SCSI

[ciwell]

I have been looking around for a new hard drive to put my OS, games and apps onto. My first look was into the 74GB Raptor and although impressed, I have read here and elsewhere that the SCSI drives are a bit faster. When it comes to SCSI drives, though, I am pretty much a noob. I found this SCSI at Hyper Microsystems: http://www.hypermicro.com/prod...99R&dept_id=06-005 and am wondering if this is a) a good deal, b) the drive is good, and c) if this reseller is reputable. Thanks for the help!

-Cheers

 

[jose]

The drive should be good, it's a recertified drive. As for the reseller, I've dealt w/ them for years, highly reputable imho.

As far as speed wise of the hd, I like 10k4 & 15k Atlas drives. You should check storagereview for comparision benchmarks.

I recently bought a 73g for $169 w/ a 5yr warranty. Now I tend only to buy 36g-73g scsi drives only because they seem to last forever.

I have a bunch of 2g, 4.5 & 9g drives that I don't use...

Regards,
Jose

 

[ciwell]

May I ask where you got the 73g for that price?

Thanks for the respond, BTW.

 

[jose]

Unity Electronics, but there all gone .
Search pricewatch for 73g scsi, sometimes you'll find a good deal on current or last years models.

Regards,
Jose

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

I've switched between SCSI and IDE/SATA and back again. I can't make up my mind what I like

I've used Hypermicro before several times and never had a problem with them. They seem to be well recommended from what I have seen. I would suggest going to Storagereview.com and looking at their reviews of SCSI, SATA, and IDE drives. They have a database that you can customize head-to-head comparisions to see which drive is faster.

The 15k.3 that you linked to is a 80 pin drive, but it does come with a 80 ->68 pin convertor. I'd recommend you get a 68-pin version if you can find it and fits within your budget. Keep in mind you will need a SCSI controller card and cable if you don't have one. (~$40-50 for card and cable).

If you want to go SCSI, I'd recommend either the Maxtor Atlas 15K II (8e036l0) or the Fujitsu MAU-series. These are the current generation of 15k drives, and are a decent bit faster then the previous generations. The current generation 15k.4 didn't compare well against the two drives I listed. One plus to the 15k.3 is that it is a bit cooler and quiter then the current drives, which may or may not be important to you.

-Scott

 

[imported_Computer MAn]

Originally posted by: GarfieldtheCat
I

The 15k.3 that you linked to is a 80 pin drive, but it does come with a 80 ->68 pin convertor. I'd recommend you get a 68-pin version if you can find it and fits within your budget. Keep in mind you will need a SCSI controller card and cable if you don't have one. (~$40-50 for card and cable).

Was just about to mention to be sure and get a controller card and cables for it too. I'm not sure what you are using your computer for but if it is mostly gaming just go with IDE or Sata IMO.

 

[Silex]

The bottom line is this. If you are choosing between the raptor and scsi, raptor wins hands down (as long as TCQ (tag queue?) is disabled). The only reason you get scsi of any generation for a desktop is for the faster "feel" and access/boot/load times of it being your primary parition. For the price, the sata wins overall when compared to previous gen (cheetah 15k.3, atlas), but the new gens that just came out in the past month will kick everything in the pants. I'm still awaiting delivery of my fujitsu mau, but it all comes down to how much you wanna pay. I recently acquired my first ultra2 seagate cheetah 9.1gb ST39102LC and even at 7 years old, the 10k spindle speed makes up for the size and prodcudes a seek time of 5.6ms which is still below or matches any ide hard drive to date.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

If you are choosing between the raptor and scsi, raptor wins hands down (as long as TCQ (tag queue?) is disabled).

I will have to respectfully disagree. To compare a protocol (SCSI) to a specific HD doesn't make sense. The new MAU and Atlas 15K II drives are faster then a raptor, as you have stated. Are older generation SCSI drives slower then a raptor, you bet. The raptor is pretty much equal to all the current 10k SCSI drives, depending on what benchmark you use. The raptor is a bit slower then the MAS and Atlas 15k (previous generation 15k rpm drives), and beats the 15k.3 and the older X15-36LP on single-user benchmarks.

