SCSI v IDE

[lmccrary]

i'm in the process of choosing hardware for a new computer. i'm considering using a tyan dual processor board. the only thing i'm not quite sure about is whether to use a SCSI drive or 2 ATA drives in a RAID 0 array. i'm most interested in speed. i do a great deal of multitasking along with a medical software program that requires a great deal of work for the hard drives. if SCSI is the way to go, should i buy the tyan board with the integrated SCSI 160 controller or should i get the same tyan board without the SCSI controller and use some other controller? if the built in contoller is not the best, what is? if SCSI is the way to go, which drive should i use? i've heard good things about a seagate cheetah drive that runs at 15'000 rpm. Any suggestions about this decision would be appreciated.

 

[react]

bump I wanna know too 😛

 

[Schadenfroh]

becarefull with scsi, there are a TON of differant formats that might cause incompatablities. me i stay away becuase i am a p00r boy.

 

[mechBgon]

If your work pattern is what you describe, and you don't mind the higher cost per gigabyte of storage capacity, SCSI is going to be a good choice. The Cheetah 15k.3 would be my pick... low seek times, high transfer rates, and a quiet-idling fluid-bearing motor. I have the predecessor to it, the X15-36LP, and my work also involves heavy disk access at times. I really :heart: my Cheetah 🙂

Two 15k.3's on separate U160 or U320 channels would be nice (this means getting a dual-channel card and two cables with terminators). Look at some of the LSI Logic cards at Hypermicro.com (super place to buy SCSI, they pack the drives really well and the prices are good). I would personally lean toward an add-in controller. If you do get a Tyan board, pay close, close attention to the list of approved power supplies... it's there for a reason.

 

[zephyrprime]

I would go with the integrated scsi just because it's so much cheaper. I doubt that it can be much worse than a addon card.

Now as far as to wheter you should go with scsi of not, it depends on your HD usage patterns. The multitasking that you do probably won't amount to much strain on any HD system. What will probably matter more is the nature of the medial software program that you use.

The benefits of scsi over IDE are three-fold:
1. Read/write reordering (aka command queueing)
2. Faster access times
3. Higher transfer speeds due to higher RPM.

The significance of the three are roughly in the order I've listed them in where a server database is concerned. But for a single user, command queueing may not offer much benefit because so many programs access the disk in a serial manner.

So what does this medical software program that you use do? Is it some sort of medical imaging software? A detailed description of it usage pattern would be good.

 

[addragyn]

RAID 0 will give you two things. Increased STR(sustained transfer rate) and increased chance for data loss. Neither is helpful in the situation you've described. The RAID 0 hype is largely smart marketing that has sold a lot of drives and "controllers".

RAM is your best friend if you do lots of multitasking. A fast drive is no substitue for adequate RAM.

If the prgram you are using will be hitting the disk a lot you'll benefit from lower disk latency. You get this from a faster spinning drive. Higher density and larger cache can contribute(*minimally*) to that same effect. Neither is a much of a substitute for faster spindle speed.

A U160 controller will be fine for a single 15k drive. I don't know what controller that board uses but if you want to use a card feel free. Good brands are Symbios, Atto, and LSI. For a single 15k drive you'd be ok with an old U2W LVD controller. The Seagate 15k.3 has gotten great reviews and is also very queit for such a fast drive.

If you want to get into you'd do well to read some over at Storagereview.com.

 

[lmccrary]

Thanks for all the useful info. From now on, i'll asks my questions here first.