Need some advice on a SCSI card and HD.

SlackerSlacker CA, USA
edited March 2004 in Hardware
Well after much debate, I finally decided to switch over to SCSI. I've been looking at the LSI LSIU160 and the Maxtor 8C036L0 HD. Will these two will work together well? Which cable should I get and do I also need a terminator? Any general advice on working with SCSI would also be appreciated. Thanks

BTW, I using a soyo kt333 mobo and running Windows 2000.

If you can think of a SCSI card and HD combination that would give better performance or be less of headache to setup, please let me know.

Comments

  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited February 2004
    Why exactly are you going to SCSI? What are you doing with your computer? I've had both SCSI and IDE, so if you give me a better idea of what you want to do, I might be able to help out some more...
  • SlackerSlacker CA, USA
    edited February 2004
    Geeky1 wrote:
    Why exactly are you going to SCSI? What are you doing with your computer? I've had both SCSI and IDE, so if you give me a better idea of what you want to do, I might be able to help out some more...

    Two reason for going SCSI. First I just want learn more about SCSI, and second I download lots of TV episodes using bit torrent (a whole season is usually ~10GB). I was thinking of using the SCSI drive to hold the OS, Virtual PC hard disk files and the partial bit torrent downloads.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    You're reasons cited are rather, erm, lacking to deserve the speed and price which SCSI offers and asks.

    SCSI drives come in very small capacities compared to IDE drives. If you actively download torrents, you'd be wise to get a high-capacity (250GB) drive from Maxtor or Western Digital.

    You don't do a lot of activities where disk access times are crucial, so why waste the money?
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited February 2004
    the Western Digital SATA Raptors give good performance and are less expensive than SCSI drives. Get two of the 36gb drives run them in Raid 0 and it would cost about as much as that SCSI drive and give you oustanding performance.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    He doesn't NEED outstanding performance. He just needs capacity.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited February 2004
    For your purposes, Thrax is absolutely right. SCSI drives are going to be 10,000 or 15,000rpms; they're louder than IDE drives, they use more power, and they run much hotter. You can get away with no cooling for 7200rpm IDE drives (although it's not recommended). SCSI drives require cooling, ideally an 80mm fan blowing across the drive, like the drive cage in the Antec cases offers.

    There is no reason for you to get SCSI drives for your application.
  • SlackerSlacker CA, USA
    edited February 2004
    Thrax wrote:
    You're reasons cited are rather, erm, lacking to deserve the speed and price which SCSI offers and asks.

    ...

    He doesn't NEED outstanding performance. He just needs capacity.

    Thrax - My only guess is that you think this is just some ‘superficial purchase of the week’, otherwise I have idea why you would oppose me adding SCSI devices to my system so passionately. I assure you – I’ve giving a lot of thought over the practicality of adding a SCSI HD vs adding IDE HD and decided this is worth investing in. You’re probably right about it being expensive w/ having little or no immediate benefit, but setting up SCSI is something I have yet to do; I can think of no better way to gain experience than to set one up now.

    Geeky mentioned there would be lots of heat and noise. Heat shouldn’t be a problem since my computer is spread over my table instead of housed inside a case. The noise, however, wouldn’t be something I'd look forword to. What sort of noise would there be? Is it a high pitch whine?

    BTW, Are the 74GB raptors quieter than other 10K RPM SCSI drives?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    setting up scsi:

    A primer by primesuspect:

    1) You plug the drive into the cable
    2) you turn the computer on
    3) whirr! hot!
    4) fast oooh.. but $$$$$ :(

    ;D

    Sorry for the irreverence. Carry on... :D
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited February 2004
    Slacker, Thrax is right though. Take it from someone who's run scsi drives before. You would be better off with IDE drives for your application.

    Heat will be an issue, whether you think it is or not. The fact that the computer is spread out makes little difference. SCSI drives need airflow across them. In fact, setting them on a table is possibly the worst thing you can do, because you're insulating the bottom of the drive by placing it on the table. What's on the bottom of the drive? The controller and the cache. The controller chip gets even hotter than the drive itself. You will need cooling for SCSI drives, or for Western Digital Raptors.

    The noise is a high pitched whine, yes.

    The bottom line is that you'd still be better off with an IDE drive or, if you want something faster, and IDE RAID array. Your application won't benefit at all from SCSI. But, if you insist, do it right. You need to cool the drives properly, meaning an 80mm fan in front of them blowing across the drives, with the drive elevated a little bit, so air can pass both over and under them.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Setting up SCSI is no different than IDE.

    Is the experience of doing the same thing you've done before with a different name and a larger cost that necessary?

    I mean, if money really matters that little to you, go ahead. But I just can't understand why "I've never done it before" is a reason when you've already done it with IDE.
  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited March 2004
    Not quite, you have device-id's 0-10 (?) to worry about rather than just master and slave ;). But if you've ever set up anything on a non-integrated IDE controller you've basically done the entire scsi setup except the device-id. I've got a completely scsi setup (well there's an IDE storage drive) and unless you're doing something with tons of disk access these guys are really right, its probably not worth it. If you do want to try to set something up I remember someone in buy and sell forums was trying to sell a U160 / 10k setup for a decent price because he went SATA. This would be a good way to experiment with SCSI and then you can still have the cash leftover for a couple monster SATA or PATA IDE drives to get you the storage you're looking for.
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited March 2004
    Slacker wrote:
    BTW, Are the 74GB raptors quieter than other 10K RPM SCSI drives?

    Raptors are very quiet.
Sign In or Register to comment.