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Date:	Mon, 1 Sep 2003 10:46:29 PDT7
From:	"J. R. Fox" <jr_fox@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Re: What SCSI adapter to choose !?

Content Type: text/plain

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Steve Carter wrote:

> using a dual bus host adapter, you can separate the old, slow, SCSI devices,
> i.e. ZIP, MO, CD-ROM, and scanner from the newer faster, hard drives.

What I've always done, since I got started with SCSI in 1997 -- but always via
the two HA approach, which wasn't a problem for a mid-size tower or larger
desktop system. My current "project" involves a SFF computer, so SCSI would
have to be a one-card solution.

> For me, and many others, the best solution is a dual bus HA, separating
> the old, slow and external legacy (SE) devices from my (more) modern
> Ultra 160 10Krpm (LVD) hard drive(s).
>
> Dual U160 HAs generally have two internal 68-pin LVD/SE connectors,
> as do _EVERY_ONE_ of the HAs listed below, and a varying complement of
> other connectors. Here are some HA choices I have been investigating.
> There are others, but not of interest to me:

I'm a bit thrown by this dual channel / dual bus distinction. Assuming it or any of
the others would fit the box (an issue I had not even considered, but it's too late now . . . ),
I might have gone with the 29160N, because it's the only one that offered the external 50-
pin connector. That would have been fine for my SCSI scanner . . . except that this would
greatly degrade the performance of the fast SCSI hard-drive inside, because the card is
single-channel. Pursuing this idea would seem to mandate the use of a 39160 type of card,
plus a VHDCI to 50-pin connector (about 60 bucks, at least for the Adaptec part) externally,
on the other channel.

I think I'm confusing Bus and Channel here, but going one way I gather you'd take a big performance
hit with a single card, the other way things can be kept separate and compartmentalized.

> LSI 22915A; two VHDCI external connectors, 64-bit PCI

As you noted, these regularly close on Ebay at surprisingly low prices. I think there is a
phenomenon at work there where the recognized major brand names get the bidding attention;
something less well-known, even if it is superior, tends to get overlooked . . . unless it is some
kind of cult or enthusiast item.

> Adaptec has a history of NOT providing drivers for their older HAs
> and newer operating systems. There are no Window XP drivers from some
> of the older Adaptec HAs, so they are readily available on the surplus
> market for cheap.

Which ones ? My 2940U card works fine under W2K, but maybe that would have been a
problem under XP ?

> --Steve (sorry for the length of this post... )

Don't apologize for that: this was some very useful reference I'll hang onto, and the SCSI sites you
mentioned were not previously known to me either.

Jordan

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