Very Computer

I'm looking to get a mid-range 486/DX2 (local bus VGA, probably an ATI) with
a CDROM drive, a sound card, and (at least) a 500 MB of hard disk.   One day
(not soon), I might buy a tape backup.  The question is, should I be
thinking about SCSI? (I'm only talking about SCSI-2)

Options I see:

1.   IDE HDD (Quantum probably), any sound board with a CDROM drive it
     supports.  (later get a tape backup with it's own controller)
     good: cheapest option upfront. most conventional, most likely to work.
      bad: people keep telling me that SCSI expandibility is great.

     Questions:   In General, is IDE still slower than SCSI?  How much?  
        Is this a dumb question because it depends on the exact hardware?

2.   SCSI controller, HDD, and CDROM. No CDROM on Soundboard (use SCSI one)
     good: faster HDD, faster CD (for data apps), faster tape drive.

      bad: more expensive up front.
           tape drive more expensive later.
           likely pay for an extra CDROM or SCSI interface on the sound card.

     Questions:
           Do most sound cards understand how to find the CDROM drive
           on a SCSI bus they don't control?

           Are there any 16bit sound cards which DON'T have a CDROM
           interface?

3.   IDE HDD, Use Sound card SCSI interface CDROM drive and tape drive.

        good: saved a controller card.

        Question:  Can I run a tape drive of such a SCSI interface?

Notes:
FAQ's I've read: linux: general, video, sound, hardware
                 IBM PC soundcards

--
Peter Silva          

IDE-2 is the new spec that will allow you to have 4 devices on the IDE bus
with SCSI-like performance.
.
About performance, thats really 3 on the drive itself.  I have a
Western Digital 540MB IDE drive and I get 1.9Mb/s transfer rates yet many
SCSI drives aren't that fast.  When 0 a hard drive of EITHER
interface, get its RPM rating.  The WD drive is 4200 RPM.. I have a
friend with a Maxtor 1Gig SCSI drive at 6200rpm and he's getting 2.6Mb/s
transfer rates.
t
Cost?  IDE-2 is cheap.  The interface is <$50 where as I haven't found good,
robust SCSI-2 controller for less than $100.  Another point to 2 is
SCSI also has some quirks.  I've used SCSI interfaces over the years for
IBM PCs and have had problems with Windows, NT, and Dos that I couldn't
duplicate on IDE-based machines.

Quote:>       Do most sound cards understand how to find the CDROM drive
>       on a SCSI bus they don't control?

Once you have the drivers running for your given CD-Rom drive.. yes, your
sound card will work "fine" with your CD-Rom.  One thing to 2 is that
MANY CD-Rom interfaces on sound cards are either proprietary, only usable
with "compatible" Cd-Rom drives or the Sound card is SCSI  
but is a -slow- interface.  Typically, like the ProAudio Spectrum card, its
fully SCSI but only at 1Mb/s where as true SCSI-2 is defined as 10Mb/s.  
You wouldn't want to connect your new SCSI hard drive to your sound card.

Quote:>       Are there any 16bit sound cards which DON'T have a CDROM
>       interface?

Sure... many!  SoundBlaster Basic, Gravis UltraSound, etc.  

Quote:>    Question:  Can I run a tape drive of such a SCSI interface?

Yes, I have a Tandberg SCSI tape drive ( 500MB compressed ) and I love its
performance but you pay a premium for it.  You can buy a cheap Colorado
or Conner ( 250MB compressed ) for <$250 and get software 0 by
everyone under the sun, or go with a SCSI tape drive, get 2x the performance
for 2 or 3 times the cost and most tape backup software doesn't support
high capacity tape drives yet.  

The main questions you need to ask is:

1) How big of a drive do I want.  
        <500MB, forget it, stick with IDE-2
        >500MB, IDE-2 is 1 out with large drives but won't be as
                fast or cheap as the large (1Gig+ SCSI drives) anytime soon.

2) What will I add to my machine in the future?

        IDE-2 will let you add FOUR devices ( HD, CD-Rom, Tape Drive, ?scanner
        SCSI allows 7 devices.  There are more SCSI devices out there
             than IDE and it will probably stay that way.  Also, SCSI is
             cross-platform ( IBM, Mac, Unix, etc )

3) How much money do I want to spend?

        IDE-2 is for the masses.  Its cheap and fast.
        SCSI is for higher end with performance, not $, as the main concern.

Good luck!

David
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David