Tekram Scsi Cards

[Kurdish Mayfield]

Anyone have any knowledge or experience with Tekram Scsi cards? In particular the DC- 390u2w Dual Channel. I now use an Adaptec 2940. Would this be a thru put improvement?

[martin armsby]

Long time since I dropped SCSI but I did have better results with Tekram over Adaptec. Simple straight forward operation and BIOS, good drivers...
Why do you still use SCSI ?

cheers

M

[Kurdish Mayfield]

I use scsi cause it works. Good thru put and with a scsi card on the pci bus its easy to configure external drives.I know that I could transfer bigger chunks with an ultra 160 card hence the question. What are you using?

[martin armsby]

I had an ultra wide 7200 rpm SCSI HD from IBM and bought a IBM 5400rpm drive for general purpose. Using Samplitude I got 20% less CPU load with the IDE drive although slower and cheaper. That was two or more years ago. Since than I've used 7200rpm IDE drives for audio work (currently Seagate Barracuder 7200 40, 80 and 120 Giga drive in Drive bays (Wechselrahmen))- never looked back.

cheers

M

[Neil Wilkes]

I have exactly this card - the DC390 U2/W , and it's been fine for me. No problems at all since day one, nearly 4 years ago now.
I have an 18 Gb 7200 RPM Quantum Atlas V for system, and 2 36 Gb 10000 RPM Quantum Atlas 10KIII Audio drives.
The only thing to remember when installing it is to replace the drivers that windows installs by default - symbios, if memory serves, and replace with the Tekram drivers.
I find it much, much better than the Adaptecs. Faster, more stable and very reliable.
Martin, if you got that kind of performance boost using a 5400 IDE over a 7200 SCSI, then either the drive was defective or the SCSI buss wasn't set up right. It's never a good idea to run in synchronous mode, despite what it might seem. Asynch is far better.
I regularly push 70+ tracks of 32 bit float at 44.1 KHz, and my HDD performance indicator in Nuendo only ever even lights up when moving around using track markers.
I have absolutely no idea what my total track count would be - I've never even come close.

[This message has been edited by Neil Wilkes (edited 05-13-2003).]

[Kurdish Mayfield]

Neil:
Thanks for this info .I couldn't begin to explain how perfectly timed this is.

[craymorr2003]

as to tekram...
I would like to know what OS you guys are using.

Not too many of you mention how well it works with 96/32...
I will explain my problem.
(I also have a forum topic started at cubase forum over the same issue)

My setup is, in nature of relevance...
>>>>Tekram DC-390U3W Ultra 160 PCI SCSI Cntrl.

>>>Maxtor Ultra 160 Atlas 10K III 18GB

>>Windows XP SP1 (which has the fix for slow SCSI performance in Windows XP non SP1, *which still could be an issue)
>Amd Athlon BArton Series 333FSB XP 2500+ processor
M-Audio Delta 1010LT

When I start play back with some of those big files, at 96/32, even with one track, I get those digital slurs and whelps and wheezes. Not all too frequently, but enough it counts..no performance glitches showing in the performance monitor of Cubase SX...but some awful noises. Now, when I am working with 48/32 and less, there usually is no problem.
When I play back the same projects on my firewire drive, no problems.

So it comes down to the controller or Microsoft..Some people say Adaptec is the way to go, and many said they had to move from Tekram to Adaptec for the same reasons..it is nice to know you aren't alone...

It does suck though...the Tekram card will be replaced with an Adaptec 39160, but it was a nice package...I am not willing to dump XP for Tekrams most compatible partner-according to great reviews- Windows 2000.

if anyone has any other advice, please let me know what you can...
controllers are expensive, and it sucks to have had to buy 2...but the tekram will get used for smaller projects.
whether it is the card or the OS..let me know some of your experiences too

[Neil Wilkes]

I am having absolutely no problems here with XP Pro SP1 and the Tekram DC390 U2/W card.
Question - are you running your drives in synch or asynch mode in the SCSI BIOS? Also, is the PC on ACPI or what?
I am using Nuendo, 32/44.1 or 32/48 or 32/96 projects with no issues at all, and my HDD's are also the Quantums.
An Atlas V 7200 rpm 18 Gb for system, and twin 10KIII Atlas 10,000rpm for Audio.
I find that ACPI is best, and always, always run the HDD in asynch mode from the SCSI BIOS.
Also, are you using the Tekram drivers, or the symbios ones that WinXP installs by default?
email me with your system specs, please, and I'll go through it against mine and we'll get this sorted for you. I love the tekram, and wouldn't give an adaptec house room. Tried them and nothing but trouble. Win XP and Tekram will happily coexist.

[martin armsby]

Hi Niel,
I certainly did not like the Adaptec controller on the PIIBS MB I had - Tekram was better at everything including the help files, driver downloads etc. I just don't see the point of SCSI at all though. Drives are still small and expensive, most studios seem to have dropped SCSI for the same reasons I did. IDE controllers are cheap and Busmastering is well established.
Have any of you done Diskbench tests to compare ? Or just loaded up your favorite Software with tracks on IDE and SCSI as a real comparisson ?

[Neil Wilkes]

The main reason I stay with my SCSI setup is bevause it is so solid and reliable. I don't have to use any RAID to get around the 4 drive limit with IDE, and using Dynamic Disks in XP Pro and NTFS file system, I can keep on adding drives to give me 4 HDD in a striped/mirrored configuration.
As for performance, I've run (so far) a max. of 55 32/96 tracks, and all I'm running into trouble with is Processor hit if I try to do this in Surround. Is fine in Stereo, but I guess my dual 1.4 Tualatin system is near the end. Dual Xeon time for me soon.
BTW, my drive performance indicator only ever lights up when jumping around from marker to marker. During playback, it doesn't even register.
My diska are pegged back at 80 Mb/sec megabytes, not megabits, and running in Asynch mode.
All is very well for me.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[martin armsby]

too true - just that mine and others aren't broke either and with a second ide controller (onboard or not) its enough to have 8 drives. I don't need striped cause there is no bottle neck with a single disk.
I am considering mirroring though because I lost one of those nasty IBM drives during a 6 hour session. Fortunatly I was able to save all but one song. But what a total embarrasement!
So its mirroring next on my list - I'll try IDE or serial ATA first though bsfore reconsidering SCSI.

cheers

M

[craymorr2003]

message to Neil Wilkes
I appreciate the offer of checking things out and going over things..it is hard to find help on this subject.
So I leave you the specs of my system, and then with a few questions....and a new discovery that I think may have added to my problems...

First the Specs:

Windows XP SP1
EPOX 8RDA+ (Nvidia NForce 2 Chipset, Dual DDR)
1.5 GB RAM 2100 DDR
A 80GB Maxtor ATA/133 Drive IDE (OS and software)
20 GB MAxtor ATA/100 BAckup Drive
DVD/CDR/CDRW drives
M-AUDIO Delta Sound Card 1010LT
Tekram DC-390U3W SCSI Adapter
ultra 160 SCSI cable with terminator..
connected internally to (1)Maxtor Atlas 10K III 18GB Ultra 160/LVD/SE drive

As indicated by Tekram, XP drivers were provided by the OS, so I am running it according to their specs.
Now, my question to you is, what drivers are you using if you aren't using XP drivers?...I have looked everywhere for alternates, and thought there were no alternates. And I believe that sticking with the recommended solution is what is causing me the problem to begin with.

Some of what you are working on, sounds like where I want to be, in resolution and the like. I don't have problems with 96/32 with my firewire setup, on an external device, it is the SCSI problem....
Now the only other question I have is about the dynamic disk option...should or shouldn't I...it seems that there are a lot of problems or slight performance degradation issues when it comes to chosing dynamic, and wanted some feeback on that....

And one last thing...
I don't know if anyone else has had the kind of problems I did...I try not assume because I have a problem, everyone in the world must...But Media Player 9 and the toolkit, have ruined performance on my PC. If I were to say Tekram or Windows XP itself was a problem, I did rule out the last update I made to my machine...Since I installed it, I have seen performance degradations in Cubase SX both in CPU load and disk load that were not there...plus, the inability for ASIO to be released in the background.

Neil Wilkes
hope this is enough information, but please, first and formost, I am interested in knowing what kind of drivers you are using.
That may be the issue..but specifically for my card Tekram said XP had what I needed.
I don't like that idea at all....

[craymorr2003]

Oh yeah
I didn't include this in the specs.
AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2500+
Barton 333FSB