Scsi query

Grabo

Senior member
Apr 5, 2005
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But then, the Irish don't want to pronounce three 'three' either.

Either way, I was thinking about using a scsi disk as my system disk.
Reasons : 1. I happen to like 'survivor' formats.
2. Always been relatively reliable (relatively long-lived)
3. Fast
4. SATA is so very mainstream
5. As someone else said, chicks like scsi

, so now that I've blown everyone away with my seriousness, I'll get to the point.
I've read various threads on this forum, I've tried to look at scsi-guides, but there are things that only seem to have rather vague answers.

1. Would most scsi disks with an ultra320 interface be crippled by an ultra160 controller card on a PCI bus? If so - mostly then by the bus or by the card?

2. Would a Seagate Cheetah 10k.7 10000 rpms or a Maxtor Atlas 15k 15000 rpms be quieter, cooler, faster (if anyone has had any experience of both?)

3. Thank you for your patience.
 

lansalot

Senior member
Jan 25, 2005
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0
"Would most scsi disks with an ultra320 interface be crippled by an ultra160 controller card on a PCI bus? If so - mostly then by the bus or by the card? "

They won't be crippled - they'll just talk at Ultra160 speed instead of Ultra320. If you want to call that 'crippled' as such, be my guest. But chances are you won't notice the difference.

No idea on 2, but be aware that at 15k, you *might* be looking at server-class drives - and they tend to be a hell of a lot more noisy than workstation class.

3. Welcome.
 

Grabo

Senior member
Apr 5, 2005
254
57
101
Opteron Guy: Ballast for a fligh..ah. Who knows how long I'd have to wait? /

Lansalot:
Poor wording on my part. 'Slightly constricted' would have been a more precise term, I think.
Anyways, the PCI-bus has a maximum throughput of 132MB/sec; an ultra160 card 160MB/sec. In terms of speaking with the system, and not other scsi-units (there wouldn't be any other scsi units), u160 would appear to be as good as it gets anyway..although these are rather crude mathematics. Hmm, I suppose I'm wondering how often the drive would be capable of higher speeds than 132..if it comes with an ultra320 interface, the burst speed would likely be beyond what a u160 card (and standard PCI bus) could handle, hmmm.

The system I'm currently assembling has a sata 150 controller built in, ..but then, how often is yoru average sata drive capable of transferring data externally in speeds reaching 150MB/sec? And no ATA drives are really built to last a long time, are they?