newb questions about SCSI hard drives

[fred.do]

I intend to buy a "Maxtor Atlas 10k IV 36.7GB U320 SCA" from DABS.com for
£138 (http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info.asp?quicklinx=2CJKWS)



1) Do Maxtor SCSI hard drives come with a:

a) SCSI PCI Adapter?

b) SCSI Cable?



2) Is the installation of a SCSI hard drive similar to installing an IDE
hard drive?



3) Can I set the SCSI hard drive as C: drive and connect 2 other IDE hard
drives to the KT400 motherboard and have them act as D: and E: drives
respectively in Windows XP?



TIA!

 

[Ralph Wade Phillips]

Howdy!

I intend to buy a "Maxtor Atlas 10k IV 36.7GB U320 SCA" from DABS.com for
£138 (http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info.asp?quicklinx=2CJKWS)



1) Do Maxtor SCSI hard drives come with a:

a) SCSI PCI Adapter?

Most likely not at that price. An Ultra-320 controller will set you
back more than that.

b) SCSI Cable?

Again, I'd bet not. But ask DABS.

2) Is the installation of a SCSI hard drive similar to installing an IDE
hard drive?

Yes - and no. You go through the SCSI controller instead of the IDE
controller. But once the controller and drive see each other, the other
steps are the same.

3) Can I set the SCSI hard drive as C: drive and connect 2 other IDE hard
drives to the KT400 motherboard and have them act as D: and E: drives
respectively in Windows XP?

Depends on the motherboard, but it's a rare one that can't be set to
boot from SCSI first.

Since you didn't mention a manufacturer for the motherboard, I
couldn't verify, but I'd bet yes.

RwP

 

[Plato]

I would email DABS.com and ask them whether the Maxtor hard drive includes
an adapter and cable but in the past they have just replied "why cannot
provide you more information than what it says on our site".

Do they have a telephone number??????

 

[Alien Zord]

I intend to buy a "Maxtor Atlas 10k IV 36.7GB U320 SCA" from DABS.com for
£138 (http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info.asp?quicklinx=2CJKWS)

1) Do Maxtor SCSI hard drives come with a:

a) SCSI PCI Adapter?

b) SCSI Cable?



2) Is the installation of a SCSI hard drive similar to installing an IDE
hard drive?



3) Can I set the SCSI hard drive as C: drive and connect 2 other IDE hard
drives to the KT400 motherboard and have them act as D: and E: drives
respectively in Windows XP?

1) No and no

2) You need to set the SCSI ID otherwise the installation is similar to
IDE. As it is SCA drive (Self Contained Adapter, 80 pin connector) and
wide SCSI cables are 68 pin you'll need either an 80 to 68 pin adapter
or a SCA enclosure or rack that generally take between 1 and 5 hard
drives and are expensive, 30 UKP for a single drive draw to 200 UKP for
a hot swap 5 drive module.
See here: http://www.acme-technology.co.uk/mobile_rack.htm
As LVD drives usually do not have on-board terminators you will also
need an external one, 15 to 30 UKP.
U320 controller will set you back 300 UKP plus and needs a 64 bit PCI
slot, your mobo does not have that. U160 controllers are 150 to 220 UKP
and fit standard 32 bit PCI slots.

3) Yes

As you can see to fit a single high performance SCSI drive to a desktop
machine is a bad idea. And you would hardly notice any performance
increase over good IDE especially the new SATA drives.

 

[fred do]

Oh right!
Thank you misfit.

SCA refers to the type of connection on the back of the drive. SCA is an
80-pin connector that includes the power connector as well as the interface,
most commonly used on drives that may be hot-swapped.
--
~misfit~

==================

AMD Athlon XP1800+ T'bred 'B' core @ 1950Mhz. Standard HSF and vcore.

 

[Ralph Wade Phillips]

Howdy!

