Can the Adaptec 2940U2W be used for raid?

[Carl Uman]

Like the title says...
Can the Adaptec 2940U2W be used for raid?

[Carl Uman]

I did some looking and posted somewhere else too. Looks like no is the answer which is what I thought.

Maybe I'll go with a moded Ultra66 for IDE raid

[Stan]

Hi

As you have already discovered, the Adaptec 2940U2W is "just" a SCSI controller, not RAID.
The AAA-131 or 133 are the RAID controllers.

The FastTrack (or modified Ultra66) is a fantastic card, specially at that price !
I have four IBM 22Gxp in RAID0 config on a FastTrack controller... **** fast !

Stan

[Carl Uman]

Can't say for sure now but I will know in about a week. So my money is on yes you can use both. Don't see why not anyhow.

Stan... YGM

[Dominus]

Stupid question: can you use your mobo's IDE channels along with the FastTrack/Modified Ultra66 card?

I got me a IBM 22GXP, and the price is about right for another, but I don't have the IDE channels to spare (3 CDROMs).

[Stan]

Hi

Dominus: you should be able to use an HD on the on-board controller with a FastTrack. You just need to tell your BIOS with controller to boot with:
- SCSI for the FastTrack
- IDE for the on-board IDE

I have never tried that config.
At home, I use the FastTrack for the 4 HD and the on-board controller for my DVD and LS120. It works fine !

Carl: for sure, a FastTrack with 2 HD (7200rpm, 2Mb cache) will beat the **** out of a single SCSI U2W, specially if it spins at only 7200rpm.
I did lots of benchmarks to see how good is a FastTrack with 2 HD.
In all the results, the FastTrack was faster than a single U2W IBM (10000rpm).

So, you can imagine how fast the FastTrack is with 4 HD !!!

There is one thing for which SCSI will always be better: CPU usage.
SCSI requires less CPU "bandwith" than IDE
But, for the money, the FastTrack is the best buy of the millennium !

Stan


Edit: forgot to say that I am refering to RAID0 array (stripe), not RAID1 (mirror)

[This message has been edited by Stan (edited 05-11-2000).]

[Carl Uman]

Thanks for your insight Stan. It has been very helpful. My plan now is to setup 4 IBM 20.5GB 7200RPM ATA66 drives in RAID. Oh, and yes stripe is the way I'm going.

Carl

[Stan]

Waow... four 20.5GB... that's a total of 84GB !!!! plenty of space !!!

Enjoy, I am sure you will...

Stan

[Carl Uman]

I would do 13.5GB drives but the cost difference is < $100. Oh well