Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 23:03:29 -0500 From: "Steve Friedrich" <SteveFriedrich@Hot-Shot.com> To: "Blackened" <jmw@panix.com>, "freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: SCSI Hard drives Message-ID: <199810290404.XAA23361@laker.net>
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On Wed, 28 Oct 1998 20:06:23 -0500 (EST), Blackened wrote: >It appears that my current hard disk is about to give up the ghost >based on the scratchy, grinding, noises that are emanating from it. :P >So, it's about time that I look for a replacement drive. My old drive >was a Western Digital 4 GB IDE. However, I would like to replace this >with a SCSI HD. I currently have a Buslogic/Mylex BT-948 USCSI >controller with tape and 2 cdrom devices connected to it. I am not familiar with this SCSI controller. Verify that it's BIOS supports booting from it. >My main question is this. I was hoping to get a few suggestions as >to what a good SCSI drive, of about 3 GB (even this is more than >enough for what I do, but I'd rather go too big than too small and kick >myself on the rear at a later time), without spending a small fortune. My >practical budget is about 350-400 bucks. Would anyone be kind enough to >offer any suggestions? I prefer SCSI, but I don't have ANY at home because the IDE drives have maintained a betterprice/performance ratio for many, many years IF you can't effectively utilize their increased performance (like using one at home versus running an ISP with it). The newest IDE drives support Ultra DMA 33 which is quite zippy (and this mode is supported by FreeBSD 3.0R). I've been using WDs since 1992 and ALL of them are still alive with the exception of a recent 6.4GB model. Seems WDs quality fell off recently with some of the larger drives. Calculate the cost per MB and you might not want a SCSI if you're paying with your own hard earned cash... >One other quick question. :) I've heard that SCSI HD's get quite hot, >when compared to their ATA counterparts, and was wondering about >the validity of this. Is this only a concern with high performance >drives that spin at 10k RPM? Or is it a general SCSI thing? It's NOT a general SCSI thing. The drives that REALLY led to this idea (IMO) are the Seagate Barracudas when they first came out. The needed major heatsinking. The newer ones are improved, I've heard. But still pretty damn warm. Higher RPMs WILL generate more heat, since we're talking about more power, being electro-mech devices. But these 10K drives are probably more than you want to spend anyway. 7K drives are still great. Another heat concern is how many SCSI drives you could put on a chain, possibly in the same cabinet. IDE is pretty much limited to 4, though I'm sure somebody has a *solution* to go farther. BTW, check out WDs warranty/return policy. They may give you a new drive. I'll be sending mine back soon, having pulled it today!! Unix systems measure "uptime" in years, Winblows measures it in minutes. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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