SCSI2SD SD Card SCSI Drive Review

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[@terbog]

Thanks for the review, i like it! :) Benchmarks / Comparison with IDE would be interesting.

[@zhurnivuurg]

I'm running one of these in my 5x86 build. Paired it with a VLB scsi controller based on the Adaptec AIC-6360L chipset. Setup was very easy, and I now have a 2gb boot drive and an extra 2gb game drive running from the same SCSI2SD device. Very fast and quiet. I'm loving it.

[@muzaffarhussainsayyed8010]

SIR what is cost

[@WR3ND]

Yeah, I'm actually looking for a reasonably priced 2GB 50 pin SCSI drive for some of the reasons mentioned in this video for my ~'94 486 build. Not having much luck so far, but I'm not in too much of a rush. Something like this is a great option, and I'm glad they're available.

[@CarlosFerreira-cn6qf]

Outstanding review !!

[@beardymcbeardface69]

Awesome! I could use these to resurrect some of my old Sun Microsystems.

[@kb3tix]

I just got one of these for my SE/30 and love it, but I can't seem to boot NetBSD / mac68k. I'm not sure if it's a termination issue or one of the vendor settings, but it always seems to hang on sd0 detection with no real message.

[@Kippykip]

That's actually really useful

[@johandenhertog6878]

Nice video. Get it for the Commodore A590 on my AMIGA 500 Rev 6A KS 1.3 / WB 1.3.

[@jedits1988]

I bought one because of this review.

[@brunorbf]

Good Review! It seems to be an interesting device. But I would prefer an IDE header instead of a microsd card slot. I still have several SCSI hdd for my amiga 500, Apple II GS and Acorn Archimedes A3000. And I also use SCSI in two (286 and pentium 200mmx) and soon three (once I reassemble my 386DX40) of my retro PCs. But for real old PCs with no IDE (two tandys 1000) I ended up assembling two Lo-tech ISA Compact Flash cards (uses XT-ide universal bios), since it was a cheaper and more flexible solution - it has an IDE header, so I can choose between CF and SD Cards (with compatible adapter), or even an IDE hard disk, but it is slow compared to SCSI. Generally, in my retro machines, if they have IDE, and I don't need a 'large hard disk' (greater than 32gb), or swap file, I usually resort to SD or CF cards wtih an adapter, since they dwarf early to mid 90's hard disks, and are more reliable.

[@tomnorman5461]

Wondering why you would have a jumper on the "activity pins output" when not in use? Wouldn't that be a short and possibly damage the adapter?

[@jmoss99]

I would like to see this working on an AKAI DR16 multi-track recorder. I am looking to replace the SCSI drive as it has lots of bad sectors. Also, I looked at the source company and it looks like this board is not available anymore. It is the end of 2019. Still looking!

[@jeremytravis360]

I would like to see it work in an early Apple computer that use SCSI

[@jaimeb.384]

I have been 3 days already trying my MAC or my PC detect this board, still no luck... Did you solve yours? I bought it months ago, and didn't have time to test it until now.

[@jimmyboy131]

Wow, this brings back memories! I used to run a 2-disk 15,000 rpm SCSI array, where I would load all my games. My boot drive was a standard high capacity SATA drive. Due to the costs of new 15k drives, I always bought used ones, as well as used bus cards, and sooner or later one of them would die on me, so my "array" would end up being one 15k disk drive, which was still decently fast. I'd pour all the rest of my cash into the best bargain overclocker CPU and video card, and stable motherboard. As long as I had a case to bolt them to, I didn't care about the case. I was all about the bargains and cheap short-cuts, due to my own cash constraints at the time. I remember frying motherboards, video cards, cables, PSUs, etc. Not sure how many warranties I've voided, heh-heh. All for the sake of the hobby. **raises fist** I had forgotten about terminators, jumpers, SCSI cards, etc, etc, all the fun stuff that was involved with getting a SCSI array up and running. Lots of memories brought up here (some good, some bad; all learning experiences). Thanks!

