SCSI Drives

[embj]

Hi, all. I just bought a couple of Seagate SCSI drives for my server that I am building. I tried to plug one of them in and it wouldn't fit...I know nothing about SCSI as I have only used IDE before. So I was wondering if they made an adapter.

here is the drive I bought. The motherboard that I have is from a Dell Poweredge 1600SC so it already has SCSI built-in to it. I counted the places where the pins could be inserted into and counted 68. Also, how do you hook power up to them?

Thanks.

[Peter M]

It's an SCA connected drive. These are meant to go into hot-swapping bays, and have a single connector for power and SCSI. Looks like this:

http://www.kabelmeister.de/SafeImage...1&BILD=440.jpg

If you want to use it as a single, fixed-mount drive, then you need a standard "LVD" type twisted-pair ribbon cable with termination:

http://www.kabelmeister.de/SafeImage...1&BILD=617.jpg

... and a SCA adapter that has the 68-pin connector and a standard Molex type power connector on its rear end.

http://www.kabelmeister.de/SafeImage...1&BILD=483.jpg

[stroyal]

It sounds like your board is an older SCSI.
You can get a PCI adapter.
I think the drives are powered through the ribbon cable.

[no1_vern]

embj,

You should have counted 80, not 68.

The scsi drive is lvd and you need a lvd cable to attach it to the scsi card. Please note the dell 1600sc uses the 68 pin cable not the 80/lvd cable. You will need to buy a adapter card or a gender changer cable that allow you to attach an 80 pin drive to a 68 pin cable.

[embj]

stroyal, the board isn't old. It's from a newer Dell and it supports the new Xeon processors. I plan to put in dual 2.8ghz or dual 3.06ghz in it. no1_vern....I counted 68 on the board not, the drive. It's very had to count the ones on the drive. I bought two of these 18gb drives (one is going to be the bootable drive) and I plan to put a 160gb Maxtor ATA133 IDE in it which I already have and use currently. Would these fit alright in just the standard size 3 1/2" drive bays or should I buy a case that has hot swapping drive bays (I've actually thought about doing that)? before). Also, would I need to have the termination thing on the end if I connect both of those drives?

Thanks for the help.

[Peter M]

Current U320 SCSI still is 68 pins on the controller and case internal cabling. Only the hot-plugging capable SCA connectors on the drives (and in the drive bays) are 80-pin. This is because they also contain. power rails and jumper settings.

See the pictures everyone! It's all been like that ever since the advent of Wide SCSI many many years ago.

[sechs]

He's not fibbing. You bought an 80-pin SCA drive. You just need an SCA to 68 pin converter to add this to your chain.

[zepper]

embj,
. Be aware that, in general, you can't use SCA (80-pin) drives as the only type of drives on a standard cable/controller as they are designed to be plugged into a backplane that supplies some of the functions that are built into a normal 68-pin drive (one reason that SCA drives are usually cheaper than the equivalent 68-pin model). You will need at least one normal 68-pin drive on the cable and it should be the last one next to the terminator. It should have the Termination Power function enabled to make sure adequate power is supplied to the terminator. That function is not present on most SCA drives.
. You will need SCA (80-pin) to 68-pin adapters to use the SCA drives and if the SCA drives are LVD, you will need LVD compliant 80-68 adapters (even if you planned to use them in SE mode). I got mine on eBay for an excellent price (Buy It Now) and they work very well. There are usually plenty of them listed. I got mine from Yoozinha on eBay.
. You can also get good LVD cable/termnator kits on eBay as well as at http://www.centrix-intl.com .
. Get more good SCSI info and links at: http://www.scsifaq.org . Some good SCSI vendors are http://www.hypermicro.com and Centrix listed above.
.bh.

[Peter M]

Yes one can use an SCA drive without a hot plug backplane. Everything has been explained above. Twice already. With pictures. And no, one does not need to have a standard 68-pin drive on the cable. Not even for TermPower supply - the host adapter does that already.

Thanks for listening.

[zepper]

I'm sorry Pete M, but SCA drives aren't always reliable when used on a cable rather than on a backplane as they are intended. I know that from personal experience and from other references. And supplying additional term power from the drive next to the terminator can increase the stability of the whole chain. Other than that, repitition is good for newbies to SCSI... And I'm sure he'll find my links useful oh grand SCSI poobah...
.bh.