IDE Vs. SCSI

[Chrispix272]

I am currently building a CAD Workstation for my company, I have already decided to go with Dual Athlon MP 1600's (Tyan S2460) and I could use some advice on what hard drive solution I should go for. I have some experiance with IDE RAID but have never dealt with anything SCSI. For the most part I have a pretty big budget ($2100) to just build the box so i can get a little ridiculous. IDE RAID, SCSI, or SCSI RAID? And any other words of advice.

 

[Lars_Coleman]

CAD is going to take some major performance so I would just go with the SCSI hard drives so you can spend that whole budget of yours!

SCSI will be a better solution because it's more reliable and it's faster.

You have the cash, so splurge! I used Solid Works on my home machine and it works fine. Keep in mind that for messing arround, probably not even close to what your going to do!

<font color=red>1GHz AMD x MSI K7T-Turbo x 512MB PC133 x 2-Maxtor 30GB/RAID 0 = Stream Line Butterfly</font color=red>

 

[Guest]

I would go SCSI without a doubt. Go with RAID too if you have some spare budget.
The best part of the deal is it is not your money.

 

[Crashman]

Go SCSI RAID. Since you really can't get too nuts, I recommend 3 drives (smaller ones, because these are cheap) hooked up in Raid 5. The drive settup should cost around $600 including the card if you know how to shop.
Hey, if you can get better drives by getting USED drives and not letting you company know their used, these things are warranteed for 5 years instead of 3. So 1-2 year old retired server drives start to sound attractive.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[scamtrOn]

well every body is on the right track, but i would go with two 15000 rpm seagate hard drives. on raid. if you have any questions on scsi jumpers just write back. you also need an ultra 160 scsi controller. wheeeeeeeeeee 160mb/second and 3.7ms seek time. by the way great choice on the cpus. i also build cad boxes for construction businesses.

 

[Chrispix272]

Thanks to all who have replied!

I have come to a few decisions, I was think I was gonna get an Adaptec 2100s RAID card, with two 18gb IBM 68pin ultra160 10,000rpm drives. I tried to combine price and performance to fit my budget (sorry I dont think I can squeeze enough for a third drive to setup raid 5, but would like to for a little more reliability). And yes I do have a few questions about jumpers...like what do I do. I have never dealt with SCSI before so this is new to me...I am used to the master/slave setup for IDE. So any hints on what I am getting myslef into please make a few suggestions.

Also if you think there is any issues with my choice of equipment then let me know, because I picked IBMs because of the rave reviews of there IDE drives(Deskstar 75GXP). The 15,000rpm drives were a little too expensive. But I havent placed the order yet so if you see a good deal somewhere let me know.

Thanks

 

[scamtrOn]

most of the new scsi adapters will automaticaly configure your devices. one thing you should watch is that if you get two hard drives they both will be on scsi ID zero(default). so you will have to change one of them. you have 4 sets of jumper ID pins on your hard drives. no jumpers mean ID zero. 1 jumper on the first set of jumper pins on your hard drive means ID# 1. each scsi channel holds 16 devices, but one is used for each scsi channel so 15 devices really. just make sure no two devices have the same ID. on the back of the drives you have 8 sets of jumper pins. don't worry about the other 4.

 

[mbetea]

i'd go with scsi for 3d work. question though, have you looked at tyan's thunder K7? big brother to the tiger K7. has onboard scsi(ultra160), agpPro (depending what board you're running) it's about $150 more than the tiger, but that cut's out having to get a scsi controller. and onboard lan. it has some ati onboard video, but that can definitely be disabled or might be able to run in conjunction with an agp card.

 

[Guest]

Here comes a different opinion
I would go for IDE...
Buy a Promise Supertrack SX6000 it has 6 IDE channels and an onboard RISC processor to move the data
Then buy lot's of IDE 7200 rpm harddrives
I will personally buy one of those babies to for my Tiger MP board.

Mulsk

 

[Guest]

Just a couple suggestions:
-Hypermicro.com is considered by many to be the best place to buy SCSI stuff
-if you are going with 18Gb SCSI drives you'd be best off with <A HREF="http://storagereview.com/articles/200107/20010719ST336752LW_1.html" target="_new">Seagate X15-36LP</A> drives, the fastest known to man and the only true 2nd generation 15k rpm drive (while the 1st gen X15 set a precedent in speed and reliability, the 2nd gen 36LP is slightly faster and much quieter)
-Tekram host adapter cards are about as good as Adaptek and much cheaper (the Tekram retail version with expensive cables included are still slightly cheaper than the Adaptec OEM cards)

A dual X15-36LP system will give you unparalelled storage performance and great reliability (X15-36LPs have a 1,200,000-hour MTBF) that won't be matched for some time to come.

Oh and if you want to go cheaper and quieter, you can't go wrong with the <A HREF="http://storagereview.com/articles/200107/20010711KW073L8_1.html" target="_new">Maxtor Atlas 10k III</A>. And these drives will require some active cooling: either a case like <A HREF="http://www.gideontech.com/reviews/alum_case_roundup/index02.shtml" target="_new">Lian-Li's</A> with HD cooling built in or a couple Coolermaster <A HREF="http://www.coolermaster.com/products/hdd/hd.html" target="_new">Drivecoolers</A> or a <A HREF="http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/cooling/drive/bay-cool/index_bc3.htm" target="_new">Baycooler</A>.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by alpha112233 on 12/05/01 03:50 AM.</EM></FONT></P>