Could someone explain this to me?

[Black_Cat]

As you may or may not have read I'm building a mega-system. I'm getting the Gigabyte 8KNXP Ultra. I want to couple this with a SCSI RAID. However, they're all 64 bit PCI cards. I came across <A HREF="http://www.directron.com/lst21320b.html" target="_new">this one</A> and as I gleaned over the description I noticed it read, "With PCI-X throughput of up to 1056 MBps, this adapter also capitalizes on maximum system performance for those systems needing it; yet is backward compatible with existing PCI systems."

This can't possibly mean that this huge card will fit in a 32 bit PCI slot does it? Does half of it hang out?

To start press any key. Where's the "any" key? --Homer Simpson.

 

[Crashman]

Yes. You should buy my 3 channel card, it's only Ultra80 per channel, but all three channels can be used simultaneoulsy, and two are enough to saturate the PCI slot's bandwidth. I need to sell it, I can't afford drives for it. It supports up to 45 hard drives and includes 64MB cache.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Black_Cat]

What are the specs on it?

To start press any key. Where's the "any" key? --Homer Simpson.

 

[Crashman]

It's an AMI Megaraid Enterprize 1400, full length server card. You really want it, I paid a lot for it!

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Traqr]

Not to dissuade, but that board you're getting lists onboard SATA RAID as an option in the BIOS. What RAID level did you have in mind? With the new high-performance SATA drives hitting the shelves, would that be a better choice? It'd certainly save some cash for other areas of the system... Also, you've got 2 Ultra320 channels onboard, but no mention (yet) of SCSI RAID, so I doubt that'd work for you...

Also, I'd be concerned about trying to put that 64-bit card on that board; it's hard to tell from the photo, but I'm unsure whether there's clearance for the extra tab at the end of the standard slots.

Crashman, does <A HREF="http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-8KNXP Ultra.htm#" target="_new">this board</A> look like your full-length card would have clearance? I see some potential trouble spots, but I don't know your card.

 

[Crashman]

First of all, I'd recommend against paying for the Ultra version if you're looking at a SCSI RAID card, since the onboard SCSI would be redundant and a waste of money. Yes, my card would fit that board if you didn't use one of the onboard SCSI connectors (in slots 1, 2, 3) or didn't use one of the USB headers (in slot 5). You could easily save $125 by NOT getting the onboard SCSI, and use a portion of your savings for my 3 channel card.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Traqr]

Good call Crashman! I hadn't checked pricing or options. Saving that money would also solve the clearance problem; no onboard SCSI means no SCSI connectors to get in the way.

 

[Black_Cat]

Intercranial pressure increasing. Head... about to... explode.

Okay okay. First of all, I just read the specs on <A HREF="http://www.epicpc.co.uk/tech/C/ct/ami/438/438spec.pdf" target="_new">this</A> page. Judging by the enormous size of this thing, I don't think it would fit into my case at all. I have a Lian Li PC-60 case and it has a tray for hard drives only about an inch away from the edge of the mobo.

Second of all, please excuse my ignorance as I don't deal with SCSI that often but I have a few questions. Could you explain to me how a SCSI 320 HDD could be used to it's fullest potential with that RAID card. Also on the first page of that spec sheet it states that it can burst data at 80MB a second. On the second page under PCI bus master it states burst data transfer rate of 132MB a second. Could you please explain how these rates compare.

Lastly, I'm now having second thoughts about this board. (Luckily, they won't have any out until 5/6/03 so I have a few more days to think about it) After reading the THG article about the Granite Bay boards running at 200MHz FSB I may want to go in that direction. It would be nice to have a RAID 0 or 10 but it's not the end of the world. Although I hate money, you're still talking about $650 a drive! I might be happy just running 1 drive with no RAID.

To start press any key. Where's the "any" key? --Homer Simpson.

 

[Traqr]

Heh. Yeah, the 'I' in RAID takes on a different meaning when you're talking SCSI, alright. And the 'R' seems not to apply to RAID 0. Wierd...
While we're on it, what are you planning on using your system for, anyways? The performance advantages of SCSI over IDE RAID really only start to appear on mission-critical or fileserver systems where the data security and multiple concurrent command handling features rear their ugly heads. And, according to an article I-can't-remember-where (PC Gamer?), you can get a big IDE hard drive for the same price as a good SCSI <i>cable</i>!

<font color=blue>Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.</font color=blue><font color=green>
<i>Canadian Flight Safety periodical, ~1987</i></font color=green>