SCSI Question

[Jonny M]

I have a 5BG Seagate ST34520N

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/.../st34520n.html

What card do I need to run this drive at it's best speed? All I'm looking to do is run this one drive, and use it as a Windows install drive, or just for a page file for Windows and Photoshop Scratch Disk.

What controller do I want? I don't want to spend too much cash and I don't want loads of wire to tidy up, so only need a SCSI cable with 1 plug on it.

Thanks

Edit: Or would I be better off with

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=49044

And a compatible controller card?

[BlackSheep]

Originally posted by Caged
I have a 5BG Seagate ST34520N

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/.../st34520n.html

What card do I need to run this drive at it's best speed? All I'm looking to do is run this one drive, and use it as a Windows install drive, or just for a page file for Windows and Photoshop Scratch Disk.

What controller do I want? I don't want to spend too much cash and I don't want loads of wire to tidy up, so only need a SCSI cable with 1 plug on it.

Thanks

Edit: Or would I be better off with

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=49044

And a compatible controller card?

Hi, m8

Firstly, your SCSI drive doesn't support > 20MB/sec peak rate transfer, so that is pretty slow in comparison to today's IDE drives (let alone top end SCSI drives) and seek times are approx 20ms+ (which is also pretty damn slow - for the 4GB drive). The U160 drive isn't too shoddy on performance, having looked at some of the specs.

The ebuyer drive would be a bad choice though as it runs on an 80-pin configuration in U160 so you are limited to cards with 80-pin and ideally U160 to get the full performance out of it.

The first drive would work at full speed on a Ultra-2 card which you can pick up for about £17 inc (from scan) - I think you'd have to get a SCSI cable, which if you shop around wouldn't be that expensive for a 50-pin single drive. Not sure about termination at the drive end - whether you'd need to terminate it (likely as it's an older drive) or whether you can get an auto-terminating cable to ease the budget. You could spend a bit more and get an Ultra-3 card which does 30MB/sec, but for this drive it would be overkill.

Once you have got the controller card, cable and terminator you are looking at around £30 - £40 which would be better spent on a nice quick 40GB IDE drive that you could dedicate for swap/boot.

[Jonny M]

/me bins drive

Thanks anyway

[BlackSheep]

Originally posted by Caged
/me bins drive

Thanks anyway

would be nice to get the ebuyer one and run it on a U160 controller (if you could find one for cheap) - then you would have a whole new world of SCSI opportunity ahead of you !

Fujitsu MAS3735 15krpm

or, more realistically:

Maxtor Atlas IV 10krpm

or just ditch the SCSI idea and get a nice raptor SATA 10krpm

[TiG]

Caged,

If you are interested i might have another identical drive if you really wanted to play with some scsi stuff.

Pm me if you are interested.

TiG

[Jonny M]

Nah I'm OK, not too bothered.

Don't even know if this thing works.

[BlackSheep]

Originally posted by TiG
Caged,

If you are interested i might have another identical drive if you really wanted to play with some scsi stuff.

Pm me if you are interested.

TiG

... on a side note, only just noticed you are a backwards git