[G4] PCI SCSI Card Information : Was Power Mac Hard Drive Installation...

[John Niven]

--- jonny <g4 at salemoregon.com> wrote:
> Reposting this with a different Subject so it
> doesn't get missed by 
> those with an interest in G4 SCSI.

I'm one of those!

> I have a G4 MDD 1.25 dual with an Adpatec SCSI PCI
> card Model 2906. 

I agree this is a great card if you have "legacy"
external SCSI equipment that you want to use. It has
the old DB-25 connector on the outside. The same one
on every mac since the SE and till the iMac (I think).
I, have also used a 4Gb (partitioned as 2 X 2Gb)
external SCSI HD  as a very efficient way of
transferring files between old Classic Macs and OSX
Macs. I also used it to connect to an Apple Color One
scanner. Using the excellent VueScan software
(download trial copy before you buy), I was scanning
under OSX with this vintage model!!!

But if you want to put a drive internally, that card
only offers 10MB/s! The internal ATA is 66MB/s, and
the standard FireWire is 400Mb/s (~50MB/s). On the
other hand an ATTO UL4S and suitable cable will get
you 320MB/s plus a choice of 15,000 rpm SCSI drives.
So SCSI will always offer the potential of superior
performance, but at a cost.

Simply replacing an old original 20Gb ATA HD with a
modern one will buy you 7200 rpm plus a larger cache
memory, and up to 128Gb. Not to mention reliability.
So for most I think this is best.

If larger disk capacity is required, like Eric, I
would recommend a SATA PCI card. The speed is great
(1500Mb/s equivalent too ~188MB/s), and the cabling is
easy. You could also spring for a WD "Raptor" drive
and get 10,000 rpm!

John



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