Most overclockable scsi adapter?

[neo]

I am in the market for a scsi adapter and hard drive. Can anyone give me the model name of an adapter that will work on a PCI bus speed of 41.33MHz? I have heard that with adaptec scsi adapters they frequently cannot overclock the adapter much higher than 35MHZ. Also, can someone give me a run down on what the best scsi format is: Wide/UW, etc. Which is the best value? Will I see a tremendous increase in speed over a normal HD(non UDMA)? My current Maxtor 4.3 Gig is running in normal non-UDMA mode because I'm running my PCI bus so high. I don't want to get data corruption, etc. Also, while I'm asking questions... what is a good brand for scsi HD (price/performance). I know I just asked a mouthful, but any questions answered would be helpful! Thanks in advance...

-neo

[LJE2]

I have an Adaptec 2940U that runs just fine with an 83 MHz FSB, but right now I'm using it at 103 so it's not overclocked much, but as I said it is very stable at 83, but before you decide on SCSI stuff you might want to read this article on SCSI vs IDE, http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/scsivide/default.asp

[This message has been edited by LJE2 (edited 06-21-99).]

[neo]

I read the article, and still have a question regarding the performance difference. Will a scsi hard drive differ much from an IDE hard drive running in normal mode? From what the article noted, for me the peformance increase would not warrant the increased cost. I'd probably be better off getting a larger IDE Drive that will run at a high RPM, with a low seek time. What is a good high performance IDE drive?

thanks!
neo

[MadMax]

Adaptec high end adapters all oc fairly reliably. The performance benefits of SCSI are there, no matter what you do. Some actions will be be obviously faster than ide (massive data xfer, loading huge files, etc.) but the question of expense versus performance in every day or gaming use is not easily answered. You'll pay alot more for diminishing returns.... I like the extra speed SCSI brings to the table but I could probably afford another entire computer if I didn't use SCSI periphs. Just some thoughts...

Good SCSI hdd? Bang for the buck: Quantum. Raw performance: Seagate Cheetah.

[Scott Evans]

FWIW many of the high end SCSI RAID adapters are designed to be used in DEC Alpha systems, where a 66 MHz PCI bus spec is used at times. In particular the AMI MegaRAID series (at least used to be) cert. for PCI/66.

[LJE2]

As I stated in the post above I have the Adaptec 2940Ultra SCSI controller, connected to this are 2-IBM hard drives, a Syquest 1.5G removable hard drive, (I use this as a back up device), a Plextor 4x12 CD-R, and a Pioneer 6X DVD ROM, I frequently access 2 or more of these drives at the same time, this is where SCSI stuff outperforms IDE, If all you plan to connect is a hard drive and perhaps a CD ROM drive as MadMax has pointed out the added expense of SCSI peripherals would probably out weigh any performance gains you would see, I too like the little edge SCSI gives you but you pay for it. If you decide SCSI is not for you, I have heard good things about the new Western Digital Ultra DMA/66 hard drives, and the IBM Ultra DMA/66 hard drives