scsi drive

[terran2k]

When I was 1st putting together my system I wanted to go scsi, but I didn't and just opted for SATA instead. I have an adaptec 29160N scsi adapter, its an ultra 160 controller. Recently I setup my SATA drives as RAID 0, but that's got me back in the mindset of wanting to go scsi again. The scsi drives aren't that expensive, the 10K and 15K ones. What I dont want is noise, how loud are these drives? I just want to use one for my OS drive, probably a 18GB or 34GB. It will have a 120mm fan blowing over it to control its temp.

 

[Xaotic]

Any of the newer drives with FDB are not too bad on idle noise. Seeks are still aggressive and will give the friendly actuator noises that accompany fast seeks. If you can find the drives very inexpensively, then SCSI is nice. If you are paying full price, then I'd probably stick with a 74GB or higher Raptor for better cost/performance level.

Be careful, some desktop boards are not allowing enough clearance for the 29160 or other 64 bit cards to fit.

A 120mm fan is overkill for drive cooling. 80s and 92s are fine.

 

[terran2k]

I am looking @ the scsi 10K rpm drives, their noise levels are around 3.6 bels, while WDs raptors are about 40dB. now is this correct? this would make the SCSI drives substantially loud.

 

[Xaotic]

Those are the idle noise. Either will have louder seeks, but the SCSI drives will be louder than the Raptors.

Current Testbed:
http://www.storagereview.com/php/be...ID_11=272&devID_12=273&devID_13=264&devCnt=14

Previous Testbed:
http://www.storagereview.com/php/be...vID_9=279&devID_10=277&devID_11=237&devCnt=12

 

[terran2k]

thanks, I'll ebay me one and see how I like it, if I dont I'll just re-sell it.

 

[thaclassikz]

They have some instability issues... Just get a raptor

 

[Xaotic]

I've never seen any instability issues with SCSI, unless the PCI bus was way out of spec. 37Mhz is as far as most adapters are stable, though almost every board out there will clock the PCI bus asynchronously. I have seen data problems due to improper termination. SCSI is engineered for stability and data integrity. Speed is a side effect and shows more clearly in server applications.

 

[terran2k]

alright, I've decided Im going to go with scsi even if ends up being a test box overheating in a closet running linux remotely on it. thanks for ur inputs and Im sure I'll have some questions later on.