Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 20:54:51 -0600 (MDT) From: "Kenneth D. Merry" <ken@plutotech.com> To: dkelly@HiWAAY.net (David Kelly) Cc: freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: choice of a new SCSI drive? Message-ID: <199906180254.UAA92425@panzer.plutotech.com> In-Reply-To: <199906180215.VAA43581@nospam.hiwaay.net> from David Kelly at "Jun 17, 1999 09:15:09 pm"
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David Kelly wrote... > Not much discussion here lately of what is going on in the SCSI market. > Ordered a new MB today, an Asus P2B-S, with onboard Adaptec 7890 and > 3860 after checking the archives confirming others have run same. MB was > cheaper than an Adaptec 2940U2W PCI card by itself from most vendors. > Only $200 more than the SCSI-less (but one PCI slot more) P2B-F. That's a good buy. Nowadays, it's generally cheaper to get SCSI on the motherboard. You can even get Adaptec 7896/97 parts on there if you want. > Is the 3860 an LVD "SCSI bridge" Adaptec uses to separate LVD and single > ended, and run both on the same bus? Am downloading Asus' 11MB PDF > manual at this moment so I might be answering my own question in a > moment. A long moment at 28.8k. Yes, it is a SE<->LVD bridge. > Would favor IBM or Seagate drives over anything else based on past > performance. Actually less on performance performance and more on > reliability performance. I don't want a 10k drive, partly for the noise. > Partly for the heat. Would favor cool and quiet, as long as its > reliable. > > Changed employers recently. Seems at my old job all my HD bookmarks > listed LVD drives for less than non-LVD. That doesn't appear to be the > case. Then after hearing it mentioned here and confirming it on IBM's > site, it appears most LVD drives can fall back into single-ended mode? LVD disks work fine in single-ended mode, with the caveat that they do not come with terminators. So you need an external terminator (the one on those twisty LVD cables will do) or you need to use a device with SE terminators to do the termination on the bus. > So maybe the market has wizened up learning they can use the latest LVD > on the old controllers? I suppose so. > A prime candidate HD for my new MB is at: > http://www.onsale.com/category/inv/00037892/01605738.htm > > The is an "IBM ULTRASTAR 18ES 9.1GB HD U2SCSI 68-PIN 7200RPM LVD". For > $350 (includes UPS ground shipping) it appears to be a good value. Just for reference, NECX (www.necx.com) has the same drive for $365.00. > Among other nice things it has a 2MB cache. A nasty thing about Onsale/ > AtCost is one can't get a straight answer as to the product's warranty, > they link you to phone numbers where you can call the manufacturer and > ask. IBM lists 5 years for over-the-counter drives. Seagate is well > known for two warranty tiers, over-the-counter, and OEM. The OEM product > is only warranted to the OEM. Its gotten so bad Seagate now has a serial > number checker on their web site. Well, the disks you get from NECX are full-warranty disks. Their page for the 9G Ultrastar 18ES says that it has a 5 year warranty. If you're worried about whether Onsale's disks have warranties, just pay the extra $15 and buy it from NECX. > For my purposes, LVD is overkill. But I sorta feel like treating myself > to something excessive at the moment. > > Ay pointers to sources of internal LVD cables and terminators? Some > vendors advertise the drives prominently but forget about the > essentials. You often get a cable set with your ASUS motherboard. The LVD cable will be a twisty cable with a terminator block on the end. If it didn't come with a cable set, you can generally pick them up at a computer store or at www.scsi-cables.com. Ken -- Kenneth Merry ken@plutotech.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-scsi" in the body of the message
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