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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: pan1k on July 09, 2006, 08:36:32 PM

Title: To SCSI or not to SCSI...
Post by: pan1k on July 09, 2006, 08:36:32 PM
I'm trying to finalize my parts list for my A1200. Would  the blizzard scsi kit be faster than the Fast IDE card? I'm thinking of taking my A1200 all scsi, 2 harddrives, a Zip and a CD-R/CDRW. Would it cause much of a slowdown having all these devices connected?
Title: Re: To SCSI or not to SCSI...
Post by: doctorq on July 09, 2006, 08:39:54 PM
Yes, the SCSI controller will be faster than any IDE controller available to Amiga, as well as lower CPU load than the IDE controllers.

Personally I'm using 1 harddrive and 2 CDRW drives with my Amigas, and there aren't any problems. Since you only have listed 4 devices, there isn't a problem, since the SCSI controller can have up to 6 devices connected.
Title: Re: To SCSI or not to SCSI...
Post by: pan1k on July 09, 2006, 08:41:50 PM
Thanks! I will deffinately go all scsi then. I got a deal on some 10K RPM drives.. I need a HDD cooler now ;-)
Title: Re: To SCSI or not to SCSI...
Post by: keropi on July 09, 2006, 09:29:29 PM
10k rpm drives on amiga... a waste? yep.
Title: Re: To SCSI or not to SCSI...
Post by: tonyvdb on July 09, 2006, 10:08:06 PM
a waste yes, but wont hurt it either.
I have a 9gig SCSI 10Krpm Quantum Atlus in my A4000 and it works fantastic.
Title: Re: To SCSI or not to SCSI...
Post by: Jope on July 10, 2006, 05:46:56 AM
Seek time will help the performance a little, even if the machine's SCSI bus is slow.
Title: Re: To SCSI or not to SCSI...
Post by: Brian on July 10, 2006, 09:24:06 AM
didn't say if you use A1200 desktop or tower... I suppose tower due to the amount of drives but with the BlizzardSCSI you get an external SCSI port and is able to have a little SCSI tower next to the computer.

And a little correction... the SCSI will actually take 8 devices (the SCSI controller count's for one so basicly 7 "user devics"... if you're not going to do a SCSI network with a controller in both ends for 2 computers (or more) and devices in the middle).

But SCSI is most deffintily the right way to go... use SCSI for performance and IDE for big slow cheap storage. :)
Title: Re: To SCSI or not to SCSI...
Post by: Piru on July 10, 2006, 10:32:41 AM
SCSI is the way to go.

I used IDE HDDs with SCSIDE on my BPPC setup. Considering the insane price of large SCSI HDDs it still paid off, even though SCSIDE is not cheap. In fact, the IDE-HDDs-on-SCSI had much better seek speed than the real SCSI-2 HDDs I had before.
Title: Re: To SCSI or not to SCSI...
Post by: pVC on July 10, 2006, 02:39:22 PM
Yes, SCSI absolutely. For 68k OS with old IDE-standards it just makes that big difference. No CPU used and possibility for several devices. Especially CD burning benefits of it... not to talk about boot time ;) Although Blizzard's SCSI-2 standard only gives you 7 devices simultaneous, I had it full for years ;) HDs, CD-drives, DAT, scanner... external SCSI-box is nice for temporary stuff and copying stuff with other systems.

Remember to configure devices to synchron and reselection with more devices, so you won't get any slowdowns. You can do it with scsiconfig for HD:s and with myunitcontrol (Aminet) for CD-roms and other non-saveable devices.

EDIT:
Also if you have any problems with some device (like burning cd:s), check the version of 1230scsi.device. It can be updated with software. There's at least version 8.5 available, maybe newer too. I had some problems with one CD-writer. Writing succeeded with low percent... and updating solved it. Never had coaster after it :) OTOH, several other burners worked fine, but it's good to have it up to date anyway.
Title: Re: To SCSI or not to SCSI...
Post by: Jiffy on July 11, 2006, 07:56:56 AM
SCSI is definitely the way to go. I have connected 6 devices (including a scanner) to my (non-towerized!) A1200, using a nice SCSI-tower. Works like a charm!