Spec me a cheap SCSI setup

Messiah Khan

Messiah Khan

Messiah Khan

Soldato
Joined
1 Sep 2005
Posts
10,001
Location
Scottish Highlands
Im soon going to upgrade my system harddrive. I was origionally thinking of the 36gb raptor, but looking at a few graphs etc it seems that quite a few other SATA150 drives are catching it up. Now I can hear you say; "just get a 74gb or even 150gb raptor". But the way ive got my system set up now, and the way I want to keep it set up, is to have windows on a seperate drive to my programs(Ive got the programs drive sorted with a WD250gb drive). So that just leaves a home for windows, which does not need more than 36GB, infact it doesn't really need more than 20gb. So ive been looking at small, but fast(15,000rpm) SCSI drives. Could some of you guys in the know, comment on this setup and spec me a drive, controller card and cable etc please. The motherboard it is all be hooked up to is an MSI K8N Diamond SLI.
 
Can't go wrong with Adaptec stuff, but I'd say any U160/U320 card would be good (since SCSI was design for servers and business, there aren't many if any cowboy makes). Just make sure if you get a PCI-X card that you know it will only run at PCI bus speed (~130MB ish) and double check the card can be used in a PCI slot (PCI-X is backward compatible with PCI *most* of the time).

Regarding drives, Maxtor Atlas III 15K drives are some of the fastest available (they boast a 90MB/sec sustained read speed). That or Seagate. Both have 5 year warranties so you should be fine if anything goes wrong. I'm not too sure about the cabling, but you'll need a specific cable (you can get 68-pin and 80-pin IIRC - I think the 80 pin carries power aswell where the 68 doesn't - depends on the drive and interface card). Also don't forget to get a terminator to complete the loop.
 
I have been using SCSI for years. I used to stick with Adaptec, but then had some hassles so hunted around. I now use TekRAM as they are good quailty, and much cheaper. As a bonus they also include the cables and terminators which can cost a bomb otherwise.

Have you got any SCSI experience? If not, I can post you some FAQs and give ya some hints. :)

See sig for the TekRAM U320 that I use. I tend to go for Hitachi drives - currently two 36GB 10,000rpm drives in my main rig. And also have a lot of Segates. Some of these ten years old.

The drives are very expensive compared with SATA, but IMHO worth it. I can see the speed difference in file loading, etc compared with RAID arrays. :D

Welcome to the expensive world of SCSI. :Dr
 
Go for 68-pin as 80-pin needs more expensive u320 cables with terminators + most new decent 15k u320 hd's are 68-pin.

I got a brand new Adaptec ASC-39320 (DUAL channel) SCSI card off ebay for the bargain price of £70 inc VAT
 
Thanks for the great tips guys, you've given me a few directions to look into.
@MAllen.. No I don't have any SCSI experience other than having held a SCSI drive in my hands about 10 years ago :) So a quick FAQ would be great, thanks. What sort of speeds are you getting out of the 36gb drives?
 
What is the drive you have in your hands? 68-pin or 80-pin connector? (i.e. can you see a molex for power - if yes, then it isn't an 80-pin)

Is it an LVD drive?

May be time to check specs at manufacturers site. This will give you the real specs for the drive.

A big difference from IDE is SCSI cables need to be actively terminated. (i.e. a little electronic device placed at the end of the cable). So your average cable tends to be:

[SCSI Card]===[HDD0]==[HDD1]==[HDD2]==[DVD]==[TERMINATOR]

Each device on the SCSI chain has it's own unique number.
The devices do not need to be attached to the SCSI chain in numerical order.
The total number of deivices depends on the SCSI card. Usually 8, 16 or 32.

Don't use cheap cables.

Some old FAQs from my bookmarks

http://scsifaq.org/
http://www.thetechzone.com/articles/how_to/all_scsi/index.shtml
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/scsi/
http://scsifaq.paralan.com/index.html

That should get you going. Come back when you have questions :)
 
messiah khan said:
I think your getting confused. I havent got a drive here, now. Im need to buy this as well as the controler card. As for saying cheap, im looking at no more than £200 for the card/drive/cable/terminator if possible.
Click to expand...
I think you should give up now. Unless you want all second hand parts. :)

My TekRAM card, complete with cables and terminators, was around £140 (I notice that the supplier I previoulsy used now sell LSI cards instead. Which is exactly the same chipset that is on the TekRAM)

And hard drives over £100 each for much small sizes.

Adaptec kit is even more expensive. And they don't include the cables or terminators (cables can be £80, terminators £20....)

This is an expensive addiction. Only really sensible if you are getting some of the kit FOC.

Go and price up some kit - and scare yourself back to SATA. :D
 
You might be able to get a sub £200 SCSI spec but you'll be pushing it a bit. Best thing to do is if you've got your heart set on it is get a controller (Auction site for ~£70) and get the cables / terminator. Then have a look around for a disc that comes within your budget. New SCSI drives start about £100 new (Seagate 36GB 10k rpm) and £120+ (Seagate 36GB 15k).
 
I have an old 16GB Hitachi 10,000rpm drive. So there are older, smaller ones around.

SCSI drives tend to be built to a higher quality than IDE drives. Mainly because they are expensive and tend to live in servers were the reliability is important.

When purchasing second hand, get the seller to run the diagnostics disks from the manufacturers. Then you can see what condition they are in. For example, my 18GB Hitachi tells me that it has been dropped - though it is working fine. And I can't remember ever dropping it.... but the error is logged. :)


Also - be aware that all this talk of "15000 rpm drives" and "U320 speeds" is all theoretical. If you are attaching these to a PCI slot, then that will be your slowest link to the CPU.... though I believe a drive to drive copy gets the benifit of full speed across the SCSI Adapter itself. You really need PCI-X/64-bit PCI slots (not the same as PCI Express for your graphics cards) to make the most of the speed.

Saying all that - there is a visible speed advantage of SCSI over RAID. Watching two similar spec'd PCs install a program or load up a game level, it is always the SCSI that is way ahead of the pack. :)
 
Below is what I got when I went U320 15k SCSI:

36Gb Maxtor Atlas II (15k U320 the fastest 15k SCSI).= £90 (New ebay)
Adaptec ASC-39320 (DUAL channel) U320 SCSI RAID...= £70 (New ebay)
U320 SCSI cable...................................................= £15 (New ebay)

Total = £175 Inc VAT

So it can be done for <£200 for the complete setup, however you need to regularly browse ebay for the bargains and snap them up when they appear like I did. I was looking on ebay each day for a few minutes for a good couple of weeks before I was able to pick up the above bargains :D
 
Messiah Kahn - As a SCSI-noob - don't forget to add an "Active Terminator" to Fred or Dead's shopping list. And check with the seller of the cable that it really is a U320 cable. There are some cheap and nasty cables around that were designed for older, slower speeds. I have had problems with these in the past. Which is why it was nice to grab a TekRAM with all the cables in the box. (Most cables are labled)

And talking of bargins.... OCUK's own Member's Market is well worth a trawl. I picked up a spare TekRAM DC-390U2B as a backup to my main U320 rig. And that was a meaty cost of £20 - including the cables, terminators, etc. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom