[1953] in linux-scsi channel archive
Re: Building a perfect scsi system:
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Larry M. Augustin)
Wed Jun 4 09:03:30 1997
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 05:43:07 -0700
From: "Larry M. Augustin" <lma@varesearch.com>
To: linux-scsi@vger.rutgers.edu, rjohanne@piper.hamline.edu
>Hello folks,
>I come to you guys begging for more advice, I've begged for it before,
>but I want even more now. I realize that what I'm considering to do may
>be a bit too ambitious, but perhaps you guys can bring me to reality.
>I'm embarking on building a "perfect scsi" system, as far as the price
>will let me go. So far, I have gotten an ibm ultrastar 2ES ultra scsi
>disk, and an adaptec 2940 ultra scsi adapter.
First advice is use a Buslogic or Symbios controller; more stable,
faster, and cheaper than the Adaptec. We haven't benchmarked that
specific IBM drive, but several IBM drives we did benchmark had
extremely poor performance. You should be using Ultra Wide SCSI
everywhere.
>I've a monitor and
>cd-rom. I want to put together everything else from scratch. I'm
>thinking of building this with a pentium II 233mhz processor. This is
>the layout:
>
> get a motherboard, pentium II processor, memory(32 megs), video card
>(s3 virge 4megs, 'cause it is only $60), modem, ATX case/power supply,
>keyboard/mouse, floppy drive, sound card.
>
>Does the motherboard usually come with internal cables (e.g, for serial
>ports, or ide drives)
It depends on the motherboard vendor. In the ATX format serial ports
come directly out the ATX IO gasket - no cables. Intel sells their
PD440FX in a "retail" package that includes an IO gasket, floppy and
IDE cables, and driver CD. You can also buy the OEM bare board from
many places.
Is there something you see wrong with the above
>layout? Did I leave something out? I've calculated the total to come
>to about $1744; the cheapest system I've seen around with pentium II
>chip is $2145. Any ideas/comments against building my own system, any
>suggestions to what motherboard brand I should use, or any, any comment
>of any nature about this layout would be very, very appreciated, believe
>me.
Nothing wrong, no. But here are some things to watch for. Make sure
you get good quality memory that is qualified for the motherboard you
use. Cheap modems are, well, cheap. Don't expect to use a cheap
modem for anything other than dialing in occasionally. Get good
quality SCSI cables. Get a good quality power supply. Make sure
your case has enough airflow to keep the disk cool. Make sure you
understand how to control PCI interrupt assignment from your
motherboard's BIOS.
In terms of assembly, if these are all new parts you've never worked
with before, I suggest building up the machine one piece at a time.
First get video, then add SCSI, then add sound, etc. Be methodical
about it so you can easily identify a problem if you have one.
Larry
Larry Augustin
VA Research, Inc.
1235 Pear Ave., Suite 109
Mountain View, CA 94043
Tel: +1.415.934.3666
Fax: +1.415.964.7668
Email: lma@varesearch.com
Web: http://www.varesearch.com
