Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 19:52:51 -0700 From: Darryl Okahata <darrylo@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> To: "Brian D. McGlothlin" <bmcgloth@mail.vt.edu> Cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: DAT or removable device? Message-ID: <199608290252.AA243977172@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 28 Aug 1996 18:35:18 EDT." <199608282235.SAA01356@sable.cc.vt.edu>
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> steer someone in the right direction before they spend bucks. From what I
> read I'm assuming Adaptec's 2940 PCI SCSI Master is a good choice. Now, I
Another possibility is a cheap NCR/Symbios-based SCSI card, which
gives performance comparable to an Adaptec 2940, but at *MUCH* lower
prices. If you have a motherboard with an on-board NCR BIOS, the SCSI
controller (without BIOS) will cost around $80 (don't be misled by the
cheap price -- it really is a decent card); if you don't have an
on-board NCR BIOS, a controller with BIOS will run around $105 (Data
Technology DTC3130B, from NECX).
I've got the DTC3130B, and it works well under FreeBSD 2.1R,
FreeBSD 2.2-snap-960801, and Windows 95.
However, there are some downsides that come to mind:
* Finding an NCR/Symbios-based card can be difficult. Most places don't
carry them for one reason or another (personally, I think the profit
margins are higher for the name-brand Adaptec, and so vendors push the
Adaptec).
* Supposedly, the NCR/Symbios-based cards don't perform well under heavy
loads, such as when you have three or more disks being accessed
*simultaneously*. This isn't an issue for most people.
* Under plain MSDOS (not an MSDOS session under Win95), the NCR ASPI
drivers use up more memory than Adaptec's ASPI drivers. This isn't an
issue under a Win95 MSDOS session, as Win95 loads the ASPI drivers
into extended memory, and doesn't use any precious low/high memory.
-- Darryl Okahata
Internet: darrylo@sr.hp.com
DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
constitute the support, opinion, or policy of Hewlett-Packard, or of the
little green men that have been following him all day.
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