Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 09:14:52 +600 CDT From: "Larry Dolinar" <LARRYD@bldg1.croute.com> To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Recommendations for SCSI card? Message-ID: <E0A07D513E3@bldg1.croute.com>
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Michael, Michael, if you're going to quote me please quote the whole
thing. The comments you attribute to me are actually those of
Michel Joly de Lotbiniere; that was the reason for the "begin/end
snip".
I'll admit the cards may not be the most economical Down Under, but
speaking from personal experience, the NCR card cost me $125, the
equivalent Adaptec (software/docs/etc) would be closer to $300.
Obviously disparities exist, and Adaptec has an overinflated idea of its
worth in the States. Perhaps the same is true of NCR in Australia.
I'll include the _whole_post_ again for the curious; sorry for the extra
bandwidth....
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 23:48:44 -0400
From: Michel Joly de Lotbiniere <mjdl@interlog.com>
Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org
Precedence: bulk
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Larry,
The FutureDomain card you mentioned in your post to questions@freebsd.org
is a non-busmastering type SCSI controller; you'll be sacrificing
some of the efficiencies of SCSI since I/O transfers will require
the attention of the OS, not merely the setting-up & results.
People constantly say that the best inexpensive PCI SCSI busmastering
cards are those using the NCR 53C810 (or whatever the part number is),
but even there, your're best advised to buy an original NCR card:
Symbios Logic PCI Host Bus Adapter SYM8150S (with BIOS)
or SYM8100S (without BIOS, for MBs
with the SDMS bios)
NCR Microelectronics is now independant:
Symbios Logic 1-800-334-5454
| From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
| Subject: Re: Recommendations for SCSI card?
| To: LARRYD@bldg1.croute.com (Larry Dolinar)
| Date sent: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 12:30:27 +1030 (CST)
| Copies to: questions@FreeBSD.ORG
| Larry Dolinar stands accused of saying:
| > People constantly say that the best inexpensive PCI SCSI busmastering
| > cards are those using the NCR 53C810 (or whatever the part number is),
| > but even there, your're best advised to buy an original NCR card:
|
| No you're not! Over here at least they cost a _fortune_ (more than the
| Adaptec 2940's), and there's nothing that they do that, say, an ASUS SC200
| doesn't.
|
To quote the ASUS manual for the P54SP4, P55TP4, and P55TP4XE: "This card
works with the SCSI BIOS on the mainboard. Together, they provide a
complete PCI Fast SCSI-2 interface."
An ASUS card has no BIOS; without motherboard support you'd be stuck with
booting off a floppy. Fortunately many motherboards beside ASUS have
just such a feature, but that's bit of a stretch to saying they are
interchangeable. The 2940 has onboard BIOS, by contrast.
best regards,
larry
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