LSI SYM21040-33?

[Lovan]

Hello

Does anybody have any information about this? I can't find any (usable)info on the net.
Is this even a SCSI Raid card?
Is it usable in a "ordinary" pci-slot(32bit) or only PCI-X?

Thank you

/Niclas

[unhappy_mage]

It's a U160 RAID card (http://www.lsilogic.com/news/corporate_news/2000_05_10.html). Why do you ask? Are you looking to buy one, or looking for a good deal on a raid card in general?

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=150072)http://www.hardfolding.com/utag1.php/mem/428/1.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=36&id=428&type=1)

[Lovan]

Yes I found a decent price on one, about 30 usd. I'm looking for something to work with my computer.
I have had problems with a lsi megaraid 1600 not booting up windows when installed(already have a thread on that one somewhere here).
Since I have two pieces of cheetah 15k3 18gb drives that I want to use as a systemdisc, I'm looking into having a Raid 0 or Jbod.
Edit: Bootable that is. End of Edit

Is this card equal to LSI21040?
http://www.lsilogic.com/products/scsi_hbas/lsi21040.html

Thank you for your answer.

[unhappy_mage]

Almost certainly. If the moderator stops by, he'll probably have a more definitive answer - he works for LSI.

If you do get this card, make sure you connect the drives to the A channel, the one closer to the PCI slot cover. It runs at 160 MB/s while the other is a "legacy" channel at 40 MB/s. That'd make a little bit of difference ;)

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=150072)http://www.hardfolding.com/utag1.php/mem/428/1.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=36&id=428&type=1)

[UICompE02]

The LSI21040 is the same as the LSI21040-33 with one slight difference. The first one uses a 53C1010-66 SCSI controller IC and the second one uses a 53C1010-33 controller. The difference between the two is the maximum rate the PCI bus will run. Both boards have a 64-bit PCI connector, but the max speed it will run at depends on which version you buy. Either one will work in a conventional 32-bit, 33MHz PCI slot.

What's strange is that the link that unhappy_mage provided refers to these boards as RAID controllers, when in fact, they are not (especially a strange error since it's linked directly from LSI's own site!)

If you want hardware (bootable volume) RAID, this isn't the card for that. You might be able to find a good deal on an LSI21320-R controller on eBay. Even though it's a U320 controller, they're fairly affordable from eBay, and it supports RAID 0 and 1 in hardware with no problems (and no special drivers required like Adaptecs HostRAID adapters).

[Lovan]

Does that mean that I kan have a software(win xp sp2 only) bootable raid 0 or some other kind of striping? The extra speed of hardware raid 0 isn't something I can afford right now(student budget).
I just want to have a relatively fast systemdisc so I can dedicate my SATA-drives to music and movies etc. The extra CPU-load isn't really a concern for me at all. I do not use much of my cpu anyway.

I haven't thought about it but doesn't XP sp2 have somekind of built in software striping? Like Jbod?

Ebay isn't really an alternative for me since I'm from Sweden. Cheap scsi-cards are quite scarce here. Especially with hardware RAID. I would have to pay about double the amount for a Adaptec 19160 for example.
LSI feels quite much better than Adaptec, thus my inquirement about this card.

Thank you both very much for taking time to answer my questions. It's really appreciated :)

/Niclas