card to go with a plextor cdrom i plan to buy. i don't plan on getting a scsi hdd... realistically. this is mainly for burning cds. any thoughts to which card? i heard i could get one for around $50. while a comparable adaptec would be around 100. but there are many models to choose from so which one? i'd like to stay in the 50-100 range if possible. thanks

 

[RobSan]

Tekram DC315U Ultra-Wide SCSI III Host Adapter at Googlegear for $21.99

 

[Noriaki]

$50! For a SCSI card only for CDRoms. you nuts boy if you want adaptec yes...you'll pay $50 but not for Tekram, Tekram has reasonable prices.

The 315U is a good choice, it only supports 20MB/s but since 20MB/s would be about 133x CDROM that's probably fast enough for you

The 395U is also 20MB/s but has a BIOS (can support bootable drives), but since you don't want hard drives on it you probably don't need to boot off it, so the cheaper 315U should do ya.

If you want 40MB/s for some strange reason (the 40x Plextor SCSI CDROM?) there is the 395UW..I don't think there is a (cheaper) BIOS-less verison of the UW though...

Just get the 315U, you'll be good to go.

Edit:
If you want to be really cheap you could try finding the 305I.
The 305I is the same as the 315U except it only has internal, there is a 305E with only external, and the 315U has both. But since the 315U is only $20 that would be extremely cheap

 

[substance12]

which tekram could i get that i would be able to boot of it? just keeping my options open.

this model sounds ok, but maybe not: "Tekram SCSI Host Adapter Controller Adapter Cards, PCI, DC-395F Ultra SCSI Host Adapter - PCI 2.1 compliant with full Plug & Play readiness."

Bulk Version
Flash BIOS Available
High speed 32-bit PCI bus master DMA transfers up to 133MB/sec in burst mode
Max Xfer Rate Supported is 40MB/S
Maximum devices supported are 15
Level triggering allows interrupt sharing between multiple adapters

i saw it on googlegear and it was in my budget.

 

[Noriaki]

I don't know of a 395F off the top of my head

395U, 395UW, 390, 390U, 390F (and then there are the big boys, the 390U3W/D, and 390U2W/B)

The 395UW, 390F are 40MB, the 395U and 390U are 20MB, and the 390 is 10MB

All are bootable.

Check their website www.tekram.com..it tells you how fast they are and if they have a BIOS.

 

[PCResources]

Hmmm, haven't i already answered this one in another thread?

The 395UW would suit your needs, it is good enough for adding hard drives too later on, but of course if you really want to add HDD's later on, you should go for the "big boys".

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[dkozloski]

I have a Tekram 395UW that is the just about the worst SCSI device I have ever encountered. I have tried it in several different systems and there is a conflict of some kind in every one that makes it unusable. In the same systems an Adaptec 2940U/UW works perfectly. Their tech support is entirely nonresponsive. They have never responded to me in any way to any request for help. I know that the majority of the people on this board seem to think that the sun rises and sets in Tekram but after you buy Adaptec you won't walk across the street for Tekram. If you have a lot of time to waste tinkering you might be able to get one working but I have given up.

 

[PCResources]

<< I have a Tekram 395UW that is the just about the worst SCSI device I have ever encountered. I have tried it in several different systems and there is a conflict of some kind in every one that makes it unusable. In the same systems an Adaptec 2940U/UW works perfectly. Their tech support is entirely nonresponsive. They have never responded to me in any way to any request for help. I know that the majority of the people on this board seem to think that the sun rises and sets in Tekram but after you buy Adaptec you won't walk across the street for Tekram. If you have a lot of time to waste tinkering you might be able to get one working but I have given up. >>



Hmm, sounds like yu have had your share of bad experiences with Tekram, i have used them in more than 400 systems (395UW) and have had no more problems than i have had with Adaptec cards.

I do not believe that the sun rises and sets in Tekram, but i do believe they are more valuable than any Adaptec's cards. Adaptec's controllers are very expensive compared to the Tekram line.

I have used both Adaptec and Tekram, and i have to say that if i can find a Tekram card that does the job (not for multi channel RAID but for everything else), then i will use it rather than the Adaptec cards.

There is really no tinkering at all with Tekram controllers, you just install the card, then the drivers, and you are good to go. If you have any problems with them, that would be a surprise to me.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[odog]

dkozloski: this i the only time i can remember when i completely disagree with you...

my almost 3 year old tekram DC-390 has yet to give any problem at all....it's not even close to picky about PCI slots... doesn't mind sharing IRQ 9(well nothing does in W2K)

for the price... you can get twice the adapter from tekram then you can get from adaptec..

