SCSI for optical drives - benefits/disadvantages?

Shion · 18th February 2003, 4:02 PM

Hi all,

I came across this thread about SCSI burners while searching the forum:
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...threadid=55672

That was about 9 months ago. I'm curious to know- how many people are still using SCSI for CD-RW, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc.?

And what do people consider to be the benefits and disadvantages of SCSI for optical drives? Two that were mentioned in the previous thread were SCSI's multi-tasking advantage, and IDE's obvious price advantage. Does the former still hold true today? What other reasons do people have for preferring/disliking SCSI?

I recently purchased a Pioneer 36x SCSI CD-ROM for the purpose of doing my own testing, but since it doesn't seem to like some of my CD-R's (it being an old-ish drive), I can't really do anything useful/meaningful with it... so any other people's experiences are appreciated.

By the way, how effective is Yamaha's IDE->SCSI converter (when used in conjunction with the drive it is designed for)?

Thanks.

joe_sixpack · 18th February 2003, 10:52 PM

there is zero benfit of having a SCSI CDR drive... todays mainstream drive interface ATA100 is more then capable of burning CD's at 52x or quicker... and external drives in the USB2 or firewire flavour are also very quick.

destrkta · 19th February 2003, 10:21 AM

i'm using an ide burner atm 48x liteon, and would switch back to scsi if it was possible to find a high speed scsi model, advantges are simple when running ide devices ur cpu useage goes 100% from scsi hdd to scsi writer cpu useage will be close to 4-5% well thats what i found with my previous 12x scsi burner.

btw to test this theory i've run my burner in 12x and still major cpu usage.

Unregisturd · 19th February 2003, 1:10 PM

On my P4 system with ATA100 hard drive and CD-RW on seperate channels, anything above 8x write speed leads to Burn-Proof kicking in.

Ok, theoretically data transfer rates of up to 100MB/s should be possible but it never seems to occur, and the CPU utilisation due to the IDE bus adds to the problem. On SCSI burners I've never had any problems with data throughput.

If you are comfortable with relying on Burn-Proof and similar technologies then go IDE. Anybody who has used SCSI in these situations will tell you you can't go back to IDE after using it.

firebug.d:D · 19th February 2003, 4:08 PM

The IDE burner problems sound like your using PIO instead of DMA. Have you checked what mode your burner is in?

It makes a world of difference.

Leopard · 19th February 2003, 6:45 PM

I just grabbed a new CD-RW today, burning at 48x I noticed the 'burning light' go off twice as the spindle speeds were adjusted.

I also use verification to see if what I burnt sems the same as what was on the hard drive, and it failed.

Dropped the burn speed to 24x, and now neither of the points above occur.

Of course, it could be my media isn't rated for that high a speed

Didn't notice CPU utilisation, I am running RC5-72.

the burner was $105, a bit more expensive than I could have got it, but the computer shop is in the CBD (and on my way home!)

EDIT:
I just did a burn using the new burner, and took a screenshot of task manager for the duration of the burn.
Click here (29k)

You will notice at the beginning that I paused my Distributed Client, this is right after I hit 'finalise cd' on nero.
Not sure what most of the spikes are, though the last one (on the right) is when it finished the burn.

I still had all my background utils running - AV, P2P, MBM, so it could have been one of those.

So, you can clearly see that CPU utilisation is not the issue with my cd burner!

(Seperate channels for hard drive and burner, single 700MB file burnt).

Whisper · 21st February 2003, 7:28 AM

The main reason for trying to find a good SCSI CD/DVD burner is so you don't take up a IDE slot.

stalin · 25th February 2003, 9:24 PM

I have a SCSI CD-ROM and SCSI CD-RW and a SCSI HDD on one SCSI channel. Doing 'things' between them results on nearly no processor usage (Alpha 533Mhz).

I have tried the same stuff on a x86 and SCSI still effects the system only marginally. IDE burners always chug systems. Also some burners dont actually support DMA modes... only PIO

The benifits of SCSI hdds are reflected as the benefits of SCSI CD-ROM drives.. only smaller benefits because of the overall slower speeds etc of the devices.

