Which SCSI controller?

[Tasque]

I have 2 36GB Cheetahs, and 2 146.9GB Maxtor Atlas 10K IV. Both have 68-pin LVD interfaces. From a performance perspective, do I need to put the faster cheetah's on a separate channel? If so would anyone be able to recommend a SCSI host bus adaptor that will accomodate all of these conditions and also allow me to use SCSI optical devices. Is there a cheaper alternative to adaptec, and do SCSI controllers have any operational 'issues' with regards to the N-Force chipset?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Pariah]

Newegg sells an LSI Logic U160 card for $33. That will work fine for your HD's. Unless you already own SCSI optical drives, there is no reason to buy them now. They're a rare breed and not worth the money anymore. Stick with ATA or if you are feeling daring, SATA.

 

[Zepper]

Yup, the LSI mentioned above is the ticket - don't need to worry about separate channels with SCSI as long as all drives are LVD. You can put up to 15 drives on a channel!

. Here are some places where you might find a cheap LVD cable w/ terminator:

Good SCSI vendors-
hypermicro.com (may offer free ground shipping if you mention www.storagereview.com - check the SR site for the latest offer)
centrix-intl.com
pc-pitstop.com (offers PayPal as a payment option)
scsi4me.com (ditto)
etech4sale.com
and newegg of course but usually not too much of a selection.
and I can usually find stuff for low bucks on eBay - particularly nice LVD cables and SCA adapters
.

Plenty of useful SCSI info here: http://www.scsifaq.org .

.bh.

:moon:

 

[Tasque]

Thanks for the feedback, I truly appreciate it.