 

[Radboy]

Have the Tekran DC390-U2W. For almost 2 yrs now. Bought it back when everybody was still saying Adaptec was the way to go. Love it. Use it to run 3 LVD HDDs, a Plex burner &amp; UW CDROM. Use it in both WinME &amp; W2K. Have also used it with Caldera 2.4 &amp; Mandrake 7 (Linux distros), &amp; also BeOS (FreeBe). Think it goes for ~$120 now. Good driver &amp; bios sppt, but yes, their tech sppt blows chunks, but if you go over to the Storagereview bbs, you'll see ppl saying nasty things about Adaptec sppt too. Nothing against Adaptec except you pay much more for same perf. Compare retail packages, protocols sppt'ed, cables included, terminators .. it's not even close.

I have no experience w/ any other Tekram cards.

Try to get a card with a BIOS.

 

[dkozloski]

The part about Tekram that really irked me was the total lack of any response to my requests for tech support. I went to their web site a half dozen times and filled out the request for support form and I never got one peep out of them. Another annoyance was that goofy .IMG format they use for driver distribution especially when the drivers made no difference. None-the-less I'm still getting good service using the card to clean my shoes when I come in from the dog lot. One thing that Adaptec has going for it is that there are a jillion of them in the used market for very cheap.

 

[PCResources]

So you had ONE Tekram card that failed, well i have had more than 60 Adaptec card that sucked, big time, problems with bios (the most beautiful thing about these cards were that they would hang your system if you tried to update your SCSI BIOS, dead card in other words, wich would not be covered in the guarantee), drivers and systems (Xenix 2.3.4h) and i still think that Adaptec makes pretty decent cards.

You cannot really say that Tekram makes bad cards just because you had trouble with ONE of them, now can you?

About Adaptecs support, well it is just about as good as tekrams, have you ever tried it?

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[Radboy]

Thread here (at SR) discusses Adaptec sppt.

 

[dkozloski]

PCResources, I have to agree with you on much of what you say. My big beef is that everyone tried to hold up Tekram as being God's gift to SCSI and I found them to have feet of clay when it comes to tech support. To this day I have yet to hear from them so it's $100 down the toilet. I have no experience with Adaptec support because all their stuff has performed flawlessly for me over the last fifteen years or so. I have never encountered a problem with them in any regard. Of course most of my encounters have been with previous generation items because we can't afford to trust our mission critical operation(newspaper) to bleeding edge technology. We have to publish every day no matter what and can't afford to tinker with a cranky server. Slow we can handle, stopped we cannot.

 

[PCResources]

Sure, the 395UW is not an old card, and as you had probs with them, you might think that you need to tinker with every Tekram card. The truth is, if you really want some performance out of that SCSI interface, you HAVE to tinker with it.

If you don't care what kind of money you spend, then go adaptec, if you do, go Tekram, adaptec are NEVER cheap, but Tekram are certainly affordable, maybe in a high-end system you could upgrade the rest of the disk system by going Tekram, now wouldn't that be nice?

If the HW guys at your newspaper cannot get the Tekram board to work, then you should exchange your HW guys instead of the SCSI card.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[Sunner]

My take on Tekram.

I love their cards, Have quite a bit of experience with them, both professionally, and personally, and its all been happy happy joy joy.

Havent had anything to do with their tech support though(havent had the need), but if it sucks, well then that sucks, good tech support is just about the best thing a company can be known for IMO.

 

[Radboy]

Never heard anybody holding up Tekram as God's gift to SCSI. Would like a link if this is true. On the contrary, general consensus (IMHO) is that Adaptec has been hailed as the standard for so long that it didn't even matter that they charged (much) higher prices for cards with perf comparable to (&amp; less than) that of other manufacturers .. like Tekram. I think they even tried to buy out other SCSI card manufacturers, but one of those regulatory agencies said, &quot;That's a no-no.&quot;

 

[dkozloski]

PCResources, there is a pretty good chance that I got stuck with a bad Tekram card but I'll never know unless Tekram cares to answer up. Maybe this winter if I get bored I'll try fooling with it some more. Maybe I'm too stupid to deal with it; I had to get a replacement ballot because I screwed up the first one.
I just bought an Adaptec 2940U/UW for $40.00 on the used market to replace the Tekram. The same model Adaptec before that one was $100 so they can be bought cheaply if you care to look around.

 

[PCResources]

<< PCResources, there is a pretty good chance that I got stuck with a bad Tekram card but I'll never know unless Tekram cares to answer up. >>



On one thing we do agree, good support is worth paying for, and if i had the problems with Tekrams support that you had, i would not recommend it either.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources