SCSI Hard drive

[maccahc]

Hi bear with my newness. In an attempt to save cash on an attempted new build pc (first time builder) I have been using a combination of ebay and online shops to save some cash.
So far I have managed to pick up a new Abit AW9D-MAX for £90(ebay private sale), a new E6600 CPU for £143 (ebuyer using google checkout),new
2GB of Geil pc6400 ULL 800mhz for £70(ebay private sale) and an Akasa Eclipse 62 case with side board fan mod for £26 (bargain unmarked on ebay). I am in the process of looking at psus and will probably go for a BFG 8800GTS card(£175 ebuyer with checkout). My budget being reasonably strict at around £550-£600.
The problem is in my haste I bid for and bought a Seagate Cheetah ultra 320 73GB SCSI hard drive(new for £45 ebay) without checking it was SCSI!!. Having looked around this means I need a card and may have a host of compatability issues etc.
What would the potential problems be installing this on my sytem and would it be compatible with future SATA HD`s?
Would I be better just reselling it on ebay?
......Clueless.

[Flewis]

Might be best reselling it, i dont think people generally have much success running SCSI drives on the desktop.

[KingLouie3]

Flewis is right, you could resell the scsi drive on ebay. However, you can pick up a cheap adaptec scsi card from ebay. Adaptec do support alot of operating systems, I'm not sure about vista, but check before you buy a scsi card. Good luck!

[Funkstar]

If you can sell the drive for round about what you bought it for, then do it.

You can get a brand new 250 - 300GB drive for about £45 anyway. So if you are trying to do things on the cheap that makes far more sense.

Have a look on http://www.scan.co.uk. If space isn't important to you, they have 80GB drives for £25.

[IAmATeaf]

Might be best reselling it, i dont think people generally have much success running SCSI drives on the desktop.

What does the above mean? I used to run 2 136gb SCSI 10k disks in my Desktop system till recently, used to use an Adaptec 29160 controller card. The 1 thing to remember with SCSI high RPM drives is that they do get extremely hot so you need to make sure your case cooling is up to scratch.

I only got rid of them as I needed more space and SCSI high capacity drives cost big bucks. For the casual users I'd personally recommend selling it and using the proceeds to get a SATA 7.2k drive in all honesty.

[SiM]

What does the above mean? I used to run 2 136gb SCSI 10k disks in my Desktop system till recently, used to use an Adaptec 29160 controller card. The 1 thing to remember with SCSI high RPM drives is that they do get extremely hot so you need to make sure your case cooling is up to scratch.

I only got rid of them as I needed more space and SCSI high capacity drives cost big bucks. For the casual users I'd personally recommend selling it and using the proceeds to get a SATA 7.2k drive in all honesty.

When you were using them, did you find they were very fast?
Was your windows loading time very short? I'm thinking it might be good for an OS drive and it seems cheaper than a raptor.

[Zak33]

SCSI rocks....always has....always will.

You need a SCSI controller and you dont need a super fast 320 or anything because no hard drive is capable of loading it up...its for multi HDD systems,

A SCSI controller card goes in a spare PCI slot (not PCi express) and you install XP but using a floppy with the SCSI drivers on.

SCSI cards take a fraction longers to boot that SATA or EIDE as the pc goes through those first and then finds the PCI controller everytime but the drives are LIGHTNING fast

and last a very long time, with proper cooling.

You can still use your Optical drives on your EDIE cables and put SATA in further up the line for extra storage...

my advice? be brave buy a 160mb/s controller (you really dont need more) and the cables and read about it a little online.

SCSI was inventred to support 16 devices at once, and is so far superior to IDE that it hurts.

The signals in the ribbon cables must "bounce" back, so you buy TERMINATORS, which are plugs that fit onto the cable after the HDD is fitted, to achieve max speed.

It's gonna be all new for you, so if youre not feeling brave...sell it,

But if you want a challenge....go for it.

