What cable do I need for SCSI U160?

[KyleMac]

My uncle gave me 2x Seagate Cheetah 17GB 10krpm U160 drives about a year ago now. At the time U160 adapters even on ebay were £100+. So I pulled an old Adaptec 2940AU (20MB/s) out of a box and a random 50 pin cable.

I recently got an Adaptec 29160N (U160) for £40 off ebay but I'm using a random 68 pin cable out of the same box as before.

I can't remember all speeds from benchmarks. But total MB/s (in and out) is a solid 36MB/s, but on my IDE drives it's 85MB/s. The fact that it's a perfectly solid 36MB/s suggests to me that something is maxing out (the cable).

So what cable do I need to enable full 160MB/s? Where can I get one in the UK (please link sites) and how much should I expect to pay? I'm guessing up to about £20 second hand from what I've seen. I only need 3 connections on the cable (both drives and adapter), but at least 5 would be best.

I think I should add. All devices are set to 160MB/s in the bios.

 

[mechBgon]

You need at least one LVD-capable cable (Ultra2, Ultra160 or Ultra320) and LVD terminator. In this photo you see each drive on its own cable, and just to the right of the drive's plug is a terminator (thing with the translucent windows on it, in my case). You can have both drives on one cable.

Here's an example at Dabs: link and they have several LVD terminated cables offered.

Oops, I had suggested an U160 card, forgetting you now have one

 

[KyleMac]

I'm going to guess the cable I'm using is LVD Terminated Ultra2 (40MB/s). If a cable is SCSI3, does this mean it's U160 or U320?

 

[mechBgon]

SCSI-3 could apply to Wide Ultra2 ("wide" meaning 16-bit bus), or Ultra160 or Ultra320. Or someone correct me if I'm technically incorrect

Bottom line: you want your drives to run well. Get an Ultra160 or Ultra320 cable and LVD terminator, and smack 'em onto the LVD connector on your 29160-N.

 

[KyleMac]

Am I looking at the right stuff?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3428748337&category=3668
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3429502928&category=3668

I'm not building some kind of high end server, so I can put up with used and possibly worn out hardware.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: KyleMac
Am I looking at the right stuff?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3428748337&category=3668
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3429502928&category=3668

I'm not building some kind of high end server, so I can put up with used and possibly worn out hardware.

Yes indeed! They are rather long, as you can see, so they might be somewhat untidy, but both of those are fine. Put the controller on the end that doesn't have the terminator, and add the hard drives starting from the opposite end of the cable. You can set the drives for SCSI ID's 0 and 1, or anything else besides 7 (the controller uses 7). Have fun with your new setup!