Radified Guide to SCSI - Boot from a SCSI Hard Drive

Tekram vs Adaptec:

LVD-capable Tekram cards use the high-performance Symbios chipset, designed by LSI Logic. The beautiful thing about Tekram cards is that they come with all the cables and terminators you need. Adaptec cards come in both OEM & Retail flavors. OEM packages do not come with any cables or terminators. 

SCSI cables & terminators can cost plenty when purchased separately, so make sure they come with your card. Typically, Tekram cards (at least those with the Symbios chipset) offer slightly better performance that their Adaptec counterparts, at significantly lower prices. 

Heard that (some?) Adaptec U160 cards were having probs w/ Linux sppt - not so w/ Tekram. Have not looked closely into the issue, cuz I don't have an U160 card. My Tekram card had no probs using my SCSI drives in Linux (Mandrake 7 & Caldera 2.4), but I was unable to boot from any SCSI drive in Linux. Of course, for the newbie, nothing in Linux is very easy. 

Some people claim that Adaptec tech sppt are arrogant, and tend to say that it's always your fault, or that of your system, that's the source of the problem .. that they're more interested in laying blame elsewhere, than finding a solution to your problem. I have only dealt with Adaptec sppt twice. But each time I came away with a bad taste in my mouth. They were close to the worst tech sppt experience I've ever had. 

I wouldn't say the worst, cuz at least I wasn't given any inaccurate info. But I received no useable help. It's hard to convince someone that there's something wrong with their product, if they refuse to accept it. They weren't interested is working on a solution with me, and were generally uncooperative. 

I thought it was me, until I heard others saying the same things. Lots of my friends have Adaptec controllers, and love them. I'm sure there are even some who've had wonderful experiences with Adaptec sppt. Unfortunately, I'm not one of 'em. If I could buy an Adaptec Retail package with comparable perf, for a similar price as Tekram, I'd buy it. But you can't. 

On the other hand, Tekram sppt is non-existent. Sending them an email is a waste of bandwidth. I concede that sppt with an attitude is better than no sppt at all. Maybe now you can see why a SCSI user needs to be able to provide his own tech sppt. 

The only reason I can see for buying an Adaptec card is that you're into 'buying American' - as Tekram is a Taiwanese corp. Personally, I am too much of a capitalist to pay significantly more money for equivalent or lower performance. As noted, Adaptec has better tech sppt, but you can get excellent support at various online hardware bulletin board forums - such as the ones at the storagereview.com. Those guys can walk you through any problem you might have - as long as you're nice to them. =) See here - go to General forum.

Adaptec discusses Windows XP support here.

Darren Mason at GamePC did a great 5-page review of the Tekram DC390-U3W vs Adaptec 29160 here. His concluding thoughts: 

<copy-n-paste> "As the benchmarks prove, the Tekram board performs great. It is neck and neck with the Adaptec in all our benchmarks, and actually edges out Adaptec in a few areas. The Tekram DC-390U3W is a remarkable value. For a significantly lower price, you can get Adaptec quality features and performance. The Tekram can also support 30 devices, which is something Adaptec can only claim with their pricey 39160 dual channel card. However, the Tekram runs only half the devices at 160MB/s, since the 2nd channel only supports Ultra Wide. 

Regardless, this feature can easily make the Tekram a no-brainer to those who need the 2nd channel. Otherwise, the two cards match each other's features, but you pay quite a premium for the Adaptec name. Congrats to Tekram for producing such a high quality component, that can easily compete with its Adaptec counterpart on every level." </copy-n-paste>

Storagereview also did a comparison review here, and came to the same conclusions.

But if you do go with an Adaptec card, like the 29160N, I heard you should disable Domain Name Validation. Adaptec talks about what DNV does here. Also heard that you should use the Win2K drivers for the 29160N - not the 1.00b's that are on Adaptec's site, as ppl are having problems burning with the Adaptec drivers with DNV enabled. U2W and pre-U160 controllers do have DNV. They can be found at shopper.com for ~US$250. If vendors offer this card for much less, give them a close look before buying.