Come to the DARK SIDE

[SiM]

Hmm... Zak, you might have just persuaded me to move over to SCSI for my next build... How does it compare to your raptor?

And generally is the death rate low or is it like maxtor?

(Sorry if this seems OT, but its relevent imo if the OP goes for SCSI in the end)

[directhex]

SCSI's not as lively as messir Zak33 suggests - large systems have moved to fibre channel, SAS, SATA, or usually a combination of the above

[kalniel]

Well SCSI drives tend to be very well optimised for server usage...

[maccahc]

Thanks gents you have given me something to think about, there seems to be plently scsi cards on ebay at reasonable prices.The Cheetah costs upwards of £100 retail and it could make a decent OS drive if I can just find those big hairy cojones I left lying around somewhere......

.....would front, back and side 12cm fans in the Eclipse be enough cooling or would you recommend more?

[Zak33]

SCSI's not as lively as messir Zak33 suggests - large systems have moved to fibre channel, SAS, SATA, or usually a combination of the above

pah.

I have a RAPTOR and 2 SEAGATE Barracuda's on SATA.

My old 18gig SCSI 10k Cheetah was faster in everything than anything except the raptor.

I am convinced that if I had a 74 gig 10k SCSI drive (ie denser data on the platters than my old 18gig drives) it would be as fast and maybe faster.

It's just very expensive to buy.

[dave87]

The eclipse would be perfect for a fast SCSI drive or two

[Zak33]

Thanks gents you have given me something to think about, there seems to be plently scsi cards on ebay at reasonable prices.The Cheetah costs upwards of £100 retail and it could make a decent OS drive if I can just find those big hairy cojones I left lying around somewhere......

.....would front, back and side 12cm fans in the Eclipse be enough cooling or would you recommend more?

thats be fine in that cae...make sure you have the HDD fans blowing through them (im sure that case allows for that) and keep the drives spaced, not next to each other. The heats on the BOTTOM of them, not the top.

[Zak33]

SCSI's not as lively as messir Zak33 suggests - large systems have moved to fibre channel, SAS, SATA, or usually a combination of the above

by the way...Hex does actually know more about hardware than I do...so he SHOULD be listened too.
But I had the SCSI system for 5 years...not him

[TooNice]

Well, I am an ex-SCSI user. As I recall, there are more than one generation of Cheetah coming in 73GB size. At £45, it is a good price regardless.

For server applications, I do not doubt that the Cheetah can edge even the latest Raptor (which cost quite a bit more per GB). But for desktop applications, even the 2nd gen Raptor can hold it's own.. to say the least (also note how well performing 7200 drives compares).

Don't get me wrong, the fastest SCSI drives will be faster than the fastest existing SATA drive (in server and desktop applications), in part due to the availability of 15k RPM drives. But that's not appropriate option to consider for your budget.

Admitedly, in the £45 brackets (ignoring the cost of an adapter/cable), you are not likely going to do better in performance. It comes down to how much more you value performance over space. If you think that 73GB is enough, or have another drive to use as storage, then that's fine.

If I was to build a £600 PC for a friend though, I probably would slap a larger SATA drive personally. It is, IMO, useful for longer if someone's on a budget: SCSI, fast as they are (though I would not go as far as Zak's description - no disrespect ), *will* lose their edge against newer SATA drive in time (especially for desktop applications). When that happens, you'll be left with something that is too small for archiving, yet not the fastest thing in the block either [Note that this is true with all 'performance over capacity' drives].

Whereas a drive a large SATA drive will be useful as a secondary drive for a bit longer IMO.

That was my reason for quitting SCSI. I was kinda tempted to grab a second hand SCSI adapter a little while ago, but I've decided to see what the upcoming technologies brings to the table in the near future for a performance over capacity solution (okay SSD is not all that yet according to the benchmarks I've seen so far, and I've only seen a demo of a hybrid).

[Oh yea, I've never had a dead SCSI drive - though my experience is statistically meaningless]