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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave Hanson who wrote (1358)6/14/1998 1:03:00 AM
From: Zeuspaul  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 14778
 
>>Zeuspaul's early proposal con't<<

Thanks for the Taiwan Asus site. I went to the US site for some strange reason.

AHA 2940, AHA 3940 cards and the 7980 onboard SCSI controllers.

First a correction. I mistakenly indicated the AHA 3940 is a 3 channel adapter. The AHA 3940 is a 2 channel adapter. The difference between the AHA 3940 and the AHA 2940 is all 3 connectors can be used on the AHA 3940 and only two of three connectors can be used on the AHA 2940.(that used to be the case, now Adaptec makes a dual channel AHA 2940 card...AHA 2940 UWD)

This becomes an issue when one considers external and internal SCSI devices and how to spit them. For example the AHA 2940 single channel has three connectors..50 pin internal, 68 pin internal and an external connector. One can use any two but not three.

With the AHA 3940 and the new AHA 2940 UWD all connectors are available for SCSI devices. The external devices will share a channel with one set of internal devices.

I am not too sure how the onboard SCSI works. I downloaded and read the older LX Asus manual with onboard SCSI. There is a 50 pin internal and a 68 pin internal but no external. I believe one has to come off the 50 pin internal and use an in/out connector to connect the external peripherals? One would mix fast and slow devices on the same channel as it is a single channel controller. Somehow the optional AIC 3860 Adaptec chip divides the fast and slow SCSI devices.


The add on cards already have the external connectors. Also I can get dual channel which may be an advantage with lots of SCSI devices. SCSI connectors can get expensive. I have to add the cost of adding an external connector and the optional AIC 3860 chip to the onboard card. I have not seen Asus mobos with alternate SCSI options.

Ease of use and intallation/configuration is a primary concern. There is an issue with on board SCSI and installing an OS from CD-ROM that I do not understand. Something about the CDROM not being seen in some situations. I do not know if it is an issue with add on cards or not.

Thanks

Zeuspaul

ps

>>>"Thats good news?? I can upgrade my Compaq now with the MII card. Let me know if you find out more details."

Not sure I understand this, but you should be able to upgrade easily enough. The 4 mb MII can be had for about $108 OEM, $112 retail.<<<

What I meant to say is If I want two monitors/video cards one must be PCI. If the Matrox G200 is only available in AGP then my only alternative for the PCI card is the existing Millenium II PCI card.



To: Dave Hanson who wrote (1358)6/14/1998 1:12:00 AM
From: Sean W. Smith  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 14778
 
Sounds good... I just finished building my latest a 2 months ago here is the rundown....

Inwin 12 Bay Tower Case, ATX Form Factor, 300W PS.
neutronet.com

2 Additional Fans. one in front bezel, one in back above PS.

Tyan S1692DL Tiger ATX Dual
tyan.com

Dual 300Mhx PII's. Heat Sink with Active coolig. Fan power and
sensors are integrated nicely onto the MB.

2 x 128M Unbuffered SDRAM DIMM's (256M Total)

Maxtor UltraDMA 8.4 GIG EIDE (NTFS)
Seagate Medalist 6.4 GIG EIDE (NTFS)
Seagate Medailist 2.1 GIG EIDE (NTFS)

Adaptec 2940UW PCI Ultra SCSI Controller (Had this from Dell P133)

Plextor 12/20X SCSI CD Rom (Best CD I ever owened, awesome for extracting Digital Audio) (new)

Phillips 2600 CDR SCSI (left over from Dell)

Iomega Jaz Internal SCSI (Left over from Dell)

Seagate ST8000N Internal SCSI 4/8 Gig Travan 4 Tape (new $205)

S3 968 PCI 2M VRAM Video (left over from Dell P133) (next upgrade)
NEC XE21 Monitor.

Intel Etherexpress Pro 10/100B (left over from dell)

Eeprom burner card (had this for years)

Creative AWE32 non PNP ISA card. (left over from dell)

APC Backups Pro 420 (old) (I need a 650, I buy opti-ups now over APC)

No Analog modem. I have modem sharing on my NT server.

Network wise, this plugs into my 10 mbps shared lan with 2 laptops and 4 other desktops which connect to an ISDN router.

Next upgrade for me is an 8 Port 10/100 Auto sensing switch. probablys Cisco Catalyst 2900.

I built this system knowing well that 400's and BX were coming out in less than a month but wanted two cpu's and a lot of memory. 300's had reached $350 each when I built this and LX chipset SDRAM was MUCH cheaper than PC 100 SDRAM. Today the 400's are still high dollar but the PC100 SDRAM has dropped significantly. Did I make the correct choice?? Hard to tell. immediate gratification is certainly nice...

Sean



To: Dave Hanson who wrote (1358)6/17/1998 12:09:00 AM
From: Zeuspaul  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 14778
 
>> Will look forward to hearing how your idea evolves.<<

The idea looks like it will get a quick start. I give up on the Compaq. I replaced the failed Compaq harddisc (Quantum bigfoot) with an IBM deskstar. The problem is Compaq restoration software only works with their original hardware configuration. I finally got Win 95 installed but nothing works or does not work properly (modem, video card, sound card IDE controller , a very long list in the device manager.) I can not find any drivers on the compaq website.

I will initiate a new system with two computers in mind. I can salvage a couple of things from the Compaq, Pentium 200 mmx CPU, and maybe the floppy and IDE CD-ROM (would they require specialized drivers?) mouse and keyboard.

I will use the case and my new IBM harddisc from the following new computer to build a socket seven machine with the salvaged Compaq components.



            Gigabyte 686BX  (4 DIMM)         $173.60 or 
            ASUS P2B        (3 DIMM)         $164.86    
                 still debating

            PII 233  boxed                   $182      
            128 MB Corsair 16x64 cas 2 RAM   $316  (PC100)
            Procase with 300 watt PS         $120
            TEAC floppy                      $ 24
            MII video    4MB                 $120
            IBM IDE deskstar 6.5 GB ($214)   have
            3 COM NIC                        have 
            Modem ? ISA, PCI or COM         ______
                                             $950


I will try and use the Compaq IDE CDROM or the Aptiva CDROM via network.

I intend on going all SCSI as mentioned before but this should get me back into my comfortable chair.

I want a dual channel SCSI adapter, either the new AHA 2940 or the AHA 3940. I need a little time the figure these out and select some nice SCSI harddrives and CDROM.

I will probably move tonight on some of the above. Anyone want a good deal on a nice Compaq case?

Regards

Zeuspaul


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