Buying a CHEETAH 73.4GB 10000RPM ULTRA-160 SCSI SCA 80 PIN LVD

[ChampMark]

Question 1:
Now I've read a bit on SCSI, and my K7n2 Delta-L board does not have an on board scsi controller (I've read through the manual and it said nothing about scsi), what pci card do I need to get the u160, and the 80 pin. I understand 40 of those pins are grounds.

Question 2:
Now, I've seen a few pci scsi cards, that are compliant with a u160 card, but they do not offer an 80 pin, but you can get a cable that does 68 to 80 pin. Does this decrease the quality, of the transfer?

Thanks in advance!

 

[MiniVanMan]

SCSI is normally done with a PCI-X slot. There are some PCI-e cards coming out but they are VERY expensive. There are some PCI controller cards out there but they only operate on a 32 bus (PCI) as opposed to PCI-X which is 64 bit.

Here's an example of a PCI controller card (32 bit).

http://www.jjwei.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=36&catid=1

My next question is, why are you going SCSI. I know it's fast, but it's expensive. Personally, I'd just do RAID and save the money. This is coming from somebody that can get free Cheetah (Ultra 320) drives, and controller cards, and I'm still going RAID. Why?? Because by the time you find a good motherboard that supports SCSI (so you can get the full potential of SCSI) you end up sacrificing so much that it's not worth it anymore.)

 

[ChampMark]

Simply because I got that hdd for $80.

Will that completely use the ability of the hdd drive? The SCSI controller you posted?

And another question, the card you posted only listed 80 megs a second, doesn't the u160 mean 160 megs a second? I would hate to degrade my system by getting a card that can't handle it's maximum out come.

But if the u160 stands for something completely else, I wouldn't mind know what it stands for. Because I find a really cheap AHA-2940U2W on ebay.

 

[MiniVanMan]

Well the 160 MB/S is based on a 64 bit bus (i.e. PCI-X) which you're motherboard doesn't have. On a 32 bit bus it'll be half, which is 80. SCSI doesn't really open up until you configure it with multiple hard drives (ran in a RAID type configuration). With 3 160 MB/S SCSI drives ran on a 32 bit, 33 MHz bus (PCI), you can expect about 125 MB/S, which is still pretty good. But just as achieveable with SATA 1.5. With only one, you're looking at a drive that won't perform any better than a regular EIDE drive. Not because you're drive can't handle it, but because your motherboard can't, and the controller card is at the mercy of the motherboard.

Now the full potential of SCSI can be 3 Ultra 320 MB/S drives ran on a PCI-X (64 bit), 133 MHz bus yielding over 1066 MB/S of data transfer. That's amazing, and REALLY, REALLY expensive. Now put that Cheetah drive that you're talking about on a full fledged SCSI interface and you'll get 160 MB/S with just the one drive. Very nice, but there are a lot of qualifying conditions. You'll need a 133 MHz PCI-X slot on your motherboard, and a controller that will cost around $200.00.

 

[ChampMark]

But this drive will operate much faster then a standard 7200 rpm hdd probably with a 2 or 8 meg catche, hopefully I didn't waste my time heh. But the experience is sure worth the money.

 

[MiniVanMan]

Yeah, for the money, it's not a bad deal. Like I said, though, if you got 3 of them, you'd get some pretty good speeds. You should see some improvement over a 7200 rpm drive. Once again it all comes down to data transfer across the bus. You can have a drive that does 50,000 rpm, but if your data bus can't handle that much information, it just becomes a choke point.

 

[ChampMark]

Man you are right on the bhaal (excuse me this isn't Baldur's Gate), I mean Ball. Thanks for keeping up with my questions, I will be going to school and taking a few classes, I plan on getting my A+ Cert ya know, and a few network classes etc. I already know a pretty good amount of knowledge about pcs. But that knowledge is from personal use, so SCSI hasn't been in my usage of yet, or should I say until soon.

Now, if I upgraded to a motherboard that supports SCSI, that actually has the connected on the MotherBoard, would these be more beneficial?

Would I be able to get the complete you know bandwidth of the drive? As you stated before, I completely understand that your slowest part limits your fastest part if they are used in conjuction, it's a very understandable fact.

Just to let you know, I do not want to replace my Hardware, other then what I have to. I'd prefer not to touch the 64 bit processors for now, until PCI-X becomes a standard with the PCI-E boards (please do not quote me on the PCI-X, for all I know it may be a thing of the past soon or what not, I am just assuming).

I am currently running:
3200 AMD Athlon Barton Core
1024 GIG (dual 512's, which have black heat sinks on them, I have no idea what the brand is, but I got them brand new for like 200 bucks a year ago).
40 gig 7200 rpm probably an 8 meg cache
dvd lite-on 2x or 4x can't remember
Geforce 5200 Aslyum (which will be replaced soon by a BFG 6800 GT OC, I am still waiting for it in the mail)

I mean other then that my hardware is pretty decent, just the motherboard is no longer being made, or should I just upgrade to a motherboard that supports PCI-X, I mean you don't have to do any research or what not, but from, the top of your head would be nice, I don't want to spam you with these long and routed questions. Because I am sorta digging for information without google, because it's become a spammed wannabe msn search engine that is horrible compared to its youthful days. (You use to type in what you was looking for and you would find it, sucks now adays, gotta cycle through pages...)

Also a comparion cost, as stated which would be more expensive, and which would be more profitable... Thanks in advance to anyone who answers, exspecially the Van Dude.

Side note, I purchased this AHA-2940U2W PCI SCSI CARD OEM, and it suppots both 64 bit and 32 bit, I kinda matched up the model numbers you gave me earlier (this card supports 80 meg/s with 32 bit, and the 64 bit works with 160 meg/s). Thanks for reading this stuff.


My Regards Champion Mark

 

[MiniVanMan]

They are now making SCSI controller cards for PCI-e. Guess how much they are.... Here's a clue..

http://www.buylsilogic.com/product.asp?sku=2591565

Here's a good PCI-X solution..

http://www.buylsilogic.com/product.asp?sku=2693038

The PCI-e controllers are just coming onto the market, now. That's why they're so expensive.

As for a motherboard supporting PCI-X, good luck. They're out there. Generally, though, they're Pentium based if they're any good. Tyan makes good boards with SCSI capability for AMD, but none that support both PCI-X and PCI-e 16x for graphics. Supermicro makes a good board for a little over $200.00 that has one PCI-X and one PCI-e 16x slot. It's a Pentium board, though. And finally the new grandaddy of them all is made by Asus. It's a Pentium workstation board that supports PCI-X and dual 16x PCI-e in Crossfire. Pricetag?? Around $350.00.

Once again, SCSI is just so expensive, and it really limits your choices with the rest of your computer.