Reviews for Adaptec PowerDomain 39160 Dual Channel Ultra-160 SCSI Controller

Adaptec PowerDomain 39160 Dual Channel Ultra-160...

Strengths: #1 SCSI PCI Card: this is the card of your dreams. 4 data connections into 2 channels with each channel running up to 160Mb/Sec in async parallel. OSX Compatible (v10.1 & higher). Bootable.

Weakness: Documentation weaker than might be expected (32 pages), can cause system lock-ups if not installed properly. Expensive. Can be confused by accident with PC version (not the same!).

If you are heavy into SCSI, this is the card of your dreams. 4 data connections (2 internal, 2 external) into 2 channels with each channel running up to 160Mb/Sec in async parallel. OSX Compatible (v10.1 & higher), supports Mac OS 8.6 and higher, SCSI manager 4.3 & higher. Consumes a short-length PCI slot, for the few units where this is significant. Supports any SCSI device on the market as of this writing (from the original SCSI-1 to Ultra-SCSI & SCSI-3).
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If you aren't familiar with the entire SCSI vs. ATA/EIDE concept, here's what you need to know: SCSI is designed for high usage (100% uptime) at very high bandwidth speeds (ideal for servers, graphic apps, video & sound editing, anything that is disk or data-handoff intensive). SCSI supports multiple data queries and on-drive optimization of data requests, plus copies between SCSI devices do not require any CPU overhead. ATA is cheaper, but has much lower speed limitations, can only handle a single data request at a time, and is designed to run only 40% of the time (i.e. - about 10 hours a day, or the average work-day, not 24/7 like a server).
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What's the downside to this card? It's damn expensive, but then again, it is the absolute top-of-the-line card. If you want to save a hundred bucks or so, take a look at the Adaptec 29160 or 29160N instead, which offers most of the same features.

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