PCI SCSI cards |
October, 12, 2003 8:36 AM |
worleyph |
I successfully installed 10.2 last night on a PowerTower (== PowerCenter) with an XLR8 G3 uprade. I put OS X on a 4 GB IBM HD on the internal (slow) SCSI-2 bus. I have three PCI cards: Voodoo video card (which is what OS X is using), USB card (to which a mouse is attached), and an Advansys ultraSCSI card. All three are recognized in the system profiler as well, and the first two seem to be working adequately. I have an 18GB IBM HD on the Advansys card, and OS X is not seeing it. When I boot back into OS 9, everything is fine. (The OS 9 system folder is on the 18GB drive). When I installed the system I saw a number of messages fly by to the effect that a patch named something like oldworld.support.Patch.IOSCSI.xxx could not be found. Any suggestions? Is there consensus on a PCI SCSI card that I can use with OS X on my system? My performance is currently pretty poor. Using Xbench, disk, memory, and video are all performance bottlenecks. I guess that I am stuck with the memory problem, and I can move to a Radeon card for the video, but I am not sure what the best approach to fixing disk speed is. Is it worth while moving to a Tempo, or would a working ultraSCSI card be adequate? Thanks. |
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lyonsdj88 |
October, 14, 2003 11:28 AM |
jseibyl |
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BTW, I got a fibre channel card on loan from a friend, ebay 20 bucks, that sucker just runs too damn hot!!! I didn't have a drive to test with it, but the lights on it were telling me it was working. Decided not to trust ASP it was being seen as a PCI card but no vendor ID or firware #, you know ala "No USB devices, etc" It is an older card, but would raise the temp of 8500 significantly to cause issues with a juiced proc I bet.....I almost burned my fingers pulling it out when I was done playing. |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 14, 2003 9:43 AM |
jseibyl |
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Sure sata is great, but where is the fun in that? ;-0 |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 13, 2003 11:12 PM |
lyonsdj88 |
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Sure, SCSI is and has been better than ATA, SATA but with the SATA card at $69 and 80gb SATA drive cheap+ you can bring them to your newer mac if you upgrade. I mean why flash this and rig that to save $20-40 bucks. Mind you I've got O-ton of SCSI. ALSO, support the Co. that continue to make pci cards that will work in Old- world mac's. Last thing is bench marks don't mean to much unless they are done all on the same system with the same everything. SATA can max out the pci bus and still have room to spare. The list goes on and on. At the price SATA or ATA 133 will smoke SCSI at twice the price SATA will hold its own with SCSI at 3-5x the price SCSI wins hands down, but up here we are talking fiber chanel Raid. |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 13, 2003 5:46 PM |
mjoecups358 |
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Personally I find SCSI to be more reliable... 29160N is OK ATTO UL2D is OK ATTO Express PCI PSC (with Apple firmware) is OK. Marty PS I do also have an Acard Ahard 66 which is working well, but in general is feels a little shakier then the SCSI cards above. |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 13, 2003 2:47 PM |
earlyd416 |
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I'm using a ATTO UL2D with great success for my Atlas dirves. Before that I used the ATTO PCI Express SCSI cards. Both boot into either OS 9 or X. The PCI Express can be had for $15-$25, and the UL2D is about $30-$45, when available on eBay. Unfortunately, my AdvSys cards wouldn't work in OS X. So, I gave them up for the ATTOs. --Dwight |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 13, 2003 2:37 PM |
jseibyl |
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BTW, I am still trying to figure out how to convert a 29160N from the darkside, any ideas?? I have the flasher for windoze and the the power domain stuff for MAC, just not sure how to extract the ROM from Power Domain and build it so I can flash it on a windoze box. I would love to see if it works, I got it for 50 bucks..... |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 13, 2003 2:34 PM |
jseibyl |
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I tried a 2930 OWC apple OEM. Works but slower and more expensive than a hacked 2940 I paid 25 bucks I think. It DOES boot X however.... |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 13, 2003 2:21 PM |
gregoryy |
