Adding some fast hard drive power, SCSI or Raid?

[sunofwolf]

This is what I am going to use a Ultra Star-IBM- 9L ZX SCSI 10,020 rpm or a raid - using Highpoint 370 abit raid controller-two maxtor 7200 which is faster? The Raid come's in about60$ cheaper. But I think the Ultra star SCSI would be much better-less problems- or chance of failing and I can use my present Maxtor as a duel boot option with a spaned Seagate for a total- 20g hard drive. Plus the 9 g of very speedy IBM SCSI as my main drive. I am doing this to make sure ,I have one working fast drive system at all time's , One can fail-all I have to do is boot to the other one- making a perfect firewall- . What do you think? Or should I just go with a Raid- a bit nervous about raid- I have to wipe clean my drive again and this is a lot of work,plus last time I tried ,it failed to load windows with a Seagate and maxtor as a raid. They did not like each other.?

[AMD kicks]

I would use the SCSI as a storage drive for video editing or something that requires high "sustained" data tranfered, and the maxtors raid for system and programs/storage.

[otheos]

Get the SCSI.

Use the SCSI for the OS and Program files (small files tha are benefitted by low access speeds and low latency of the SCSI).

USe the RAID (0 I presume) for high sustained transfers (large files).

Sorry AMD Kicks but I think the other way around is more beneficial.

[sunofwolf]

That's what I was thinking but I was going to span a Seagate and maxtor for 20g and add the IBM desk star 9L ZX 9.1 g for a fast boot and small file- s actually only using 3.2 gigs now ,I can fit a copy with room to spare on the SCSI and leave raid alone but use spanning instead, when I need more space than 9gs of the IBM. I think the SCSI also has a useful outlet for SCSI device's that are very fast. www.pcliquidator.com (http://www.pcliquidator.com) has the IBM for only 71.07$ with snail shipping- about 4-5 days.I bet this thing makes a neat sound at 10,020 rpm. Was going to get it a month ago but did not want to spend the dough.

[NDC]

Yep, I would also say to go for the SCSI. I'm using an Ultra160 10,000rpm drive with an Adaptec 29160N SCSI card and it rips through applications and great for multi-tasking vs. IDE. I'm using the SCSI drive for the OS, Apps, and workspace. I use IDE drives for saving data.

If you have the patience and the money to spare, you may even want to consider waiting for Ultra320 SCSI drives. Of course Ultra320 will come at a very high price when it's first released! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/news/2545/1/

[This message has been edited by NDC (edited 12-21-2000).]

[CMonster]

Ditto NDC!

I just got an Adaptec 29160 for my Quantum Atlas 7200rpm UltraIII - what a difference from using my Ultra Wide card.

The 29160N is for 32bit PCI slots and the 29160 will work in both 32bit and 64bit PCI slots (64bit being faster of course)

Now if I could just find a dual-Athlon board with 64bit PCI slots...

[CMonster]

BTW - do not even bother with Sandra or Wintune drive benchmarks on your SCSI drive - they do not work accuratly.

And anyone recommend a good SCSI benchmark?

[sunofwolf]

What PCI - SCSI controler - thats cheap - should I get- this is the expensive part, the drive is only 71.7$. I know this drive must go for 250$ and up if bought retail. Not interested in buying the latest stuff out, too much dough. Looking for a 80mb Ultra 2 SCSI LVD controller- pricewatch has them for 100$. Is this trnken controller[missed spelled } any good ? Which one will work and have everthing I need to install drive?

[Ultrakill]

If you want perfomance get a raid 0 Ultra 160 card +2 160 drives and that mofo will fly

[sunofwolf]

Bet that would cost a 1000$!

[NDC]

Perhaps a bit more! LOL

[sunofwolf]

I guess , That I will just get another maxtor for a 100$ at staples or maybe just forget about and run the computer as is which is not bad at all, by the way , this coupon # is good for 40$ on a 150$ purchase at staples 88093 - good till new year. What kind of performance would two maxtor's in a raid Zero?

[CMonster]

If you want an inexpensive SCSI solution that performs relatively well then look into Advanced Systems controllers, although probably not yet available in Ultra SCSI-3/160 yet, you can get the Ultra Wide and Ultra-2 for $100 or less. Most SIIG SCSI controlers use Advansys chips.

Oh yeah, one more thing, you can probabaly get the Adaptec 29160 for about $200

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 12-23-2000).]