[@philscomputerlab]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts :)

[@armorgeddon]

I really like the open source nature of this product and that they offer the configuration software for Linux. I hope I didn't miss that bit of info in the video, but I think it wasn't mentioned how the harddrive filesystem(s) look like. Configuring more virtual harddrives means it creates multiple FAT-partitions on the SD-card?

[@scsi2sd404]

Nope, there is no filesystem from the perspective of the SCSI2SD. It performs block-for-block passthrough.

[@BuildProne]

You need to check out the startech pci to pcie16x adapter.

[@opinionatorX]

I have an old 1 gig scsi drive mac formatted with the two parallel ports and channels on the back. Would I be able to copy this drive to an SD using this device from a windows laptop thru usb?

[@harris_official]

Can it be used to replace the Korg PA50 piano disc?

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Kay that's pretty cool.

[@davidecucci8004]

GOOD MORNING .... can replace the hard disk in a computer for video editing CASABLANCA MACROSYSTEM 2da. series with 50 pin scsi hard disk? Is it possible to increase the final capacity of the sd card?

[@BryonLape]

Would have liked to see it in action.

[@FartInhalerSlamPoetry]

great video

[@royc7421]

How much and where do go to get this? On Amazon seem really expensive over $200.

[@brostenen]

Not happy with the fact, that you need to use a second machine in order to configure it. I need jumpers or dipswitches as much as possible. (a thing that makes retro.... you know. "retro") other than that. Amazing video. One of the best you have made to day. Everything hangs together, and you are honest about mistakes. I have tested old platter drives, and SCSI-II drives are aprox 30% faster, compared to same era. If we look at 1987/89 era 50 pin 3200rpm drives. My 40mb Conner puts out a little under 900kb/s wich is fast for such drives. Using the same controller as you. It will go in my 286 in the future, as there is no room for an internal cdrom drive. (only bay is populated by a 1.44 floppy in a bay adaptor)

[@scsi2sd404]

While this is theoretically possible, it would significantly increase the cost of manufacturing of the device, since essentially all I/O pins on this 100 pin part are fully used.

[@lightdark28]

I can certainly vouch for SCSI drives being noisy, my 15k RPM 300gb drive is very loud, and can heat up quickly if its not sitting next to a fan. Of course, the speed is fantastic, in benchmarks it gets over 100mbps and games load extremely quickly (at least the stuff stored on the hard drive

[@valkaielod]

There were nice ones. Seagate & also Hitachi 72GB drives come to mind, all of them 10k but I think they used the newer bearings that were introduced with Barracuda IV and onwards. Old SCSI drives certainly were noisy (as in seek) and also developed the "whine". No thank you from me. I can live with the seek but not with the whine.

[@mapesdhs597]

@@valkaielod There are good 15Ks though, especially the Fujitsu MAS series, and the Seagate ST3300655LC is pretty good too. It varies greatly of course, other 15Ks can be terrible; some Hitachis do a weird regular clicking, and so on. The Fujitsu MAX is also a good 15K.

[@JUKE179r]

the SCSI2SD card works perfectly inside my AKAI MPC 3000LE and MPC2000XL samplers.

[@lardosian]

JUKE179r Is it hard to install, I have a 2000xl with a floppy drive, cheers.

[@dez5]

JUKE179r For the MCP3000 Are you able to transfer sounds back and forth with a McIntosh.

[@JUKE179r]

It's mad easy. You don't have to mess with the power cable because the SCSI2SD can be powered via the 50 pin SCSI cable.

[@JUKE179r]

Yes. And to a PC.

[@paulisthebest3uk]

i wish something like this existed for the ESDI bus of the original IBM PS/2 machines. MY IBM 55sx has been gathering dust for over 6 years, for lack of being able to find an ESDI hard drive and its also lack of ISA slots

[@scsi2sd404]

You could easily pick up an MCA SCSI card for $20-30 and then use the SCSI2SD in conjunction with it.

[@THEtechknight]

Yep, I do this with my P70, AND my Model 30 which uses ISA, but I put a SCSI card in it.

