Best HD for OS and speed...please

[theseeker]

I like Raid 0 for the speed, but I have had two disasters having windows installed on Raid drives, both Sata. I am either going to add an IDE with a 16mb cache or dive into a small SCSI drive for my OS. I would appreciate some recommendations or some first hand experience. My system is as follows.

ASUS A8N SLI
AMD FX-55
2 ASUS 6800 Ultras
2 WD 74g Raptors Raid 0
2 Seg 160 Barracudas Raid 0
PC P&C 510 SLI
Sony DVD DL
2 G Corsair ULL XMS

It is all watercooled with AC gear.
BTW, if you recommend SCSI, let me know which controller you recommend.
Thanks

[DougLite]

Maxtor Atlas 15KII and Fujitsu MAU (both 36GB SCSI drives in their smallest capacity) are the twin kings of hard drive performance. The Atlas 15K I and especially Fujitsu MAS (both 18GB/platter SCSI units) are worthy competitors from the last generation. Nothing else comes close to these monsters. Seagate's Cheetah 15K.4, Atlas 10K V from Maxtor, and Fujitsu's MAT are 10K units that are faster than the Raptor, but if you're investing in SCSI, you may as well go whole hog on one of the latest and greatest 15K drives.

For a single boot drive setup, you don't need anything special in the controller, but avoid the cut rate brands. LSI, Adaptec, and the like all have single channel cards that will deliver excellent performance for your application. A single channel U160 HBA will be fine for running a boot drive.

[theseeker]

Maxtor Atlas 15KII and Fujitsu MAU (both 36GB SCSI drives in their smallest capacity) are the twin kings of hard drive performance. The Atlas 15K I and especially Fujitsu MAS (both 18GB/platter SCSI units) are worthy competitors from the last generation. Nothing else comes close to these monsters. Seagate's Cheetah 15K.4, Atlas 10K V from Maxtor, and Fujitsu's MAT are 10K units that are faster than the Raptor, but if you're investing in SCSI, you may as well go whole hog on one of the latest and greatest 15K drives.

For a single boot drive setup, you don't need anything special in the controller, but avoid the cut rate brands. LSI, 3Ware, and the like all have single channel cards that will deliver excellent performance for your application. A single channel U160 HBA will be fine for running a boot drive.

Thank you very much, I truly appreciate a clear and concise answer!

[unhappy_mage]

3ware doesn't make scsi controllers. Adaptec maybe?

As DL said, Fujitsu or Maxtor 10/15k drives will make really nice boot drives. A 160 mb/s LSI or Adaptec controller will be plenty; though these drives are really nice, they don't push more than 100 MB/s except for burst. That won't be a limiting factor.
http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/153.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&id=153)

[aZn_plyR]

Stay away from MAXTOR, that's all I have to say, ur gonna have a hard time formating them in windows to get windows installed... google it, you will find lots of people with this problem..BLAH, but some do have good experience with them though. :confused:

[theseeker]

I decided on the Fujitsu 37 G 15k drive. I need some suggestions on the best controller card as I am new to SCSI and it is a bit confusing. Thanks

[DougLite]

You'll need a SCSI HBA that will fit in a 32bit PCI slot, U160, with a 68pin wide interface. One of the more popular models for users like you is the Adaptec 29160. Some HBAs include a cable, if not, make sure you pick up a 68 pin wide SCSI cable that supports U160 or U320 with a terminator on the end. Once again, you don't need anything special for a single drive setup.

[aug1516]

You'll need a SCSI HBA that will fit in a 32bit PCI slot, U160, with a 68pin wide interface. One of the more popular models for users like you is the Adaptec 29160. Some HBAs include a cable, if not, make sure you pick up a 68 pin wide SCSI cable that supports U160 or U320 with a terminator on the end. Once again, you don't need anything special for a single drive setup.

Is SCSI termination really required for single-drive setups? I have run single-drive setups before by connecting one end of the scsi cable to the card, the other end to the drive, with no termination anywhere and have not seen any problems doing that. Do single drive setups not always require termination?

The seeker, there used to be a really great single-channel U160 card made by LSI that was aruond $30 or so but I can't seem to find it anymore. SCSI cables can be found at hypermicro.com but cheaper rounded ones are over at svc.com. I PM'd you about the scsi stuff you need, I may have extra items laying around.

[Zepher]

Is SCSI termination really required for single-drive setups? I have run single-drive setups before by connecting one end of the scsi cable to the card, the other end to the drive, with no termination anywhere and have not seen any problems doing that. Do single drive setups not always require termination?

The seeker, there used to be a really great single-channel U160 card made by LSI that was aruond $30 or so but I can't seem to find it anymore. SCSI cables can be found at hypermicro.com but cheaper rounded ones are over at svc.com. I PM'd you about the scsi stuff you need, I may have extra items laying around.

Sometimes the length of cable will determine if you need termination or not.
I ran one drive with a short cable with no terminator for years, then got a new case and had to use a longer cable and the drive wouldn't show up, put an active terminator on the end it it worked again.
btw, I am using a pair of 10K Cheetahs in my 2.4A machine, one being the boot drive and one for storage and 2 IDE drives for cheap mass storage.

[aug1516]

Anyone else notice that the LSI U160 single-channel scsi cards no longer seem to be available for cheap? When did that happen?

[aZn_plyR]

when everyone started buying em:)

[Vertigo Acid]

Anyone else notice that the LSI U160 single-channel scsi cards no longer seem to be available for cheap? When did that happen? Really? That's news to me; I've been trying to sell one for $30 shipped in FS/T for a while and no one is biteing because you can get them that cheap at retails. I've moved about 3 of these through in the past month on e-bay, and haven't gotten more than $20 a piece! I'd say that's still pretty cheap. PM me if you're interested in the one that I have ;)

[aug1516]

Really? That's news to me; I've been trying to sell one for $30 shipped in FS/T for a while and no one is biteing because you can get them that cheap at retails. I've moved about 3 of these through in the past month on e-bay, and haven't gotten more than $20 a piece! I'd say that's still pretty cheap. PM me if you're interested in the one that I have ;)

I actually don't need one and have an extra myself that I may sell for cheap just to get rid of it. I was going to suggest the OP pickup up one for cheap at newegg.com but didn't see them there anymore. I checked zipzoomfly.com then pricewatch.com and didn't see any cheap LSI cards their either. Maybe your cheap LSIU160 cards will shoot back up in price if availability turns into a problem.