Question for the scsi gurus.

[Hanpan]

I have a seagate 18xl 9.1gig hdd. I need a controller to run it. I was wondering wether i should go for an 2940u2w or dish out $60 more for a 29160.

THanks.

 

[CQuinn]

I'm not an expert, but there was a similar thread over on storagereview recently.

The general consensus there was that would be a very slight performance difference
between the two controllers with a drive like that. The u2w will work fine,
the best reason to consider the 29160 is if you plan on future expandabilty.

 

[andrey]

Are you planning on upgrading to Ultra160 SCSI in the future? If yes, definetely go with 29160, however if not, 2940U2W will do just fine. As far as performance for Seagate 18XL 9.1Gb, both card will perform the same. I hope this helps,

 

[Hanpan]

Thanks audrey. I know that for now both will perform the same. I am more concerned about the future.

 

[bacillus]

<< I am more concerned about the future. >>


then the 29160 is the card for you!

 

[Hanpan]

IS it worth the extra 65 or so dollars. I mean when will new scsi drive actually saturate the bus???

 

[rlism]

when you have many drives? and yer trying to access them all at once? =)

i have two 10k drives and have never come close.
actually, i've run 3 drive raid on a u2w raid controller and i still can't get anywhere near 80MB/S.

 

[Hard_Boiled]

No it won't saturate the bus. There won't be much of a difference, but if you plan on buying 3 or 4 10K or greater drives in the next year an Ultra160 adapter would be better. I doubt most normal people would buy that many drives, and surely by the time you saturate your 80 MB/s these controllers will be alot cheaper.

I doubt you'll see much of a difference with either card, but if I were buying a SCSI card today I'd probably get the 29160. Just because, it wouldn't seem faster at all. Right now I use two 10K drives on a Tekram DC-390U2W, the Tekram equivalent of the 2940U2W. I don't think I have any issues.

 

[PCResources]

<< i've run 3 drive raid on a u2w raid controller and i still can't get anywhere near 80MB/S. >>



Hmm, strange, i have delivered systems with a RAID 5, 3 drive array and it saturates the 160MB bus, peaks are 160, and sustained are 110...

What configuration did you use and which drives?

Patrick Palm

PC Resources

 

[Sir Fredrick]

A single drive won't saturate either BUS, however if you load up your system with a few CDROMS and a couple hard drives, it's theoretically possible that you could soak up the 80MB/sec. Realize that 80MB/sec is a theoretical limit, however, with control overhead you're looking at more like 65-70mb/sec actual data throughput, a number that will decrease slightly with each device using the SCSI bus simultaneously.

I got a 29160 from you a while ago because the performance of the controller integrated into my P2B-DS (based on the 2940) was crippled by two drives transmitting cached data simultaneously. Oddly, the problem went away when 50-pin devices were removed, and I get great performance from the 29160 no matter what I throw at it. If you're concerned with the future you might as well go with the 29160. Or wait until you think you can actually use one, sell your 2940 and pick up a 29160 which will be even cheaper by the time you can really use it.

 

[Oyeve]

<< I am more concerned about the future. >>


Well, the future will be firewire so i would get the 2940 and go firewire in the future.