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**SCSI GURU'S** Need help with SCSI controller decision

K

KennyH

Diamond Member
Hi guys and gals, I just had a Seagate Cheetah ST39204LC 9.1GB 10K U160 HDD given to me by a friend and was wondering what controller card and cables I needed to pair with it. 🙂 I was thinking Adaptec, Tekram, etc. but I am totally clueless on what model I need. I would like to keep the setup as cheap as possible but with the ability to add to it later. 😀 Any information would be greatly appreciated.
 
Here are three items that would get you going:

LSI Logic U160 HBA, $42
Rounded SCSI cable, for up to three drives, $22
Terminator, $15

Or you can go to Hypermicro.com and order the same card in a $90 kit: link

I haven't had one of these myself but I went looking for commentary on it at StorageReview.com's forum a while back, and didn't find anything bad being reported. It's able to run in 64-bit 66MHz PCI slots and is backwards-compatible to the 32-bit 33MHz PCI that most of us have.
 
I guess I should add that an old first-generation 10k drive is probably not going to knock your socks off, performance-wise. I've got a Quantum Atlas 10k from that era, and it maxes out at just 25Mb/second 😕 It does make a spectacular amount of noise, however 😀 and it still has low seek times and command queueing.

What I'm driving at is that you might be about to spend $80+ to use a drive that's worth about $25. If you intend to keep on going down the SCSI path and throw a Cheetah 15k.3 or Fujitsu MAS-series drive on there later, then you'd be getting more payoff for your initial investment in the controller/cable/terminator.
 
Thanks for the links! However, the drive I have is the 80-pin model, not the 68-pin, unless I need an adapter or something I am unaware of? Like I said, I am totally lost when it comes to SCSI. 😉

guess I should add that an old first-generation 10k drive is probably not going to knock your socks off, performance-wise. I've got a Quantum Atlas 10k from that era, and it maxes out at just 25Mb/second It does make a spectacular amount of noise, however and it still has low seek times and command queueing
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is what I figured, but how could I pass it up with it being free? 😀 mechBgon, do I really need those u320 cables or will the one Here work? Also, I believe I am going to need a 86 to 80 pin adapter as well, right?. 😕
 
The model number you gave is for a 68-pin, or that's what came up for me 😕 In that case, you also need an 80-to-68-pin converter, which is coming up at $25 at Hypermicro and $24 at MWave. At that rate, you could get a 9Gb Western Digital Enterprise 10k drive for $29 and it's 68-pin already.
 
The cable doesn't need to be U320 per se. It would be smart to have that last pair of plugs right next to eachother IMO, so the terminator can sit right next to the first drive and prevent signal bounce down a long stretch of vacant cable. You could probably get a stock Adaptec cable with terminator over in For Sale & Trade pretty affordably...
 
I was thinking about heading over to FS/FT to see what I can find, always find something. 😉 Just needed to know what to ask for. 😀
 
Roger that... you need an SCA-2-to-68-pin converter. That's another goodie that you could probably pick up very affordably over in For Sale/Trade, compared to buying one new. 😀 It plugs into the drive's 80-pin connector, and then you plug in your 68-pin cable and a power-supply plug onto the converter's circuit board, set its jumper for a SCSI ID number, and you're on your way.

Your other option would be a SCSI hot-swap drive rack that accepts your 80-pin drive but converts it to 68-pin for the controller.
 
So, my main question now is, which card should I ask for? The one you suggested or can I get something from Adaptec/Tekram for cheaper that will get the job done for now? 🙂
 
The price on that LSI Logic card is so low at Newegg that if it were me, I'd just buy it and be done with it. Comparison: For Sale/Trade, you're looking at $90, which is the price of the LSI Logic controller/cable/terminator kit at Hypermicro brand-new with a three-year warranty.

There's a note at Newegg that one cannot install WinXP on the LSI Logic U160 card as the boot device, but a knowledgeable person said hogwash to that. Win2000 and WinXP have built-in drivers for it, so there's not even a need to have drivers on floppy for Windows setup. I'm going to get one of those cards and try it out sometime. 😀
 
So, I guess I need:

-- LSI Card
-- Adaptec U160 or 320 Cable? (Still a little confused on which one)
-- 80 to 68 pin adapter
-- 68-pin terminator

Am I right? Is this it? If so, I am going to see if I can find any of this in FS/FT for cheaper than Newegg. If not, Newegg gets my money. 😉
 
To be quite honest, that drive isn't worth spending $80+ to get working. It's more than 3 years old, and any current ATA drive will give you much superior performance in all but the most obscure situations with almost 10x the capacity for the same price. You'd be better off selling the drive for what you can get and putting the money towards something else.
 
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