scsi drives

[phill21]

hi
firstly i would like to state..
i know sod all about scsi hard drives and i need some advice...
where i buy my hardware for my computer from they are advising two types of a pci adaptec cards which look to be the same, but one is twice the price of the other...nearly
here are the following cards..

Adaptec 29160 Ultra 2 SCSI OEM 151.00 177.43

Adaptec 29160 LP Ultra 160 SCSI oem 86.00 101.05

now i live in england, so please dont worry about the prices so much, but what are the differences between these two cards and what one do i get?
im wanting a scsi hard drive as well, (obvously) but again, not so sure about which one to get, as they are like 5 times the cost of the normal ide ones that i use..
im pretty sure that the higher the cache and spin speeds the better and faster the drive?
now to say a little about what i will be needing it for...
i have the following setup..

http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=18250

now, would it be worth me getting a raid card or going scsi ?
i would be using it for video editing only, so nothing much else would be on the drive at all, maybe apart from the progams that are needed for me to use to capture the video...
now, what do i need :- software, hardware ie ide raid, or scsi, more memory etc.
also i have a very basic capture card, is there one thats about £50 to £100 that would be a good start for me?
i get my hardware from

www.microdirect.co.uk - i have a trade account.... its cheaper!!

any advice would be great as im really wanting to actually use my computer for something more than gaming..
thanks for the help!!

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[jc14all]

First I would advise you to read the FAQ threasd in this particular forum, there is a lot of information there that would answer most of you questions regarding SCSI technology.

Also, here is a link to the knowledge base for the <A HREF="http://ask.adaptec.com/cgi-bin/adaptec_tic.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_li=&p_page=1&p_prod_lvl1=66&p_prod_lvl2=68&p_cat_lvl1=~any~&p_search_text=29160LP&p_new_search=1&p_search_type=3&p_sort_by=dflt" target="_new">29160LP</A> It is mainly for for thin rackmount servers.

The 29160 Ultra 2 is more suitable for internal and external hard disk drive configurations, that is, it is more backwards compatible with legacy SCSI devices. Knowledge base for the <A HREF="http://ask.adaptec.com/cgi-bin/adaptec_tic.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_li=&p_page=1&p_prod_lvl1=66&p_prod_lvl2=68&p_cat_lvl1=~any~&p_search_text=29160&p_new_search=1&p_search_type=3&p_sort_by=dflt" target="_new">29160 Ultra 2</A>.

Since you are considering the OEM versions, I assume because of cost, I would recommend that you make your first purchase "Retail Box". OEM's do not come with instructions, or cables. You may end up spending just as much because the learning curve my be much more costly if you get the wrong cables.

Your setup <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=18250" target="_new">BigPhil</A> looks fine. I really could advise you on whether you should go SCSI or RAID, but from where you are at the moment, I'd say RAID. SCSI is much more expensive, plus SCSI is optimized for NTFS and would probably better handle your video editing, because of the true multitasking capability of both NTFS & SCSI.

Their are others here in this forum who are more qualified to provide you feedback on RAID, but I think RAID is much cheaper than SCSI.





<font color=purple><b>Listen twice as much as you Speak. Better yet, Think twice. </font color=purple></b>

 

[phill21]

it was just all that they had on offer at the time. im not very bothered about the cost of it, i just want something thats going to do what im going to do.
as the lp is a 'cut down version' (is it right to call it that???) then its not really what im looking out for.
i want something that is going to do the job and do it well so i dont have to upgrade every two minutes..
thank you for the help in hand with the two cards. i believe that the more expensive way to go is through scsi, but i believe it to be the better way.. i dont want to do this 'half arsed'.. i want to be 'professional' (to a point!!) about it..
how would i go about setting up a ntfs partion on the scsi drive as i use windows 98? would i have to install windows 2000 on the scsi drive and run it from there?
you havent mentioned anything in particular about the capture card, what would you recommend? i would like again, something thats not 'half arsed' as i want it to be a little more than i need so i dont have to worry about upgrading it and spending more money again to get what i need..
thank you again, for the help regarding this matter..
i look forward to a reply..

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[Scotty35]

I am a big fan of SCSI, but I will suggest you have a look at the <A HREF="http://www.westerndigital.com/products/productcatalog.asp" target="_new">Western Digital</A> 1200JB IDE hard drive(120Gb) or others in the "JB" range. They have a 8mb cache like a lot of SCSI drives do and are almost as quick in seek and access times. The price difference from SCSI to these drives will give you more to spend on editing software and a good capture card, sorry I can't recommend one of those cards as I don't know much about them.

Use win2000 or better still Win XP, much easier than w98 IMO, but beware of your peripheral hardware such as scanners, cameras etc as their drivers may not be supported if they are a few years old. But we can get around that



<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/" target="_new">http://forums.btvillarin.com/</A> "CLICK"
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Scotty35 on 08/12/02 11:15 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[jc14all]

Sorry I don't know much about video editing, but maybe this link will give you some info. <A HREF="http://www.videoguys.com/article.htm" target="_new">Videoguys</A>and here you can compare <A HREF="http://dvguide.sharbor.com/head-to-head/" target="_new">Video Capture Cards</A>.

Win XP would probably be a better option to run in NTFS. You could upgrade Win98 to XP. The HDD's I personally perfer are the <A HREF="http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/index" target="_new">Seagate Cheetah X15 HDD's</A> and regarding the SCSI Controllers here is a PDF of the <A HREF="http://www.adaptec.com/pdfs/ultra160scsi.pdf" target="_new">Ultra 160 Family</A>, but please read the FAQ's in this forum to understand SCSI.

<font color=purple><b>Listen twice as much as you Speak. Better yet, Think twice. </font color=purple></b>

 

[phill21]

im thankfull that you replied, im not sure about the capture card either so i will ask in my local computer shop!!
i will go down the scsi route because i just havent got or had any experience with scsi... plus i know and everyone else knows it better performance, you just pay for that performance as you would do for having a fast and powerfull car, you would have to pay for the amount of petrol you would use..
but anyway, you rate the seagate drives at being the best?
well, i have owed seagate hard drives in the past and i have had no course for complaint.. apart from my currently knackered seagate hard drive that scores less than 1900 points on the sandra basic hard drive benchmark.. it does depress me.. i think that the drive is at the end of its life.. but saying that, i have had it for 5 or more years... (i think!!)
thank you again, for the information, its muchly appreaited!!!

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[Crashman]

Why not go SCSI RAID? I'll sell you a 3-Channel SCSI RAID card for $100 with 64MB of cache!

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>