scsi guru help needed

[vulcanman09]

i am building a server now
i have been reading about how you can plug a U320 PCI-X scsi card
into PCI-X express x16 slot
is this true and has anybody done this
thinking on using this setup for:
7 36gb U320 15k 80pin hard drives
have you noticed a lot faster ( read and write times ) versus
SATA raid 0 setups
:confused::confused::confused::confused:

[JCLW]

PCI-X is very different then PCIe(xpress), and not at all compatible. Make sure you get the right interface to match your motherboard.

U320 is last generation SCSI - then new one is SAS (Serial Attached SCSI).

If you need the ultimate in drive performance in a multi-user environment a RAID 0 array using 15k SAS drives on a PCIe 8x SAS controller might be the way to go.

But 10k SATA drives on an ICH controller are pretty fast too.

What is this server going to be used for?

[cw823]

What is this server going to be used for?


That's the big question, may be no reason to even go with 10k or 15k drives.

[vulcanman09]

http://www.directron.com/29320ar.html

by the look of the connector on this card.
it definately looks like it plugs right into the PCI x16 slot
it makes no mention of the pci 66mhz bus connector

i read several months ago , of a web page stating that using the pci express x16 slot for
scsi raid proved that scsi 15k drives in raid 0 were able to sustain a minimum of over 340mb/s of read and write speeds.
but alas i made the mistake of not saving that article in my favourites folder.
and i cannot seem to find it anywhere on the internet now.
basically the scsi raid array completely bypasses the slower intel southbridge chip.
and maintains its read/write speeds directly through the northbridge chip.

[thideras]

That uses PCI-X, not PCI-Express.

The Adaptec SCSI Card 29320A-R is a half-size, 64-bit 133 MHz PCI-X

[TimoneX]

http://www.directron.com/29320ar.html

by the look of the connector on this card.
it definately looks like it plugs right into the PCI x16 slot
it makes no mention of the pci 66mhz bus connector

i read several months ago , of a web page stating that using the pci express x16 slot for
scsi raid proved that scsi 15k drives in raid 0 were able to sustain a minimum of over 340mb/s of read and write speeds.
but alas i made the mistake of not saving that article in my favourites folder.
and i cannot seem to find it anywhere on the internet now.
basically the scsi raid array completely bypasses the slower intel southbridge chip.
and maintains its read/write speeds directly through the northbridge chip.

You needn't go far for this info. Particle posted up a mini-review of his setup just a few weeks back. These are of course SAS drives and give you nearly unlimited expansion & options.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=594918

[Old Thrashbarg]

i read several months ago , of a web page stating that using the pci express x16 slot for
scsi raid proved that scsi 15k drives in raid 0 were able to sustain a minimum of over 340mb/s of read and write speeds.

Yeah, that's about right. They were probably using SAS, though.

So am I to understand you already have the drives themselves? Do you have a backplane and carriers for them? The 80-pin is kind of a pain to use if you don't have that stuff. Also, how old are they?

I'm thinking, if you really want to go with a SCSI setup, you might be better off selling the hard drives and buying a Dell Perc5i off eBay, plus a couple newer ~150GB SAS drives and maybe even add on some SATA drives if you need extra storage space. That would probably be faster than the old drives, it would give you more storage space, and it would at very least be cooler, quieter and less power-hungry than using 7 older drives.

[vulcanman09]

that article specifically stated 68 pin 15k scsi drives
what is the physical connector difference between
pci-x and pci express x16 connectors.
they both look the same length
the article stated that they disabled both sata devices in the bios.
and ran the scsi card in the second pci express 16 slot ( original bad axe board )
( should have saved that article in favourites ( my bad )

besides you pick up 36 gb 15k 68 pin u320 drives in ebay for $29.00 dollars these days

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Dell-N1670-36GB-15K-RPM-U320-68-Pin-8MB-SCSI-HD_W0QQitemZ370161859079QQihZ024QQcategoryZ39972QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[vulcanman09]

i thought 1 terrabyte drives were expensive
the price of those SAS drives is ludicrous

[thideras]

PCI-x (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci-x)

PCI Express (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci_express)

Completely different slots. Not compatible.

[TimoneX]

Respectable 1TB drives can be had for $100ish.

How are the prices ludicrous?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822116058

147GBs of CRAZY fast drive for $179?!?

There are killer deals on SAS drives everyday on fleabay. The Seagate Cheetah SAS 15k.6 is the single fastest HDD I know of. There's a review over at THG where this drive puts up numbers that would make a velociraptor cry.

The U320 drives you're looking at are a PITA to setup and heavily discounted because demand for these has fallen sharply since SAS took over. SAS has performance, flexibility, & value.

[cw823]

that article specifically stated 68 pin 15k scsi drives
what is the physical connector difference between
pci-x and pci express x16 connectors.
they both look the same length
the article stated that they disabled both sata devices in the bios.
and ran the scsi card in the second pci express 16 slot ( original bad axe board )
( should have saved that article in favourites ( my bad )

besides you pick up 36 gb 15k 68 pin u320 drives in ebay for $29.00 dollars these days

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Dell-N1670-36GB-15K-RPM-U320-68-Pin-8MB-SCSI-HD_W0QQitemZ370161859079QQihZ024QQcategoryZ39972QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


Now you're just contradicting yourself, as you'd have to be crazy to build a "server" with used non-warrantied drives.

Again, what are you using this for?

[Old Thrashbarg]

The U320 drives you're looking at are a PITA to setup and heavily discounted because demand for these has fallen sharply since SAS took over.

Moreover, most of the smaller U320 drives on eBay are either well-used or are 3rd party refurbished... neither of which you should be using if data integrity matters at all to you.

The $179 147GB Fujitsu is brand new, with a manufacturer's warranty, and like I said before, the newer drives should wholly outperform the older ones and will definitely be better as far as noise, heat and power consumption. (If for no other reason than having fewer drives going for a given capacity. One 300GB SAS drive ($330) will take the place of eight 36GB drives in storage capacity.)

Listen, if you're putting together a SCSI system just because you want to play around with SCSI, then an old controller and some cheap drives will serve the purpose well. You can even find PCIe U320 controllers fairly cheap if you look around. But if you're wanting to have something fast and reliable, you're far better off paying the extra cash for a more modern SAS setup.

You still haven't said what you actually need a super-fast disk system for, though. If it's just as a home server, even a couple good SATA drives in RAID will still be faster than your network can keep up with.