Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: SCSI Question

  1. #1
    Cable Guy Jonny M's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Loughborough Uni
    Posts
    4,263
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    4 times in 1 post

    SCSI Question

    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?
    Last edited by Jonny M; 30-07-2003 at 03:49 PM.

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    LONDON
    Posts
    318
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts

    Re: SCSI Question

    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.
    Last edited by BlackSheep; 30-07-2003 at 04:10 PM.

  3. #3
    Cable Guy Jonny M's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Loughborough Uni
    Posts
    4,263
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    4 times in 1 post
    /me bins drive

    Thanks anyway

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    LONDON
    Posts
    318
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts
    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

  5. #5
    TiG
    TiG is offline
    Walk a mile in other peoples shoes...
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Questioning it all
    Posts
    6,213
    Thanks
    43
    Thanked
    47 times in 42 posts
    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

  6. #6
    Cable Guy Jonny M's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Loughborough Uni
    Posts
    4,263
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    4 times in 1 post
    Nah I'm OK, not too bothered.

    Don't even know if this thing works.

  7. #7
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    LONDON
    Posts
    318
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts
    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

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •