SCSI Hard disks?

[Guest]

Hi all,
I'm venturing into the un-known with limited knowledge.

Could anyone advise me on a SCSI HDD setup for editing home videos/ripping music & video/storage on multiple internal disks using an <A HREF="http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/proddetail.html?prodkey=ASC-29160&cat=/Technology/SCSI/SCSI+for+Servers" target="_new">Adaptec 29160 SCSI card</A>.

Other devices on this card will be an internal Yamaha CDRW and separate DVD/CD on the 50-pin SE connector, Acer Prisa 610s scanner on the external 68-pin LVD/SE connector. <font color=red>Do I need to terminate the scanner and will it slow things on the Ultra160 chain, or do I move the connection to the other internal SE-50-68.pin connection?</font color=red>

The card has one internal and one external 68-pin LVD/SE connectors, one 68-pin SE internal connector, and one internal SE 50-pin connector and I'm hoping that I can use all the connectors at the same time without limiting the others.<font color=red> Just found out I can use all four connectors but slower devices will limit speed on the 2 x 68-pin LVD/SE chains which seem to be inter-connected.</font color=red>

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What I need to know is:

Type of interface versus price?
Is it better to have many small capacity drives or just a few larger drives?
What’s a good brand and what spindle speeds?
Could I set up a HDD for o/s, one for backup and the others for storage etc or should I keep the o/s or backups on IDE HDD?
Will the Acer prisa 610s scanner(DB25-pin) slow down U160 devices being on the same chain?
Do I need to terminate the scanner being external?

I have been offered two used 18Gb Scsi HDD's, waiting to hear more on them and they could be trouble.
Other than that the brands immediately available from my regular supplier are WD and Seagate, not entirely sure on those choices either.

Sorry for the short err long post, and I certianly would appreciate any advice and links ... Thankyou



<font color=orange>Beam</font color=orange><font color=red> me</font color=red><font color=green> up</font color=green><font color=blue> Scotty</font color=blue> <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by scotty3303 on 10/22/01 01:35 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

I think you know what I'm setting up. Since you don't have RAID, I would say the best value (performance vs price) is on refurbished Ultra2 drives. Beyond that your talking big bucks. For the price of one U160 drive and a 29160, I can set up three channel U2W Raid card with four U2W drives (at 1/4 the size each) on two channels, striped.
10,000 RPM drives are dropping in price, and Tom tested a few a while back for you to compare. Since I can do RAID, I'm going for multiple smaller drives. Since you can't, I suggest two larger drives.
Do whatever you want with IDE, but since it's slower you'll probably end up with your backup drives there.
The scanner may slow down your U160 drives on the same chain. You should consider hooking the internal 50-pin connector to any slower internal drives and perhaps using a 50-pin breakout on the end of the cable for the scanner. Set the scanner as the lowest priority device.

Back to you Tom...

 

[Guest]

I dont have Raid? I assumed it did.

Thanks for the reply.




<font color=orange>Beam</font color=orange><font color=red> me</font color=red><font color=green> up</font color=green><font color=blue> Scotty</font color=blue>

 

[Crashman]

OMG no! SCSI RAID cards are very expensive! Over $300 for a single channel U160 card new! See <A HREF="http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&query=RAID&categoryid=&ht=1&st=0&category2=3753&maxRecordsPerPage=100&SortProperty=MetaEndSort" target="_new">this page on Ebay for RAID cards</A> (all varieties)

Back to you Tom...

 

[Guest]

1. As long as the SCSI devices you use support a feature called "Disconnect" you can mix UW and U160 or any other devices with out getting a performance hit. Disconnect mean that when the device is not in active use it is like it is not existing and will not slow the bus. Curently I think that all SCSI devices support this feature.

2. You can still have raid if you use W2K or NT4. In both OSs you can create a software raid that does not require a special raid card.

3. About what drives to select, I'd recommend the IBM 36G 10K Rpm. good model that can be found in good price. It is really depend on what can you get. I for example use 4X IBM 8G 7200 Rpm UW with my 39160 card since this are the drives I got free. on other configs I verey from 4G UW to 15K Rpm's on Dual channels.

 

[FatBurger]

2. You can still have raid if you use W2K or NT4. In both OSs you can create a software raid that does not require a special raid card.

I always advise against this. You cannot put the OS on a software RAID, meaning you need another disk for that, and it takes away the performance gains from having your OS on a RAID.

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>

 

[Guest]

IMHO putting the OS itself on a raid is plain Stupid.
If the Raid card drivers get corrupte you will not be able to use the system and I have seen it happens.
A good use for a raid is to speed up data transfer when you work with big files like in video. the OS itslf dont gain much if any from sitting on a raid.
As for the question of software raid vs. hardware one in the CPU utilisation and performances, my CPU is not even on 5% when I do massive reading and playing of video.
Put the OS on a disk of it's own and th edata on a dedicated Striped raid. If the question is money you can probably boost performances moer using other means......

 

[FatBurger]

I agree, CPU utilization is not an issue. However, 3 disks is often too much for many people. How often do you see a RAID get corrupted? I've been running a RAID for several months with no problems.

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>

 

[Crashman]

Putting an OS on RAID is a method of PROTECTION against such disasters (striping is not true RAID) But as far as striping goes, you can always have a backup coppy of the partition. You don't even need Level 1 to do that, you can back it up to a CD every few weeks.

Back to you Tom...