Is ATAPI good enough for AIT-1?

[Jeff Ishaq]

Hey folks. I'm eyeing Sony's AITi90-A/S tape drive, which as I
understand it is simply an internal IDE drive that uses 35GB AIT-1
tapes. My backup needs are modest -- about 40GB total, and it doesn't
grow very fast. The Sony AITi90-A/S drive, which also seems to be
named various permutations of Sony "SDX-D400", can be had for $594,
and media is $40 per 35/70GB tape.

I am curious if I should opt for the SCSI interface rather than the
IDE interface on this drive. I've got the venerable Adaptec 2940UW if
I need it, but I prefer IDE over SCSI for a few reasons:

* I don't have to wait for 45-60 seconds for the SCSI BIOS to load &
scan devices during boot

* Less heat, less fans, less noise, less power consumption

* One less card == more free IRQs == less conflicts with network cards


I'm not sure if the maximum thruput of the Sony AITi90-A/S drive is
enough to saturate a dedicated IDE channel. If there would be a
considerable performance difference between this drive on an IDE bus,
and this drive on a SCSI bus, the latter becomes more appealing.

Any tips?

Thanks very much!
-Jeff

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Hey folks. I'm eyeing Sony's AITi90-A/S tape drive, which as I
understand it is simply an internal IDE drive that uses 35GB AIT-1
tapes. My backup needs are modest -- about 40GB total, and it doesn't
grow very fast. The Sony AITi90-A/S drive, which also seems to be
named various permutations of Sony "SDX-D400", can be had for $594,
and media is $40 per 35/70GB tape.

I am curious if I should opt for the SCSI interface rather than the
IDE interface on this drive. I've got the venerable Adaptec 2940UW if
I need it, but I prefer IDE over SCSI for a few reasons:

* I don't have to wait for 45-60 seconds for the SCSI BIOS to load &
scan devices during boot

The latest bios can be set to 'not scan'.

* Less heat, less fans, less noise, less power consumption

* One less card == more free IRQs == less conflicts with network cards


I'm not sure if the maximum thruput of the Sony AITi90-A/S drive is
enough to saturate a dedicated IDE channel.

That obviously depends on the specification of the interface and that of
the channel that it is used on.

If there would be a
considerable performance difference between this drive on an IDE bus,
and this drive on a SCSI bus, the latter becomes more appealing.

IDE is specified for 2 devices used simultaniously, SCSI for 4.