two scsi cards in one computer...

[nonsequitur]

i'm pretty comfortable i know the answer to this question listed at the end, but i'm hoping for second opinions...

i'm helping a friend upgrade their small office server by adding another scsi harddrive to the box.

i opened it up, and found two scsi cards...

one adaptec 39160 linky
and one adaptec 2940UW linky

is the fact that the 39160 is a 64 bit pci card in a 32 bit slot going to be a hinderance? the motherboard is a vanilla amd kt133 motherboard that's more of a file server than a data cruncher.

all of the harddrives are 68 pin drives, and there is a tape drive with a 50 pin ribbon. both cards have 68 pin as well as 50 pin connections.

now, the tape drive is on the 39160, and the harddrives are all on the 2940.

i'm thinking this can all be put on the 39160, as it's the newest card. any reason why it can't be ?

update 02/02/04:
all hard drives that remained were indeed LVD drives. I ended up putting both on one channel on the 39160, and the tape drive on the other. both drives show up as U160, which i think is a tremendous improvement. thanks to all who commented and offered tidbits. My only problem was the fujitsu not being recognized on the last connection on the 68 pin ribbon. This was remedied by using the next to last connection on the ribbon (unknown reasons?).

 

[aug1516]

Are you sure the HD's are on the Adaptec and the tape drive is on the U160 card? That is the complete opposite of what it should be. If the computer has lots of hard drives then you may as well use both of the U160 channels the 39160 has to offer. Don't worry about the 64-bit -> 32-bit issue, it's not going to be one. I would then put the tape drive on the 2940UW, that would make the most sense. If the computer doesn't have enough hard drives to saturate one U160 channels then just put them all on one and use the other channel for the tape drive. You could then get rid of the 2940 if you wanted to.

 

[nonsequitur]

Originally posted by aug1516
That is the complete opposite of what it should be.... You could then get rid of the 2940 if you wanted to.

my thoughts exactly! i'm a scsi novice, but it seemed obvious to me to use the card with the fatter bandwith. i plan on formatting win2k server on that puppy on saturday. main harddrive will be a 9 gb 7.2k seagate, and critical files will go on a new 36gb 10k fujitsu drive

 

[LittleMe]

have you seen the new fujitsu 15k 36gb drive. that thing is speedy, if you haven't already bought them.

 

[ciscokid454]

all the devices will work fine off the 39160.
Just make sure to put the hdd's on channel 0 and the tape drive on the 50pin connector which uses channel 1.

 

[csims]

Even though it's a small office server, it's best to put the tape drive on a card by itself.

Are the drives all Ultra Wides and not U2W or U160's?

Too bad that you can't take full advantage of the 39160 since it reads like there isn't a 64 bit slot on the MB. (Although the HD question needs to be answered..)

 

[ciscokid454]

Originally posted by csims
Even though it's a small office server, it's best to put the tape drive on a card by itself.

Are the drives all Ultra Wides and not U2W or U160's?

Too bad that you can't take full advantage of the 39160 since it reads like there isn't a 64 bit slot on the MB. (Although the HD question needs to be answered..)

why? the 39160 is a dual channel card.
If the tape drive is on a seperate channel than the drives, then it should be fine.

 

[aug1516]

Originally posted by ciscokid454
why? the 39160 is a dual channel card.
If the tape drive is on a seperate channel than the drives, then it should be fine.

This is true bit if you have a second card already why not use it? The 2940 is a great SCSI card and will not cause any additional problems by having it in the system. It's also supported by windows 2000 without additional drivers and would be excellent for the tape drive.

 

[Lint]

very unusual , either the person that put that server together was incompetent/lazy or they had a problem and the fix was to put the tape on another card. meh if its not broken don't fix it , i'd just add the new drive to the 2nd channel on the 39160.

 

[csims]

Originally posted by ciscokid454
why? the 39160 is a dual channel card.
If the tape drive is on a seperate channel than the drives, then it should be fine.

Sure, but we don't know how many people exactly this system is serving and how much activity is on it at any one time. (Sure it's probably backing up at night, but in my opinion I thinks it's best to seperate them.)

I think it's best to give a tape drive it's own card doesn't matter what kind. Fact of the matter is a Tape drive needs all the transfer speed it can use, so why not give it it's own card?

The question still stands, what kind of drives are already in the system? The original poster has not told us that info.

 

[darkamage]

If the old drives are not LVD drives (U2W or U160, I think), don't mix them on the same channel as the new drive (I would assume the Fujitsu is at least U160). They will slow the bus down to their speed.
I'd put all LVD drives on one channel and the rest on the other channel and maybe put the tape drive on the 2940.

 

[nonsequitur]

such a controversy i have started!

i'm pretty sure the older scsi drive i'm carrying over is an lvd drive. seagate's site says the ST39236LW is an lvd drive. i plan on putting both harddrives on the 39160.

i'll also put the tape drive on the 39160 to start. all backups are overnight anyways, so it's not a big deal if it take a little longer. tape backups are their second line of defense. everyday back-ups go to an external enclosure, and tapes are done on a weekly basis and removed from the office.

maybe not perfect, but it covers most all the bases.

 

[csims]

Originally posted by BriguyNJ
such a controversy i have started!

i'm pretty sure the older scsi drive i'm carrying over is an lvd drive. seagate's site says the ST39236LW is an lvd drive. i plan on putting both harddrives on the 39160.

Was the older drive on the 39160 or the 2940?

Just curious considering it is a U160 drive.

 

[ciscokid454]

Originally posted by aug1516
This is true bit if you have a second card already why not use it? The 2940 is a great SCSI card and will not cause any additional problems by having it in the system. It's also supported by windows 2000 without additional drivers and would be excellent for the tape drive.

Originally posted by csims
Sure, but we don't know how many people exactly this system is serving and how much activity is on it at any one time. (Sure it's probably backing up at night, but in my opinion I thinks it's best to seperate them.)

I think it's best to give a tape drive it's own card doesn't matter what kind. Fact of the matter is a Tape drive needs all the transfer speed it can use, so why not give it it's own card?

The question still stands, what kind of drives are already in the system? The original poster has not told us that info.

Originally posted by darkamage
If the old drives are not LVD drives (U2W or U160, I think), don't mix them on the same channel as the new drive (I would assume the Fujitsu is at least U160). They will slow the bus down to their speed.
I'd put all LVD drives on one channel and the rest on the other channel and maybe put the tape drive on the 2940.

This is the only reason why you'd honestly want to seperate them..Hdd drive wise that is.
Some will say that having the tape drive on the seperate controller won't over-saturate the main controller.
Others will say that you could possibly over-saturate the pci bus going from controller to controller.
Me personally, i'd rather have all the drives on one controller.
That's one less IRQ being used, free's up a pci slot.
I won't start a debate whether it would speed up or slow down performance for the backup..I think it would be marginal either way..
In my eye's it's all about less=more.