scsi-worth it?

beast20vt

beast20vt

beast20vt

Associate
Joined
11 Feb 2006
Posts
229
im gonna be building a new system back end of this year/early next year and am just looking at ideas at the moment.im wondering if its worth running an 15k scsi hdd as my primary hdd for the o/s and main programmes and then 2 500gb drives for storage.im after a fast system but will i get much more performance off the scsi drive than just using raptors?obviously i know scsi drives are proper expensive and so is the controller card but what benefit will i get when loading games and general seeking times.


rich
 
It's totally not worth the cost unless performance is totally crucial, I'd say it's only really necessary for real time processing (Like power plant monitoring computers etc)

Raptors aren't even that brilliant now, just get a couple of drives with high density platters and you'll be away. Will have to read up to find out which disks have higher density.
 
If you fancy a browse I set a thread up a while back when I'd just set up my arrays, it's Here

I love my scsi's (1*15k cheetah running x64; 2*15k cheetahs -Raid 0- for the games and a smelly Sata for my 'storage' ;) ) And I wouldn't go back for the world - they are blisteringly quick - as I said in the other thread, I am *always* first onto the map in BF2 (yes I do enjoy stealing the jets!) and my load times in Oblivion are insignificant.

As stated you can pick them up cheaply, it's the card that can be expensive - I got a Pci-x one that is unfortunately wasted in it's Pci slot - but when the cost of pci-e ones come down I'll upgrade and then the debate will end (then numbers are in the other thread).

Pick 'em up cheap and enjoy having to get your hands dirty!

(and I have to take exception to the noise issue - they're not nearly as bad as everyone make them out to be - although I did once set all of them defragging at the same time - only did it the once :eek: - If you're willing to be creative then you can always go for what I was setting up - Silentmaxx enclosure with a hdd waterblock strapped to the top - serenity at blistering pace!)
 
Last edited:
As cavemanoc says, tbh you might aswell get a pair of raptors...

I have a small collection of scsi stuff, just trying to find the right priced 64bit scsi raid card to go with my 15k cheetahs...

And as for the noise, the ones i have are actually quieter then my pair of 36gb raptors...
 
madman045 said:
As cavemanoc says, tbh you might aswell get a pair of raptors...
Click to expand...

Wash your mouth out with soap :p Surely I could never have blasphemed so badly! I'm definitely a Scsi man through and through.

Speaking of which - I've just found a MegaRAID SCSI 320-2E (actually it's the nice little Dell one) for about £125 - I am sooooooo tempted! Has anyone out there got a scsi setup running off a Pci-e card - I really would love to see if it is as impressive as I'm hoping it is :D

By the way - I'd thoroughly recommend the Lsi card I've got - think the spec is on the other thread - it works beautifully and was very cheap, too bad it's horribly bottlenecked by the pci slot! I had some fun and games getting everything up and running - give me a shout if you have any issues!
 
Last edited:
cavemanoc said:
Wash your mouth out with soap :p Surely I could never have blasphemed so badly! I'm definitely a Scsi man through and through.

Speaking of which - I've just found a MegaRAID SCSI 320-2E (actually it's the nice little Dell one) for about £125 - I am sooooooo tempted! Has anyone out there got a scsi setup running off a Pci-e card - I really would love to see if it is as impressive as I'm hoping it is :D

By the way - I'd thoroughly recommend the Lsi card I've got - think the spec is on the other thread - it works beautifully and was very cheap, too bad it's horribly bottlenecked by the pci slot! I had some fun and games getting everything up and running - give me a shout if you have any issues!
Click to expand...

Sorry :P

You could always send me your card to test ;)

As for PCI-E, i havent seen any fantastic results as of yet from an enthusiast point on view yet.
 
If you have seen HDTach type results on PCI-e cards I'd love to see them - I've not been able to track down anything yet (The cards cost about $800 new, so not much an enthusiast market atm :eek: ) If I do manage to get one though I'll let you know and you'll find my Pci-x in the MM at very reasonable rates!

(Have you got a pci-x slot on your mobo?)
 
cavemanoc said:
If you have seen HDTach type results on PCI-e cards I'd love to see them - I've not been able to track down anything yet (The cards cost about $800 new, so not much an enthusiast market atm :eek: ) If I do manage to get one though I'll let you know and you'll find my Pci-x in the MM at very reasonable rates!

(Have you got a pci-x slot on your mobo?)
Click to expand...

I have seen lots of people on other forums with issues on PCI-E cards not working or causing system crashes, still a new concept and the boards with two PCI-E slots, if its not a graphics card, it has issues.

I have two 64bit slots on one of my motherboards, i do believe they are 66mhz though, but not confirmed.
 
i got the dell perc4 working in a Asus A8N-VM CSM
running @ x8 with 2 maxtor atlas 15k

Hd tach gives stupid readings with pci e card

but i ve tested other tools

burst is about 540
read is about 170
 
I got an Adaptec 39320 A-R SCSI Card in a 64 bit slot with 3X 73GB Fujitsu MAS3735NP 15K 3.3ms drives....Very fast and not noisy. The only time I notice noise is if I defrag them.

SCSI drives get very hot so you will need a fan blowing across them.
 
James and Daniel, Could you post a hdtach screenshot for both your setups?

I have just bought a Adaptec ASR - 3210S card to try out and see what it gives me performance wise.

Andy
 
I'll keep a beady eye out ;)

Heat is an issue with Scsi's - especially the 15k ones - I did plan to get them watercooled inside some silentmaxx enclosures - but in the end I just went for a 120mm blowing over them - works a treat!
 
madman045 said:
James and Daniel, Could you post a hdtach screenshot for both your setups?

I have just bought a Adaptec ASR - 3210S card to try out and see what it gives me performance wise.

Andy
Click to expand...

I get around 150 - 160 MB/s burst speed and 75 MB/s is the the average read. It could be better but bear in mind I am using it on an old PC so there could be a bottleneck else where. I will eventually be building a new PC based on the Conroe CPU.

My current setup is:

Dual CPU's 2X AMD Athlon MP2400+
MSI K7D Master-L (MS-6501) Motherboard
2.5GB 2100 DDR Memory
Adaptec 39320 A-R 64Bit Ultra 320 SCSI Card
3X 73GB Fujitsu MAS3735NP 15K 3.3ms Ultra 320 SCSI Drives

Dan
 
That's very odd - you should be getting much better speeds considering you've got a pci-x slot onboard. Would expect it to absolutely fly :confused: You got any other test tools, could be an HDTach issue?
 
Im not so sure, a friend ran hd tach 3 on a brand new dell precision today, fitted with a sas controller and two 73gb 15k drives and it got a read of 89mb/s...
 
cavemanoc said:
That's very odd - you should be getting much better speeds considering you've got a pci-x slot onboard. Would expect it to absolutely fly :confused: You got any other test tools, could be an HDTach issue?
Click to expand...

My motherboard doesnt have PCI-X. The card is in a 64 bit PCI slot. In a 32 bit slot the burst speed drops to about 80 MB/s and the read stays at around 75 MB/s.

I may go for SATA on my next build and get rid of the SCSI if I'm not going to notice much difference. The card will have to go in a 32 bit slot on a new Conroe build as it only really seems to be server boards that have PCI-X

Dan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom