Something to keep in mind before you run right out and snag an LVD drive: in the past, you could not mix normal SCSI and LVD SCSI drives on the same bus. You needed a host adapter that specifically supported LVD and unless you were ready to accept 2 SCSI adapters in your DAW or upgrade to an adapter that had both a normal and a LVD connector, you either had to dump all of your current SCSI devices and replace them with LVD devices, or close your jaw and not worry about that side of the cutting edge. However, many modern SCSI LVD drives can be switched to run on a single-ended bus and some even auto-switch from single to LVD depending on how they sense the bus they're connected to. Before you buy, be sure of what you're getting. Many "super fast" SCSI drives are LVD and may not be switchable. Mixing the two bus formats can result in a lot of smoke and no SCSI!

Setting Up SCSI
There's really no point in installing a SCSI host adapter that is not:

1) a PCI card. Trying to get DAW performance from an ISA SCSI card is like trying to pull an elephant through a toilet seat. Don't bother!

2) configured for bus mastering. Although it is possible to still buy a PIO-only SCSI adapter, and at not exactly a modest price either, don't even think about it. If you're going to be spending the extra money to go SCSI, do it right.

3) Ultra SCSI. There is no point in going all the way to the ocean with your bathing suit on and not jumping into the water. If you want to implement SCSI on your system, do so with an eye to the future. Besides, the entry level for an Ultra SCSI host adapter is no more than $80 or so with Ultra 2 Wide running about $180. Take a look at the price comparison charts on the COMPARING DRIVES page (coming soon in Part 3).

Perhaps if you are thinking of building a DAW from the ground up, the wise choice for implementing SCSI is to do it at the mother board level. Several good mother boards support SCSI right on the board much the same way mother boards support IDE. Just plug your SCSI controller cable into the SCSI port on the mother board and then run the other end to your drive(s). Don't forget to terminate the cable at your last SCSI device. All signals on the bus must be terminated with resistors at the bus ends to avoid electrical reflections. This is achieved either by a switch on the device (not always present) or by placing an external terminator block on the connector of the first and last devices on the bus. Often, the first device will be the host adapter itself.

Installing the SCSI drivers is best left up to Windows, which will see the SCSI controller and set up the drivers for you through Plug And Play. SCSI adapters are either PIO, DMA, or bus mastering, and the user can't choose the mode. If you have a bus mastering SCSI adapter, the driver only works in bus mastering mode. SCSI configuration is somewhat more complex, as there are many configurable options such as disconnect strategy, SCAM, LUN, BIOS emulation, etc. All of this should be explained in the adapter installation guide.

It should be noted that some users have reported problems using some host adapters with some motherboards and chip sets. MVP3 and Aladdin V chipsets have fallen into question, although there seems to be no problem using a motherboard with the Intel workhorse BX chip set. There have also been comments made about some AGP cards being so power hungry that on some motherboards they rob the PCI bus of the needed juice to reliably run high-end host adapters. Not-so-high-end adapters may not complain about the chip set or video card's appetite.

Go to Page 5 (Part 3); Back to TOC