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Hard Drives | RAID | Controllers/Adapters | CD/DVD/CDRWs | Misc. | |
| Before buying any Hard Drive, CDROM, CDRW, DVD, Combo DVD/CDRW, Removable or Tape drive see what others reported as far as any compatibility issues, performance and more. If you've upgraded any type of drive in your Mac, Submit a Report!. | |
| Topic based FAQ with more than 750 answers to common questions including system specific and storage topics. Check here first for answers on any Mac subject! | |
| Reader review of the series II Atlas 10K (10,000 RPM) drives. | |
Atlas 10K RPM U2 SCSI Drive |
Reader review of the Quantum 10,000 RPM Ultra2 SCSI drive. Includes detailed info on drive Cooling Fans |
in a 8600 or 9600 |
Tutorial on installing a 4 hard drives in a 8600 or 9600 |
| Illustrated guide to installing a UW Cheetah Disk and PCI Controller in a 8500. Includes software install guide. | |
Owner Feedback |
Reader comments (long) on the 2.2GB Castelwood ORB SCSI drive for the Mac |
| Reader review using Atlas IV drives with 39160 SCSI card for OS X RAID. | |
| Reader review of the Adaptec DuraStor RAID array used with an Xserve. | |
| Reader review of the series II Atlas 10K (10,000 RPM) drives in a RAID configuration. | |
| Darin Ames sends a review of his Ultra2 SCSI Raid setup titled 'Freeze: This is a Raid!' | |
| Tutorial on installing a 4 Drive Disk Array in a 8600 (or 9600) | |
| Dual Drive Raid in a Desktop 7500 case. | |
| Although part of the IDE RAID How-To article, this illustrated guide to installing Softraid can apply to SCSI drives as well. | |
| Reader report of Tweaking the HD cache with Softraid's driver for improved performance (44% on sust. writes). As noted here before, I use Softraid's drive on single drives as well. | |
| Reader review on the Initio Miles and Softraid 2.1.5 with 1 drive and up to 3 drive Raid tests. | |
| (1998 UW SCSI RAID Tests) Dual UW SCSI card/Dual Drive Raid Array. 4 Mac SCSI Cards and 5 Raid Software Pkgs Tested | |
| (1998 UW SCSI RAID Tests) Same Tests as above but with only one SCSI Card. | |
| (1998 UW SCSI RAID Tests) Select your Card/Raid Software combination and see how it performed. | |
| In response to a reader request, this page has feedback on using SCSI PCMCIA cards with panther/OS X 10.3.x. Also includes a section on Firewire/SCSI and USB/SCSI adapters. | |
| A reader notes that soldering in a 2nd internal SCSI connector on the $49 OEM ATTO UL2D cards (from OWC) worked well for dual channel RAID capability. (From Dec. 18th, 2002 www.xlr8yourmac.com news page) | |
| A reader's tips on how he was able to use the retail ATTO ExpressPCI (ultra-wide scsi card) firmware with an OEM (original equipment version) card. (Normally the retail card flash updaters will not update an OEM ATTO card that was an option on Some Apple Beige G3 Mac systems and servers.) *Updated* 1/14/2002 to include notes on Ultra2 cards and sources for past ATTO firmware versions. |
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| A reader sent a quick review of the Ratoc PCCard Ultra-Wide SCSI controller for PowerBooks. | |
| Reader review of the Acard Ultra-SCSI PCI Controller card for Macs. | |
| Reader review with photos and install guide on a way to use IDE hard drives in an external case with your SCSI Mac without a PCI IDE card. | |
| Reader review with photos and install guide on a way to use IDE hard drives (internal) with your SCSI Mac without a PCI IDE card. | |
for Audio |
Although not a full review, Issue #64 of our Audio Column includes comments on a 9500 owner looking for a faster drive controller for audio use. |
SCSI performance reports |
Owner comments (including mine) on Adaptec's 64-Bit PCI Ultra160 SCSI card performance, including notes on relatively low write performance in most cases. Updated for reports from dual Processor G4 systems. (This card is also compatible with 32-Bit PCI slots.) |
| What's the fastest Ultra2 SCSI card? Benchmarks and real world tests on ATTO, Adaptec and Initio Ultra2 SCSI cards. Includes IDE disk performance comparisons. | |
64Bit Dual-Ch. U2 SCSI |
An exclusive first look at the OEM 64-Bit PCI/Dual Channel Ultra2 SCSI controller that is to be offered soon as a BTO option on B&W G3 Macs. |
| Adaptec, ATTO, Initio and Streamlogic cards Performance Comparison | |
| Tutorial on Installing a PCI SCSI card | |
| Illustrated guide to installing a UW Cheetah Disk and PCI Controller in a 8500. (9500 case is similar) Includes software install guide. | |
Compatibility page |
Reader comments, tips and experiences using the Umax E-100 Combo UW SCSI and 10/100 Ethernet card. |
Adaptec 2940UW firmware 3.0 vs 4.1 |
A reader sends test data that indicates that sometimes the latest is not the best, at least for RAID in a B&W G3. |
| Reader article on converting the PC versions of 2940/3940 SCSI Cards to Mac models. | |
(with Narrow Ultra SCSI Drives) |
Another comparison of PCI SCSI card vs onboard SCSI with Narrow drives. This time Ultra SCSI drives are used. Review by Frank Bernier. |
| Tests of the stock 9600 narrow SCSI Hard Disk with the onboard SCSI vs PCI SCSI Cards. | |
| Before buying any Hard Drive, CDROM, CDRW, DVD, Combo DVD/CDRW, Removable or Tape drive see what others reported as far as any compatibility issues, performance and more. If you've upgraded any type of drive in your Mac, Submit a Report!. | |
using OS X |
The Nov. 14th and Nov. 15th, 2001 news pages here have reports on how El Gato's SCSI CDRW helper driver for OS X enabled Toast beta for OS X to work with SCSI drives. There's also reports in the Mac Drive Compatibility Database from Yamaha and other SCSI CDRW drive owners on using the El Gato drivers at http://www.elgato.com/SCSIHelper/index.html. TIP: As noted in the news pages and in several reports in the database, reinstalling iTunes2 in OS X helped make the SCSI drive work with Toast for OS X beta. (One Adaptec SCSI card owner also noted removing a duplicate/older version adaptec driver helped. He installed a later driver but said the older one was still installed and caused problems. The Dec. 24th, 2001 news page has his comments and I've asked he enter a drive database entry for this Plextor SCSI CDRW drive noting this tip also.) |
Firmware Update Tips |
Tips on flashing Plextor IDE and SCSI CDRWs with Macs. |
for CDROM Drives |
Although written for IDE drives, this step-by-step illustrated guide to installing a CDROM drive in a Beige G3, 8600/9600 and Blue and White G3 or G4 system, much of the info would apply to a SCSI drive as well. (The jumper settings of course are different for SCSI drives, you have to set the SCSI ID and make sure termination is set properly (only last drive on the cable should be set for termination.) |
12/10/32 CDRW Drive |
First tests of the SCSI Plextor 12x/10x/32x CDROM recorder in Macs. |
IDE CDRW Drive |
The first reader reports of the Yamaha 2100 CDROM recorder. (Search the drive database for the latest reports.) |
Owner Reports |
After a reader reported severe problems with the drive in Macs, I was flooded with owner reports good and bad from most every Mac model and SCSI interface. Includes tips and system info. |
| Search for literally any brand or type (SCSI/IDE/Firewire/USB) of CDROM, CDRW or Combo CDRW/DVD drive (as well as hard drives and tape drives). Comments in user reports often include compatibility issues, performance and more. If you've upgraded any type of drive in your Mac, Submit a Report!. | |
Floppy Adapter |
Mini-Review of the Sony Floppy Adapter for their Memory Sticks. Tested for performance with my PB G3/250 and a PC PII/366 notebook for file copy performance. Includes comments on use, software and value. |
Apple's Drivers |
A reader provided graphs of performance tests of FWB's Hard Disk Toolkit 4.0 drivers versus Apple's Drive Setup drivers (OS 9.04 version). The results are surprising and could save you a few $$. |
Disk Drivers Comments |
Intech, SoftRaid and Prosoft reply to an claim by FWB (now removed) that they had the only PowerPC native code storage drivers. (After this article was posted, FWB changed the wording from 'only' to 'leading' on their web page). |
For Mac SCSI Devices |
A Reader shows how he used a PC full tower ATX case for Mac SCSI drives. Full of details, sources of components and illustrations. |
| Illustrated guide to Proline's low-cost solution for the tall drive mounting issue in the Blue and White G3 systems. (This bracket could be used in any Mac since it's velcro attached) | |
| Effect of Disk Cache size on performance. | |
Adaptec 2940UW firmware 3.0 vs 4.1 |
A reader sends test data that indicates that sometimes the latest is not the best, at least for RAID in a B&W G3. |
| BlackFire sends details on their IDE to SCSI adapter. | |
| This page lists all the IDE hard drive, cdrom, IDE RAID, PowerBook drive upgrades and other IDE drive related articles and reviews at xlr8yourmac.com. | |
| This page lists all the Firewire hard drive, drive kit builds, portable firewire drives and Firewire PCI controller card articles and reviews at xlr8yourmac.com. | |
| A small sample of reader comments about this site. | |
| Some of the awards this site has won over the years. | |
| About Computer Resources | |
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