SCSI + IDE how to get the most out of my setup, plz help ya guru's;)

[Laymen]

Dear Anandtech guru's,

before I ask my question I will be as detailed as possible about my system specs, so here is my full setup to begin with,

Mobo : Gigabyte GA-SINXP1394
HD's : Seagate ST336752LW Cheetah X15 36LP 36GB U160 15K3RPM 3.6ms 8MB 68p
Maxtor 160GB (DiamondMax Plus 9, 7200rpm 8MB)
Processor : Intel P4 2.8Ghz
Ram : 1Gb DDR RAM
OS : Windows XP professional
SCSI Controller : Adaptec 19160 LVD SCSI Controller

Now I have searched a few posts for SCSI and read a couple of messages and by reading these replies and questions I allways get contradicting information. Some people say that SCSI is slow if you only have a PCI 32 bit slot, and then other people find SCSI to be a huge improvement over 7200 rpm disks. So now my question, how do I setup my PC so that I will get full speed from my SCSI and get a speedy comp. I am ofcourse going to be using the IDE as storage and SCSI as my bootup disk. But I have just ordered the SCSI disk and controller+cable and in the meanwhile it would be smart for me to consult people who know a whole lot more about it than me

I also read about SCSI raid 0 etc, but is this possible when I have only 1 SCSI disk, how should I set it up, plz give me the full lowdown cause as you can see from my nickname, I am a total lay regarding SCSI(and IDE raid matters too for that matter),

Greetingz and thnx heaps already,

Laymen

 

[Crusty]

You can only use raid if you have multiple drives.

As for SCSI being slow on a 32-bit pci slot, unless you are running lots of drives off of your controller card you will not notice any slowdowns, in fact it will be MUCH faster then an IDE drive.

 

[Snoop]

Originally posted by: MCrusty
You can only use raid if you have multiple drives.

As for SCSI being slow on a 32-bit pci slot, unless you are running lots of drives off of your controller card you will not notice any slowdowns, in fact it will be MUCH faster then an IDE drive.

Exactly, there is not a trick to setting it up correctly, get the latest SCSI drivers for you card, I would flash your board to the latest bios ( to avoid any compatibility issues, but this is optional) and it should be all good.

 

[Laymen]

Ok thats nice to know, as far as I know, that Seagate 15K will be the only SCSI disk on my controller so it should have no clogups from any other SCSI devices. But what about my IDE disk, can I just connect that to my primary IDE channel and still boot up first from my SCSI(as this SCSI will carry my boot OS)???

Also, is there a way to upgrade your 32bit PCI slot to a 64bit slot???


Thnx for the reply Crusty,

Regards,

Peter

 

[Snoop]

In your bios set first boot device to SCSI.

 

[Crusty]

There is no way to change your slot from 32-bit to 64-bit.

You would have to buy a new mobo for that to work.

 

[Laymen]

Okay I think I know enough now, most people here compare SCSI to IDE Raid, but as I have never ever had any Raid setup going I think I will be very glad with the added speeds of SCSI What would the diff be for me, going from normal IDE to SCSI U160 on a 32bit PCI slot, anyone that remembers their first moments with it lemme know,

Gr,

Peter

 

[Zepper]

It's always nice to have a faster disk subsystem. Disk storage is still the slowest part of most systems. I recently went from UW SE SCSI (max 40MB/sec total throughput) to U2W LVD (80MB/sec total bandwidth) on a mix of U2W and U160 drives. The results matches my Duron 1600 setup very well. So I'm a happy camper.
. Just make sure you configure your host adapter properly for the attached drives and you should have little problem. Here is a site w/ lots of scuzzy info: www.scsifaq.org . Oh, and you may want to update the ASPI drivers in your OS - may be available on your adapter's driver CD or you can DL the latest from adaptec's web site.
Some good Scuzzy vendors:
hypermicro.com (free ground shipping if you mention www.storagereview.com)
centrix-intl.com
pc-pitstop.com
scsi4me.com (offers PayPal as a payment option)
and I can often find stuff for low bucks on eBay.

.bh.

 

[Laymen]

OK thnx, will check out that site