Whats the difference between SCSI-2 and SCSI-3 - CDRW?

[JuicyJ]

Well i was trying to mod my computer and I busted up my SCSI cdr pretty bad, so i guess its time for a new one. The one I had was a Smart and Friendly 8-24 cdr. I did not rewrite. Now im looking into getting a Yamaha 8-4-24 or a HP 9100i. The Yamaha says its SCSI-3, and the HP is SCSI-2. Can anyone explain to me the difference, and also can anyone tell me if it will work with the same PCI SCSI card ive been using?? is Yahmaha a good brand??

 

[JuicyJ]

<bump> anyone???

 

[SCSIRAID]

Those terms are horribly misused these days. SCSI-2 to many means &quot;Fast SCSI&quot; which was 10 MB/sec over an 8 bit bus. SCSI-3 to many means Ultra SCSI which was 20 MB/sec on an 8 bit bus or 40MB/sec on a 16 bit bus. Neither of these are &quot;LVD&quot; so as far as you are concerned they are the same if you have a modern controller (i.e. Ultra or better). Newer SCSI levels are Ultra 2 which is LVD and 40MB/s 8 bit and 80 MB/sec 16 bit and Ultra 160 which is 80MB/s 8 bit and 160 MB/s 16 bit. Ultra 320 is in the bring up stages now and should be available early next year.

What SCSI card are you using and is it just for the CD? No HDD's? Multichannel?

 

[JuicyJ]

hmmm not exactly sure what card im using (SCSI has always been a pain in the ass for me), but it came with the CDR drive. Thats the only piece of SCSI hardware in the computer. Uses a long 50 pin connector to hook into the old CDR drive.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

Yamaha is a good brand. SCSI-2 vs. SCSI-3...for a CDRW, it really doesn't matter, in fact you may prefer to stick with SCSI-2. SCSI-3 is wide SCSI, SCSI-2 is narrow.

I don't know what controller you're using, but typically there are two seperate channels, wide/LVD and narrow. 50 pin devices are narrow, 68 pin devices are wide.

If you have an LVD hard drive, and you hook up a wide CDRW, you will probably have to run your hard drive as wide instead of LVD, which could lower the performance.

 

[JuicyJ]

Ok so if I get the SCSI-3 cdrw, then ill have to get a different SCSI card??? The SCSI card i have right now is 50 pin, but you say SCSI-3 is 68 pin? uuggh.. I really dont feel like buying another SCSI card too, is there any way to get around this? Oh, btw i dont have any SCSI hard drives. 3 IDE harddrives,1 IDE DVDROM drive, and the SCSI CDRW drive

 

[wasnlos]

don't worry, the controller you're currently using will work fine with the new burner.
YAMAHA is a good brand, but why do you have to stick with SCSI anyway. You could throw out the old SCSI-controller and get yourself some nice IDE-burner.

 

[JuicyJ]

Well I already have 4 IDE devices so i cant add anymore w/o getting an IDE controller card, but i already have a scsi card. Also i thought SCSI drives were faster that IDE?

 

[Oyeve]

SCSI burners are not really faster than IDE, you are basically not limited by the slower IDE bus with a scsi cdr drive and there is much less cpu usage with scsi.

 

[vec]

Yamaha and HP (Sony) scsi cdrws are good work horse burners. I prefer the Sony because it has a little more features when using clone cd (CD duplication program). If you don't care about duplicating CDs either one should serve you well. There's also plextors which are very nice drives, but cost a little bit more.