The motherboard is a "Gigabyte SoA VIA KT400 ATX A" for £50.50 from DABS
also (http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info.asp?quicklinx=285VWS)

I would email DABS.com and ask them whether the Maxtor hard drive includes
an adapter and cable but in the past they have just replied "why cannot
provide you more information than what it says on our site".

The exact title is "Atlas 10k IV 36.7GB U320 SCA"
Could the SCA stand for SCsi Adapter?

First off, if you don't know what a SCA is, I'd not mess with SCSI.

Second, Hell, NO. It's a hot-swap 80 pin connector.

Third - you just upped the ante on that drive by another $100US or
so, to get the proper chassis to plug it into.

Why do you want SCSI? Even at 10,000 RPM - you can buy SATA drives
at 10,000 RPM, and they're bigger than 36G.

RwP

 

[~misfit~]

Howdy!



First off, if you don't know what a SCA is, I'd not mess with SCSI.

Second, Hell, NO. It's a hot-swap 80 pin connector.

Third - you just upped the ante on that drive by another $100US or
so, to get the proper chassis to plug it into.

You can get an adapter to change the regular SCSI interface and molex plug
to SCA, about $5, I've got one sitting right here.

Why do you want SCSI? Even at 10,000 RPM - you can buy SATA drives
at 10,000 RPM, and they're bigger than 36G.

Agreed.
--
~misfit~

==================

AMD Athlon XP1800+ T'bred 'B' core @ 1950Mhz. Standard HSF and vcore.

 

[Overlord]

I intend to buy a "Maxtor Atlas 10k IV 36.7GB U320 SCA" from DABS.com for
£138 (http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info.asp?quicklinx=2CJKWS)

1) Do Maxtor SCSI hard drives come with a:

a) SCSI PCI Adapter?

Nope! A drive is just a drive. You need to get your own adapter
card. However, for a single drive, and with the possible exception of
really antique adapter cards(which will not Boot from a drive), just
about any lower end SCSI card will run your drive tho with possibly
diminshed speed; Narrow, Wide, Ultra, UltraWide, U2W, LVD, Ultra160,
Ultra320.... Thus you can get by with a $10 card for the interim if
you're buying used.

b) SCSI Cable?

Nope! You need to get your own unless it's some sort of package
deal... the chances of which are vanishingly remote.

2) Is the installation of a SCSI hard drive similar to installing an IDE
hard drive?

Nope! One long specialized long ass cable. For your drive (which
will not terminate with jumpers on the drive) you will need a little
plastic/electronic terminator on the last connector on the cable.
Some cables come with terminators on them. Make sure it's rated for
U320.
SCSI drives are differentiated from each other by ID numbers set with
jumpers on the drives. For your purposes we'll say ID0 thru ID15.
You can probably get by with a single drive setting no jumpers as the
drive will default to ID0, the first drive the card looks for by
default to boot from.
SCA is an 80pin hot swap drive. In other words there will be no other
connectors on the drive (generally) other than the 80pin connector.
That Includes power connections! The 80pin cable, connected to a
backplane supplies the drive power. You need an adapter, rated U320,
to change the 80pin connector on the SCSI drive to 68pin (some also
have 50pin) and a separate Molex 4pin power connector. It will look
like a tiny circuit board about the width of the drive with connectors
and a few jumpers.
SCSI cables have very specific rules about the spacing, lengths, and
stubs on the cable. With a single drive, they're pretty much moot.

3) Can I set the SCSI hard drive as C: drive and connect 2 other IDE hard
drives to the KT400 motherboard and have them act as D: and E: drives
respectively in Windows XP?

Dunno.... most likely you can. Motherboard should support it.
Especially if you don't have bootable partitions on the IDE drives.
Last drive I had that wasn't SCSI was a doublespaced 10meg MFM
drive...
BTW, my 15k drives are quieter than my 10k drives but a lot hotter!
Even with 10k drives you should keep an eye on the cooling....

TIA!

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