Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 00:06:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Donald Burr <dburr@pobox.com> To: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>, FreeBSD SCSI <freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org> Subject: Need help choosing a new SCSI card Message-ID: <XFMail.990627000635.dburr@pobox.com>
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It was bound to happen. After getting a new (external) tape drive and hooking it up to my system, I now find that my SCSI chain is too long to work reliably. With my external devices, I get parity errors and all sorts of unstable performance from my (internal) SCSI hard drives. Almost lost a filesystem because of that. But with my external devices unplugged (leaving only the internal hard drives), everything works perfectly. So it looks like it's time to get me a new SCSI card -- one with multiple buses on the same card (so that the internal and external connectors are both on separate buses). Normally, I would buy a second SCSI card, and put only external devices on it (especially since NCR/Symbios cards are so cheap nowadays), but unfortunately I am also out of PCI slots. So I need a single PCI SCSI card that has multiple buses on the card. So I need some help from the FreeBSD SCSI community in choosing a new card! Here are my requirements: * IMPORTANT!! Separate SCSI buses for internal and external connector. My SCSI chain is too long to have both internal and external be on the same bus. * BIOS on the card. My SCSI disks are my boot devices, so I need an on-card BIOS. MY MOTHERBOARD DOES *NOT* HAVE AN NCR BIOS BUILT IN TO IT (I checked). * Narrow Ultra SCSI support (50-pin, 20MB/s) preferred. All of my devices are narrow, either Fast (10M/sec) or Ultra (20M/sec). I really would rather not have to upgrade to Wide or U2W drives. * FreeBSD compatibility, of course! (I run 3.2-STABLE) But it would be great if the card works under Linux as well, since I have to do projects in Linux now and then. * Reasonable cost. I unfortunately don't have a lot of money to spend. (I might be able to find something used on EBay or some other auction site, though I would rather buy new, of course.) Are there any NCR/Symbios cards that fit the bill? I really like this chipset and it is a heck of a lot cheaper than Adaptec... In addition, if someone can point me to a good mail order (or Web order) place where I can get this card, I would be very grateful. Please reply to me in e-mail &/or to the FreeBSD SCSI list. Thanks! --- Donald Burr <dburr@pobox.com>-Member The FreeBSD Project| PGP: Your *NEW* WWW HomePage: http://more.at/dburr/ ICQ #16997506 | right to Address: P.O. Box 91212, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1212 | 'Net privacy. Phone: (805) 957-9666 FAX: (800) 492-5954 | USE IT. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-scsi" in the body of the message
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