Help for SCSI-illiterate...

[NeoCerberus]

Sorry, but the FAQ didn't have anything about this....

I recently got a cheap SCSI drive, and I was wondering if I can use an Ultra2 80-pin drive on a normal SCSI card? If not, what's the cheapest card I can use it with? Any adapters?

[Xaotic]

Welcome to the Forums!

The limiting factors on the drive's or controller's speed would be the slower device. Generally, as long as the drive and controller are both LVD or HVD, they will work together, but may need varying adapters. Most drives and controllers are LVD in nature, HVD is rare(and undesirable). You can hook up U320 drives up on narrow SCSI-2 controllers with the proper adapters, but the performance will be sadly lacking.

For your purposes, get an SCA or 80 to 68 pin adapter, a cable with separate active negation terminator(U160 is the best compromise for future expansion, and a decent single channel controller(the LSIU160 isn't bad for a U160 and should be 40-50 new for a bare card). You can get a cheaper controller, cable and terminator and maintain performance at U2W, but I prefer to get the interfaces as fast as possible for future expansion.