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View Full Version : What do I buy? (SCSI/IDE/RAID) (Adaptec®/Promise®)


Miss Peach
09-04-2001, 05:32 PM
Charles could not possibly have done a more thorough job of explaining these technologies and for that I wish to thank him. Now we come down to actually shopping, and it's consolidating his excellent data into one picture of what I need to BUY that's got me hopelessly turning in circles. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

I just bought two new SCSI motherboards for building two brand new computers. These are Supermicro Dual PIII's (one a BX one a GX chipset):
Ultra2 SCSI (Adaptec 7890) on the GX
Dual-Channel Ultra Wide SCSI (Adaptec 7895) on BX

What I was trying to ascertain (boy this will sound dumb) is the HOW of utilizing this technology -- and where I'm clueless particularly is in trying to figure out

===Which of these 'controller-related' items is
a card
a chip
a cable (IDE? SCSI?)
a 'Raid' something? (for bugs right? just wanted to see if you were awake heh)
software
combos of the above http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/confused.gif
something else

===What technology is expressed as
'EMBEDDED' on the motherboard and needs no addt'l, er, 'stuff' to connect to it to function? (eg. when mfg. refers to the motherboard as a 'SCSI' motherboard, does that mean SCSI is _ON_ the board -or-
The board can take an 'ACCESSORY' (eg. 3rd party cards/cables) when THEN makes it SCSI?

===What (eg. BIOS, motherboard, other hardware, OS)
LIMITS the level of SCSI technology (eg. 160 vs. Ultra2 SCSI) I can use?

I have a headache just reading my own list heh heh. I guess the best way for me to start is to give you two reasons why I bought these bad boys in the first place, which should focus my post a bit:
1. Wanted the speed benefits of SCSI (I may not know what it looks like, but I know what it does)
2. Wanted to plug in a gaJILLION things to run on each board (1 CDRW, 5 CDROM, 2 100GB-HDD, 1 ZIP, 1 floppy, 3 printers, 1 scanner for starters)

In the boxes that came with my Supermicro® boards there are a couple of pretty generic looking cables, an SECC2 (terminator card I think, dunno), CD, books . . . and not much else.

I'm certain I need to buy something; I just don't know what -- or if I have to specifically be matching technologies. Finally let me say, I don't care whether these computers are called 'servers' or 'standalones' -- my only issue is that I can pump them up for speed and as much stuff as can be plugged in (without having to take a 2nd on my home heh).

At this point I'm going to shut up and hope someone has the patience to put this together for me. Thank you in advance.

Miss Peach
health.insurance.4.u@usa.net

mjc
09-04-2001, 08:59 PM
In general, you will need the cable to connect the drives to the on-boardcontrollers. This means that the chips needed to make the board a SCSI board (as opposed to IDE-which are both different types of interfaces for connecting hard drives to a computer) are already present on the motherboard and all that is needed to make them operate is the drive, cable and in some cases (mainly depending on what operating system you are installing) the proper drivers (should be supplied on the CD that comes with the boards)...as for some of the other question ther are others here who will be better able to help with the specifics....


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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.