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What about the 3940 OWC is selling? Also, the UL2Ds were good choices. Of course the fastest drive (Maxtor Atlas 15K) and cables and 29160 would seem to be ideal - the 29160 even works in G5s of all things. Adaptec does seem to do things well, despite the reputation of 'other' cards. The 10K IV though does deliver 65MB/s with max of 70MB/s, more than vintage or Beige systems can use, and even the slow slots in the B&W limit you even more to under 53MB/s... regardless of how fast or many 15K drives you use. Really poor PCI design and performance from Apple. |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 13, 2003 1:50 PM |
jseibyl |
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If you want economy with "modest" speed, get a 2940 card on ebay from the windoze world, flash it to a power domain. You will get ~20 meg/sec from your wide or ultra drives. The card can be had for 15 bucks and just flashes easily by running the power domain utility. Jag picks it up as a 7810xx card (I think). You won't be able to boot it UNLESS you use the helper utility in XPF. I have flashed 5 of these (including an OEM Compaq...YUCK!) and they ALL work at this speed. You will not get the DMA stuff, which prevents the card from living up to its 40 meg/sec rating, but it is cheap and it works. If money is not the issue, go for the native 29160N, I hear it works well...... |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 13, 2003 12:43 PM |
john.england |
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I have used 2 different Adaptec cards with absolutely no problems and the fastest transfer rates in the world! Trust me, that old system feels totally different with Fujitsu 15K SCSI drives hooked up to a 29160N SCSI card. Cheap? No...but nothing in the ATA world can touch it. |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 12, 2003 2:38 PM |
lyonsdj88 |
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Cool,thanks. Go SATA unless you need ATAPI. |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 12, 2003 1:38 PM |
gregoryy |
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I tried the SeriTek on 7300 and it is bootable. Works better on Beige. And better yet on the B&W but ONLY in the 66 MHz slot. So it does work. Someone thought their system run faster with the FirmTek card in their G5 than the native SATA channel. They RAID'd a pair of 250GB drives using Apple's DU in each case and booted from a 3rd drive. There was something about using SoftRAID 2.2.2 on SATA that req'd disabling one of the acceleration options being disabled, but other than that, works fine. (SoftRAID 3 is not bootable yet, but that's OS X only). |
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gregoryy? |
October, 12, 2003 11:42 AM |
lyonsdj88 |
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Have you used SATA on old world? If so, was it bootable.BTW a system with a 50-60 mhz Bus should be able to put 80-100mb/s across the pci bus. If the pci card has the right Fcode driver and OS "runtime" driver. Should be able to get at least 50mb/s proformance out of ATA133, SATA, SCSI. On old world. But, should does not mean will. |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 12, 2003 9:59 AM |
gregoryy |
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If UltraSCSI (narrow) then the Adaptec 2930 or 29160N are options. $70-300. SATA on old world era is about the same, ~20MB/s. PCI ATA combo would probably be best. $70 for card, $60 - 80 for 60/80GB drive. 4GB is old and slow. |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 12, 2003 9:50 AM |
egonzales21 |
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The Advansys UltraSCSI card I believe can only be used in either 9 or X. There is an updated firmware for the card for use in 10 but it makes it either unusuable or unbootable in 9 (sorry can't remember which). Agree with lyonsdj88. If your investment in SCSI is small, ATA drives and cards are a better value. Ed |
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RE: PCI SCSI cards |
October, 12, 2003 9:33 AM |
lyonsdj88 |
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Not knowing PowerTowers here are a few tips. 1 Get the fastest Video card you can, this can take some "time" off the cpu and make the GUI a little faster. 2 Make all your Ram 60ns, if your PT will use it, and use mached sets if you PT can use that. 3 If your XLR8 has jumpers to set the BUS speed put it as high as you can, that the system is stable, ie no crash's, ram error's and the like. Most systems can take 55-60mhz Bus speed with 60ns ram.4 Fastest cpu you can 5 ATA cards offer better value at this point than SCSI, also SATA but I don't know if you can boot from that. |