[@dennisqueentourblog]

Noooiiice Devooiicee

[@NuffMan_]

What would be best gpu for my k6-3+ @550mhz system? I have load of cards and i have tested now radeon 8500, 9250, nvidia fx5200 and voodoo 3. voodoo3 did gave me the best performance in games that support glide but radeon 9250 gave me the best scores in benchmarks but it's drivers are very bad in w98, same goes for the 8500. Voodoo also had some problems with some software and games (need to test other drivers) I also have radeon 7000 32mb which needs new capasitors but would that be old enough to have good drivers for w98 and still not be bottleneck to the cpu? Or should i upgrade to windows 2000? It works very well with the radeon 9200 drivers in my experience. What videocard do you recommend as ultimate gpu for k6-3+ windows 98 system which would not be bottleneck but also have good drivers and game support?

[@NuffMan_]

i also have nvidia mx440, geforce 4600ti (which overloads mb's voltage regulator) and radeon 7000 & 7200 but they both have weird problems with the system.. possibly driver related.

[@whiskeyjuliet]

I've recently built a similar system (K6-3+ 450 OC. to 550). I'm using a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, but I also tested it with many other cards. I settled on the Voodoo 3 for the glide compatibility which the ATI and Nvidia cards just don't offer. www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=49246 topic on vogons.

[@philscomputerlab]

V3 or TNT2 are my top picks, preferring the V3 though because of so many Glide supported games.

[@SummonerArthur]

POTATO XTREME deticated graphics

[@armorgeddon]

Clearly Voodoo3 and keep Windows 98.

[@spidermcgavenport8767]

Say since this is a scsi adaptor would it work to replace the optical drive in a Dreamcast.

[@kinkykane0607]

That's a fascinating idea. Did you give it a go in the end ?? I'm wondering when these adapters will become cheap. They are way to expensive :/

[@WaybackTECH]

I am still not totally sold on SD cards in general for retro hard drive replacement. Size is an issue because smaller SD cards are also older memory types and slower, in the case of a 256MB card I have, about the equivalent to dial up modem speed when writing, than newer and much larger cards. SCSI would solve some of the problems though. I've looked at these adapters before and they are really too expensive right now. IDE to SD adapters are about $10 which I think makes them the real winner, and much better than CF to IDE adapters, but again, write speed is a real big issue on smaller SD cards. I think the best alternative right now are these 1GB IDE SSD cards that cost about $20, or if you are looking at older 386/486 with 540MB limit, then the 512MB SSD Sata cards coupled with a cheap $10 IDE to SATA adapter is the ticket.

[@ph1losopher]

True, and you need a SCSI card, so these aren't great for older PCs. For machines that already|only have SCSI, these things are awesome because of USB configuration and because of how well they work. I'm not sure SCSI is going to perform much better than IDE without DMA anyway, but it will be interesting to see.

[@ARGON023]

Can I connect HD SCSI-1 Hard Disk Drive (DB25) or SCSI-2 Hard Drive + Adapter (DB25) -> Roland XV5080?

[@philscomputerlab]

No idea!

[@kinkykane0607]

Will these ever become cheap ?? They are so expensive on eBay UK :/ Will you ever revisit this. Perhaps with some benchmarks comparing it to IDE. perhaps on a more modern Pentium 3 system :D Grate video Phil keep them coming :)

[@philscomputerlab]

That's why PC Retro Gaming is easier, it is all IDE with cheap adapters for Compact Flash or SD cards.

[@BilalHeuser1]

Would this adapter work with a Mac Classic? I know that Apple tended to use SCSI drives in many of their computers.

[@philscomputerlab]

I specialise on the PC. Best to check out the website links in the description for further info.

[@THEtechknight]

Yes, I have several.

[@NightSprinter]

Hmm, this looks like something I could use for my Atari SH-204. Thing still has its original 20MB MFF drive, but has an SCSI1-to-MFF/RLL adapter board and cables as well. So this has me interested.

[@scsi2sd404]

It should work fine. Give it a try, and if it doesn't, I'll accept a return, less shipping charges.

[@tschooptschoop]

NightSprinter Did it work? i'm looking for a harddisk option for my ST, still on floppy only. :D

[@droses1600]

Can this be powered via its USB socket? (I mean during normal use, not during the set up phase.) My keyboard (Roland W30) does not have enough power on the SCSI bus, and I would prefer not to have the extra expense of a PSU wall wart. Thx.

