Subject: SCSI needed on Pentium Box for DFT?

From: "Tom K. Woo" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 97 17:04:39 MDT

Greetings all,

We are planning to buy some Intel Pentium II or Pentium Pro machines to
run some DFT calculations on (ADF to be exact).

I would like to generate some discussion on the necessity of using
SCSI disks as opposed to EIDI or ultraDMA(PII only) disks for running
these types of codes.  The reason I ask this is that SCSI
disks are about twice the price of non-SCSI disks.   If a SCSI
disk is not required, then the money saved can be used to upgrade
from a 233 Mhz Pentium II to a 300 Mhz Pentium II.

I understand that with EIDE or ultra DMA it is the Pentium that
actually controls the disk, while with SCSI disks has its own controller.
Anybody have a feeling for how this effects the performance of a
typical DFT code??
(I have a pentium at home with an EIDE drive, and it is as fast or faster than
any SCSI disks I have had experience with.)

Thanks in Advance.

Tom Woo

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