SCA to Standard Ultra 160

BigEejit

I have the oppurtunity to pick up a 36GB Ultra160 scsi drive ... but it is SCA (single connector attach, used for hot swappable systems) ... I have a U160 controller and a free connector on my LVD cable ... all I need is a 80 pin SCA to 68 pin LVD converter ... note that the drive I am interested in already has a SCA to 68 pin but even though it was "U 160 capable" he could never get it to go higher than 80MB/s .. (he got it for a crowd in the UK called starmount, they shipped out the converter quick enough but when he asked about the performance he was getting they suddenly stopped answering mails or the phone) ...

so I was thinking ... hey I'll go for a U320 converter and that should definitely do the trick .. but I have only found one vendor, that is in the states and they do not reply to emails etc ... (I emailed them loads of times, never got an answer)....

Anyone know any vendors in Europe?

spongebob

note that the drive I am interested in already has a SCA to 68 pin but even though it was "U 160 capable" he could never get it to go higher than 80MB/s

Thats what should happen ISTR

To get faster you need twisted cable all the way back to the card (comes as a round cable) and not flat which is what 68pin is ISTR

Hot Plugs with teh SCA or SCA2 connector are fast cox they plug straight into a backplane and not into a connector along a ribbon cable..

Is It ?

M

BigEejit

I would have thought that it would have been the exact same situation as a normal drive, except now the signals have to go through the converter before hitting the drive ... When my mate was originally being sold the converter he was told that it would make the SCA drive indistinguishable from a 68pin drive ...

The drive is a Seagate ... it seems to be fast enuf drive ... probably runs at about 60 degrees C and sounds like an aeroplane but my existing scsi drive is wicked loud anyway....

spongebob

The controller would see

the SCA drive indistinguishable from a 68pin drive ...

Hence the 80Mbps

In the controller setup ...ctrl M at startup maybe after the bios boot....what does the controller SAY the drive is.

If the controller sees an 80Mb drive and teh cable is flat then you are running at the extremity of the controller/cable combination I suspect.

M

BigEejit

I knew I should have written this down in the first post ...............

I did go into the scsi adapter at bootup and check what the adapter is seeing and it said 80MB/s ... the drive is definitely U160 and another U160 drive (my one) works at 160MB/s on the same connector as the one that is reporting 80Mb/s was on... (Both drives are seagate, cable is of good quality, not a long cable only 3 connectors on it ... 1 for controller, 2 for drives, active termination built onto the end of the cable)

Therefore the problem lies with the converter ... so thats why I am looking for a U320 converter (AFAIK they will be backward compatible)....

spongebob

1. Drive is U160 with SCA connector

2. Drops to 80 when converted back to 68 pin

3. If the convertor were a U320 into 68 pin

4. The U160 would appear as a 160 in the SCSI card setup.

What SCSI card by the way?

Good luck

M

BigEejit

1. Drive is U160 with SCA connector

2. Drops to 80 when converted back to 68 pin

3. If the convertor were a U320 into 68 pin

4. The U160 would appear as a 160 in the SCSI card setup.

What SCSI card by the way?

heh ... er ... this is the way I should have written it down ... cheers Muck .......unfortunately my brain always overcomplicates my writing/typing ...

The controller is an Adaptec 29160, only the one cable connected to it ... everything on the cable (including the cable as well) is U160 capable / qualified... the bios is relatively recent (around rev 3.0 I believe, but I cant be sure), my floppy drive has died and gone to heaven so I wont be upgrading the bios any time soon either.