Scsi confuses me big time..

[AdMartin]

SCSI is generally faster than IDE. But that's not the same as saying it's better, that depends on what you're using it for. On a PC, IDE is usually enough. Even though SCSI would be faster, the cost would be disproportionally high. On Amiga it's a different matter, though, as no IDE controllers for Amiga use DMA. DMA is a way for the controller to shuffle data directly between the device and memory. Since DMA is unavailabe on Amiga IDE controllers, they have to go through the CPU for every transfer, which slows the computer down substantially. Therefore, SCSI is highly recommended on Amiga computers. With a SCSIDE bridge like this you could use a cheap IDE drive on the SCSI controller and thus bring the price down.

/Martin

[AdMartin]

I don't know what the connector on your SCSI interface looks like, but it's unfortunate that the standard lead has a 25-pin connector. If it's possible to exchange it for a lead with a 50-pin connector that would be advisable, but maybe that's not an option. The 25-pin D-Sub connector was originally introduced by Apple to keep down costs. The connector misses the ground wires, which brings down signal integrity. External SCSI devices intended for use with other platforms (than Apple or Amiga) originally used a 50 D-Sub connector before the 50-pin Centronics connector was introduced. Nowadays 50-pin or 68-pin High Density D-Sub or 68-pin Very High Density (micro-Centronics) connectors are used for external devices.

Anyway, the Power SCSI adaptor you found can be used if you want to connect an internal hard drive. Note however that only two of the connectors can be used at any one time. You could probably find a converter with just two connectors cheaper (Ebay, anyone?). I guess the standard lead you own has a DB25 connector, so the converter should have one DB25 and one male IDC50 connector. A cable like this would be needed to connect the hard drive and/or CD drive. If the hard drive has a 68-pin connector you'd need a 68-pin --> 50-pin converter, like the ones you linked to in your post. Just make sure the converter terminates the high bits. 68-pin devices uses 16-bit transfers and 50-pin devices only 8-bit transfers. So the high bits of a 68-pin device must be terminated when connected to a 50-pin chain.

I guess you want the scanner at the end of the chain and in that case you'd need another converter to go back to 25 pins... If the termination on the scanner is dodgy, you might need a better terminator, like this one.

Hope this helps. :-)

/Martin