Adaptec SCSI 2940uw vs. 29160

[nugihouser]

I have 2 10k seagate SCSI drives running on my old adaptec 2940UW card. Runs great but someone told me I should get a faster SCSI card like the 29160 to take adavantage of the 160mb/sec data transfer rate vs. the 40mg/sec on my 2940uw. I'm running a standard dell workstation P4 2.8gHz with 2Gigs of ram. Will I see a difference? I do music streaming and a lot of backups. Thanks

 

[KenB]

nugihouser,
Are your drives on the 50 pin connector or the 68 pin connector? What is the part # of the 2 drives (specs)?
A 29160 is an expensive card if the drives are not U160/U320 don't waste your time and money on the upgrade.

HTH
Ken

 

[nugihouser]

Thanks KenB for you repsponse. My drives are Seagate cheetah 10k.7 Ultra U320 73GB. They are brand new. The adaptec 29160 card is pretty expensive, but I'm seeing them on ebay for about $40-$50. Also the adaptec 19160 which is a single 68 pin one is selling for about half. Will that work as well because it aslo has the 160/mb sec transfer rate?

 

[Dinobot2]

I can't beleve your trusting EBay to buy your Adapter cards. the problem is that the people on the other end . 50% of the hardware they sell doesn't work, and for $40 to $50. I would want to buy it from someone with a return policy.
(just one person's opinion)

 

[KenB]

Why stop at the 29160, with the U320 drives go for the 29320/19320. I believe the 19xxx line is more for PC/Workstations and the 29xxx is more for small servers. I have also had good luck with LSI Logic SCSI adapters. They tend to be less expensive than Adaptec.
As for EBay there are a lot of small legitimate venders who sell their stuff, but investigate a lot and read the feedback. I found a couple of AHA 2944uw(HVD 2940uw)cards there for $50ea and they worked fine. They came from a guy who specialized in NCR server parts and came from a bunch of never used spares.

HTH
Ken