-Scott

 

[TRUMPHENT]

Here is the SCSI host controller for you.
LSI LVD Ultra 160

It's only 31 dollars.

You will still need a terminated LVD cable. Someone posted here a bargain for about 5 dollars. You will have to find it.

 

[shinotenshi]

I think you are all overlooking the type of operating enviroment, the moment you begin to add multitasking to the scene, SCSI obiterates SATA. Raptors are fine for gaming and such, because usally your performing one task at a time, but if your an avid multitasker, scsi is better hands down.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

That's the card I have and would recommend. You can find them all over the web. Hypermicro carries it also and they have several brands of U160 cables (which is what the OP would need).

Edit: Oh, and despite what the webpage says, you don't need to load any drivers to run in Windows. I have this card and WinXP recognizes it fine. Also ran Linux without any problems for a while.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

I think you are all overlooking the type of operating enviroment, the moment you begin to add multitasking to the scene, SCSI obiterates SATA. Raptors are fine for gaming and such, because usally your performing one task at a time, but if your an avid multitasker, scsi is better hands down.

If you are running a server, with true random multiple user requests, like a file server or web server, this is true. But single-user use, (S)ATA is just as good as SCSI. It then comes down the the stats of whatever HD you are looking at.

To quote from Storagereview's FAQ about HD speed:

5) Interface- in the end, a drive's interface (ATA, SATA, SCSI, SAS, etc) has little effect on its performance. Like spindle speed, an interface exerts its effects more through manufacturer and market positioning. Note that while SCSI drives are undoubtedly more expensive than their ATA counterparts, they are not necessarily faster for non-server use. In fact, the safe rule-of-thumb is that given equal spindle speeds, a current-generation ATA drive will be faster than a current-generation SCSI unit.

 

[Zepper]

Sometimes hypermicro has special deals and you can usually find out about them at storagereview.com.
They used to post their deals here too but they haven't lately.
.bh.

 

[Silex]

Let's not forget that so as long as ATA and SATA retain with a 10k spindle speed at the highest, scsi will always have faster seek times and therefore as long as you get a 15k drive, you will always have a faster responding and "feeling" computer environment no matter what the use.

Originally posted by: GarfieldtheCat

If you are choosing between the raptor and scsi, raptor wins hands down (as long as TCQ (tag queue?) is disabled).

I will have to respectfully disagree. To compare a protocol (SCSI) to a specific HD doesn't make sense. The new MAU and Atlas 15K II drives are faster then a raptor, as you have stated. Are older generation SCSI drives slower then a raptor, you bet. The raptor is pretty much equal to all the current 10k SCSI drives, depending on what benchmark you use. The raptor is a bit slower then the MAS and Atlas 15k (previous generation 15k rpm drives), and beats the 15k.3 and the older X15-36LP on single-user benchmarks.

-Scott

Scott meet Scott . If you read my entire response, you are just repeating what I said, but your additional info is definetially worth mentioning. In conclusion, we're both right . I still can't wait to get my 36GB MAU...

Originally posted by: TRUMPHENT
Here is the SCSI host controller for you.
LSI LVD Ultra 160

It's only 31 dollars.

You will still need a terminated LVD cable. Someone posted here a bargain for about 5 dollars. You will have to find it.

That's the exact card I bought for use with the MAU and I tried it with an older Utra2 and it works great even for that old drive. This card rocks and works great out of the box.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Scott meet Scott . If you read my entire response, you are just repeating what I said, but your additional info is definetially worth mentioning. In conclusion, we're both right . I still can't wait to get my 36GB MAU...

Yup, I didn't write that as clear as I had hoped. Sorry about that.

I like my 73Gig Atlas 15K II , just like you will like your MAU. I almost got that instead, but they are about identical on most benchmarks.

 

[Silex]

But thena gain, you have 2 platters on your Atlast II and there therefore it should be able to seek faster! People, generally, the more platters you have, the faster your drive is. You can think of it like disks sitting on top of one another and data being radomly copied to all the discs. Current gen drives have 1 platter = 36GB at the moment. Sites like storagereview.com test out drives of the highest size which atm are the 146GB which have 4 platters total. The idealogy is this...the more platters you have the greater the chances your data is found, 4x more likely in the 146GB sense since you are searchign 4 points at the same time.