18th February 2003, 4:02 PM	#1
Shion Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Perth Posts: 803	SCSI for optical drives - benefits/disadvantages? Hi all, I came across this thread about SCSI burners while searching the forum: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...threadid=55672 That was about 9 months ago. I'm curious to know- how many people are still using SCSI for CD-RW, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc.? And what do people consider to be the benefits and disadvantages of SCSI for optical drives? Two that were mentioned in the previous thread were SCSI's multi-tasking advantage, and IDE's obvious price advantage. Does the former still hold true today? What other reasons do people have for preferring/disliking SCSI? I recently purchased a Pioneer 36x SCSI CD-ROM for the purpose of doing my own testing, but since it doesn't seem to like some of my CD-R's (it being an old-ish drive), I can't really do anything useful/meaningful with it... so any other people's experiences are appreciated. By the way, how effective is Yamaha's IDE->SCSI converter (when used in conjunction with the drive it is designed for)? Thanks. __________________ Recent successful trades: DaveHimself, [NS]Rommel, JonSton, Shadowk33per, Epicfatigue, hankahanaka, hoody_s13, herzeg, kathshan, RichoB, Zevensoft, tiro_uspsss, flugle Last edited by Shion; 2nd August 2011 at 7:20 PM.

18th February 2003, 10:52 PM	#2
joe_sixpack Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Logan City, QLD Posts: 2,756	there is zero benfit of having a SCSI CDR drive... todays mainstream drive interface ATA100 is more then capable of burning CD's at 52x or quicker... and external drives in the USB2 or firewire flavour are also very quick. __________________ "I don't stop eating when I'm full.. The meal isn't over when I'm full... The meal is over when I hate myself" - *Louis CK.* Blog

19th February 2003, 10:21 AM	#3
destrkta Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Victoria Posts: 1,813	i'm using an ide burner atm 48x liteon, and would switch back to scsi if it was possible to find a high speed scsi model, advantges are simple when running ide devices ur cpu useage goes 100% from scsi hdd to scsi writer cpu useage will be close to 4-5% well thats what i found with my previous 12x scsi burner. btw to test this theory i've run my burner in 12x and still major cpu usage. __________________ I7 920\|\|Gigabyte X58\|\|32gb Corsair DDR3 1500\|\|2 Gigabyte GTX280 SLI\|\|\|\|2WD300gb Raptors 2Athalon 1200MP&&Tyan Thunder 2469MPX&&2512mb Kingmax Reg DDR266&&3ware 7500-8&&8 WD1800JB(raid5 1.2TB)WD800JB(systemDrive)

19th February 2003, 6:45 PM	#6
Leopard Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane CBD Posts: 1,623	I just grabbed a new CD-RW today, burning at 48x I noticed the 'burning light' go off twice as the spindle speeds were adjusted. I also use verification to see if what I burnt sems the same as what was on the hard drive, and it failed. Dropped the burn speed to 24x, and now neither of the points above occur. Of course, it could be my media isn't rated for that high a speed Didn't notice CPU utilisation, I am running RC5-72. the burner was $105, a bit more expensive than I could have got it, but the computer shop is in the CBD (and on my way home!) EDIT: I just did a burn using the new burner, and took a screenshot of task manager for the duration of the burn. Click here (29k) You will notice at the beginning that I paused my Distributed Client, this is right after I hit 'finalise cd' on nero. Not sure what most of the spikes are, though the last one (on the right) is when it finished the burn. I still had all my background utils running - AV, P2P, MBM, so it could have been one of those. So, you can clearly see that CPU utilisation is not the issue with my cd burner! (Seperate channels for hard drive and burner, single 700MB file burnt). __________________ VR/VS Commodore Owners Club Member #64 VS Series II Acclaim Last edited by Leopard; 19th February 2003 at 6:59 PM.

19th February 2003, 1:10 PM	#4
Unregisturd Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Sydney Posts: 1,775	On my P4 system with ATA100 hard drive and CD-RW on seperate channels, anything above 8x write speed leads to Burn-Proof kicking in. Ok, theoretically data transfer rates of up to 100MB/s should be possible but it never seems to occur, and the CPU utilisation due to the IDE bus adds to the problem. On SCSI burners I've never had any problems with data throughput. If you are comfortable with relying on Burn-Proof and similar technologies then go IDE. Anybody who has used SCSI in these situations will tell you you can't go back to IDE after using it.

19th February 2003, 4:08 PM	#5
firebug.d:D Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Sydney Posts: 536	The IDE burner problems sound like your using PIO instead of DMA. Have you checked what mode your burner is in? It makes a world of difference.

25th February 2003, 9:24 PM	#8
stalin (Taking a Break) Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: On the move Posts: 4,584	I have a SCSI CD-ROM and SCSI CD-RW and a SCSI HDD on one SCSI channel. Doing 'things' between them results on nearly no processor usage (Alpha 533Mhz). I have tried the same stuff on a x86 and SCSI still effects the system only marginally. IDE burners always chug systems. Also some burners dont actually support DMA modes... only PIO The benifits of SCSI hdds are reflected as the benefits of SCSI CD-ROM drives.. only smaller benefits because of the overall slower speeds etc of the devices.