Mount SCSI Hard disk on desktop

[joao2fast4u]

Hey, i'm new with SCSI technology. I have a seagate cheetah 10k.7 Ultra-320 SCSI disk and want to plug it on my desktop. By what i've read, i'll need a host adapter that connects to the PCI bus of the motherboard and by SCSI connection to the SCSI disk. I only have a host adapter wich has 2 connections: external Centronics C50 and internal idc50. How can i connect the disk at the host adapter, if the disk connects by SCA/SCA2? Am i gonna need any adapter? Will it affect the disk speed?

P.S: the host adapter appears to have 10/15 years.

Thanks in advance

[ua549]

You'll need a U320 compatible host adapter. This is old technology so you may be able to find an inexpensive one. IIRC most of them were PCI-X rather than PCI.

[joao2fast4u]

You'll need a U320 compatible host adapter. This is old technology so you may be able to find an inexpensive one. IIRC most of them were PCI-X rather than PCI.

Thanks for replying. Do I really have to buy a compatible adapter? Can't I just buy an adapter that converts U320 connection(SCA) in Centronics C50 or idc50(host adapter conn)?

thkx

[SpywareDr]

There appears to be quite a bit of difference between the two.

Wikipedia: SCSI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCSI

Fast SCSI (SCSI-2 1994) - IDC50; Centronics C50 - 8 bit - 10 MHz clock - 10 MB/s - 80 Mbit/s

Ultra-320 SCSI - 68-pin; 80-pin (SCA/SCA-2) - 16 bit - 80 MHz clock - 320 MB/s - 2560 Mbit/s

[ua549]

Thanks for replying. Do I really have to buy a compatible adapter? Can't I just buy an adapter that converts U320 connection(SCA) in Centronics C50 or idc50(host adapter conn)?

thkx

It isn't just the mechanical differences in the cables and connectors. The parallel SCSI bus is different - 8 bit versus 16 bit.

[SpywareDr]

And even if you could find a way around that, the slowdown in speed from 320MB/s to 10MB/s would probably prove to be rather irritating. 60 seconds on SCA would take 32 minutes on IDC50.

[joao2fast4u]

And even if you could find a way around that, the slowdown in speed from 320MB/s to 10MB/s would probably prove to be rather irritating. 60 seconds on SCA would take 32 minutes on IDC50.

Yes, that's an issue. Maybe i'll search for a faster interface host adapter. Thanks for everything.

[joao2fast4u]

And even if you could find a way around that, the slowdown in speed from 320MB/s to 10MB/s would probably prove to be rather irritating. 60 seconds on SCA would take 32 minutes on IDC50.

By the way, only yesterday I figured out that my old host adapter card had an ISA connection, lol. It's not even PCI. I'll have to buy an host adapter compatible with sca.

THKS

[SpywareDr]

Wow, talk about old. The 8-bit 62-pin ISA bus was used by Intel 8088 and Intel 8086 CPUs in the original IBM-PC and IBM-PC/XT in the early 1980s.

A 16-bit (Intel 80286) version was introduced with the IBM-PC/AT. It added 36 more pins in a separate connector inline with the original 62-pin.

We're talking back in the old agonizingly slow 4, 6, and 8 MHz days.