PCA Forums

Ok.. Well, I'm gonna let you all know now, I'm here to learn! lol.. In a way. I know that SCSI and EIDE are two completely separate forms of data xfer. I also know that SCSI is supposed to be much faster than EIDE. In fact, I know it's faster. But the question is.. How Much Faster? Is it worth going the route of buying SCSI equipment? Or if you already have a fast computer is there any need for it? Like I said, I don't know much about it. Just looking for more info about it. If you've got some links that would explain it and don't feel like typin' I understand. eGo... :chicken

heres a good read

Radified SCSI guide

I also was asking myself the exact same question to nexus_7 at the LAN this past saturday...basically, (from what I remember), he said that when dealing with programs that hog your machine, it makes a difference...if you're loading a game, it makes a difference (though while your playing the game you won't notice much). Basically, it's only worth the money if you're tweaking ...I mean, if you don't a split second jump in the amount of time things take to start, why pay $200 for a 17 gig hard drive?

I basically understand it as this (though I've not dealth with any SCSI so I don't realy have a basis of opinion). Unless you use your machine heavily and really beg for that edge, don't buy SCSI. But on the other hand, a quicker drive will NEVER hurt, especially since the hard drive is the slowest part of a computer now-a-days. So if you got the cash, why not go for it? My machine being 80% games, 10% music and 10% misc, I figure I have no <i>real</i> use for it (maybe would help games in loading and all) even though I've recently realized the joy of having a ton of RAM I can't imagine having a faster hard drive would really help at this point, even though I'll probably make the jump with my next system for the hell of it.

Thanks for all your info!! Much appreciated. I wish I was close enough to attend one of these LAN parties. lol.. But I wouldn't right now simply because of embarassment.. My current box is kinda lame.. I'm still waiting on the rest of my parts for the box on my prof. But like I said, thanx for everything!! eGo

SCSI used to kick IDE's ass over and over and over again. If you had a good controller you got low CPU utilization and faster speeds. Drives also spin faster than IDE drives (15,000 RPM for SCSI as compared to 7,200 RPM for IDE). I believe SCSI drives also have always had bigger cache sizes to allow for better sustained transfer rates. You also have the ability to have a lot of devices on one SCSI chain, which is appealing to servers for massive storage arrays. IDE is catching up, with ATA100/ATA133 it is still slower than SCSI but given the price to performance ratio, IDE wins.

SCSI is great if you are doing applications that require large BANDWIDTH. If you are running a server then you want SCSI. I have SCSI and IDE both at home and work. I even have SCSI RAID at home on this setup. If I had it to do over again, i would stick with the IDE for home use. The speed of the IDE HD's are faster than before. There are 60GB platters which increase the throughput. Large cache drives are available. The drives are much more affordable and much larger.

I have 12 10,000 RPM Drives 18GB each, 2 adaptec SCSI controllers, 1 Tekram and 1 DPT RAID Controller, 1 plextor 12X SCSI CDRW and 1 Plextor UW CDROM.

You would not beleive what I paid for all that. I can run anything simultanously and MATLAB or Touchtone can chug away but unless your running several serious apps at one time, my advice is to stick with IDE and stay sane.

My next system will use a small 15K SCSI drive for OS/games and an IDE RAID array for all the gigs of <strike>warez and pr0n</strike> gamepatches, demos and backups. This'll give me the SCSI performance where I need it most and cheap IDE drives for mass-storage.

DOC,

How's it hanging? Long time, hope everything is going well.

Jon

How are the both of you since it seem like forever since you've both posted (Saturn & Doc)

So, from what I've seen, and the prices, I'm just going to stick with EIDE.. I'm not an impatient person so I don't think the difference in time is gonna matter all that much to me. Was just curious if we were talking Major differences in speed or just minor. Thanx for all of your help guys!! eGo..

If you read the link posted by blade_146, it mentions the setup that Doc was talking about. Having a small SCSI boot drive, and a large IDE for storage. This is probably the route I will take with my exising system when the hd crashes and I have to start over. I currently have SCSI CD-ROM drives, but an IDE hard drive. After having both, I must say that SCSI CD-ROM's are so much faster and reliable than IDE. I still have my Plextor 12/4/32 burner and my Plextor 32x reader.

I don't know, the SCSI stuff is great and I have no problems with any of the equipment but if I had to start over, knowing what I know now, I would stick with the IDE. Unless I was building a server. Even with the SCSI the best CD ROM I ever used and still use(even over the Plextor UW) is a Kenwood 72X unit. Fast and quite. Too bad they stopped making them.

Well... Hows Everyone Today!!!

I am getting a bunch of scsi in the mail: 2 cdroms,2 HDs,and controler cards.(thx northern)

anyways anyone have any idea on HOW IT WORKS, AND HOW TO SET IT UP!!

(kinda like a addon to eGos Post)

TIA !

What controller card, and OS? Are you adding or installing the OS onto one of the drives?