SCSI card that lets me use CDR with scanner plugged in?

[CyberSpaceCowboy]

The Adaptec AIC-7850 (Fast/Ultra SCSI?)card that came with my CDR has apparently died, and I'd rather not purchase a card with the same shortcomings.

First, is Ultra2 my most economical option? Throughput is not an issue as I don't ever plan to buy a SCSI hard drive. I just need a PCI card with external and internal (50 pin) interfaces.

My main complaint about the Adaptec was that my system would not recognize the internal CDR if anything was connected to the external interface. This meant that before I used the scanner, I had to crawl under the desk, plug in the external cable, turn on the scannner and reboot. I then had to reverse the process before burning CDs. I know other people who have the same problem with other controllers and scanners, so I guess it is not uncommon.

The card also had three resistors which were supposed to be plugged in anytime the external interface was not in use, and removed if it was. Fortunately, there presence never seemed to bother the scanner. I frequently transport my desktop to meetings, and it would be a real pain if a new card required me to open up the case and set DIP switches, jumpers, or resistors every time.

Thanks

[Peter M]

The best non-booting simple "50-pin narrow single ended SCSI" card is the LSI 20860. It's a little hard to come by, but it has all you want: Internal and external connectors, support for speeds up to Ultra-SCSI (20 MB/s), and active termination that auto-disables when both the internal and external connector are in use.

Alternatives are Tekram's 315U and the Avance 2911U Home. Both have about the same feature set as the LSI, but much less intelligent SCSI engines, meaning more CPU load.

Mind the cable length though - you might have to back the SCSI channel's max speed down to FastSCSI (10 MB/s) when total cable length approaches 3 meters.

regards, Peter