[@JUKE179r]

No. It cannot be powered by the USB port. Only from the 5VDC (not 12VDC!!! you'll burn it up!!!) or buss powered by the SCSI cable.

[@droses1600]

@@JUKE179r I think you're wrong actually. Since I wrote that question, I checked with Michael McMaster (the author of the SCSI2SD Wiki www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index.php/SCSI2SD) and he confirmed it can work like that (5V only, mimimum rating 500mA). But you're right about not using 12V via the Molex, that will fry the chip.

[@cocusar]

I have a question about the speeds and seek times. You said you got around 1MB/s in sequential reads. How does this compares to a SSD (or even a mechanical sata3 drive) with a SATA-to-IDE converter? Because it's kinda expensive to just get 1MB/s. Of course you should add the price of the controller (which should be a good one), the cable and the SD card. Maybe the ease of moving files could be the key, but anyways..

[@philscomputerlab]

The SD to IDE adapters do have a higher transfer rate, but you have the same limitations of IDE vs SCSI which are the size limitations of 500 MB on most older machines and limited to 2 drives per channel. I see this product of great use for those who already use SCSI, but are looking for a modern replacement drive. They likely have other accessories like CD-ROM and ZIP drives.

[@luckybob77]

The limitation is the cpu on the adapter. basically identical to SSDs of today. If you want faster scsi (to ide or sata) storage, you are going to need to look for acard products and they are $250+. This adapter is for people who have very old scsi based systems. such as ibm ps/2 and 68k macintosh and others of the time. It makes little sense to add scsi to a system and use this adapter, when ide is so much cheaper.

[@philscomputerlab]

Does the retro PC hobby make any sense? I have seen many retro builds using SCSI. Some people just want to have a SCSI system and use their existing gear. So this is a great alternative.

[@luckybob77]

I just felt like pointing out the cost/benefit to these things. A new hdd on a ide adpater will blow this out of the water in terms of cost and performance. However on systems where its scsi only, this thing is a life saver as people will charge a kings ransom for tested working scsi drives

[@cocusar]

Indeed. I think where SCSI is the only interface this would be a thing. Some macintoshes (specially the laptops, where you don't have space to fit a scsi to ide converter) may be the niche market. And I agree that it's a good product, but might not be a up to specs for the PC users, even to those who already have SCSI.

[@vetzRetro]

The problem with SCSI and SD cards for a retro machine is that the CPU on the controllers can't keep up. The overhead is larger than on VLB/PCI IDE controllers with SD cards. From my testing with a modern 15k RPM SCSI drive (connected to a Adaptec VLB controller with 50pin SCSI-2) vs a modern 7.2k RPM SATA drive (with SATA to IDE adapter on a Adaptec EIDE VLB controller), the SATA drive won when tested in a quick 486 in multiple benchmarks, even the ones which took into account the CPU usage. The situation might be different if the SCSI drive was on a PCI Fast-Wide, Ultra or Ultra2 (20 or 40mb/sec) controller (No Fast-Wide SCSI 20mb/sec sync transfer VLB controller exist AFAIK). If you're using period accurate drives then its another ballgame and SCSI wins.

[@philscomputerlab]

Great info. Is it possible that IDE evolved faster back in those days and managed to out-do SCSI when it came to a fast 486?

[@vetzRetro]

No, the problem lies in the embedded CPUs on the SCSI controllers, the larger overhead on the SCSI interface and the 10mb/s transfer limit on FAST SCSI-2. IDE on VLB don't have this transfer limit, but will go as quick as the drive/CPU and VLB bus allows. When the drive gets fast enough, its quicker to use the main 486 CPU for transfer than the embedded 186/286 on the SCSI controller. The added disk performance outweighs the extra load on the 486. We're typically talking scenarios when you're loading files, programs or saving, where disk performance is normally the bottle neck.

[@philscomputerlab]

RetroCompaqGuy The Adaptec 1542CF is indeed only rated up to 10 MB/s. Might be interesting comparing storage solutions on a 386.

[@vetzRetro]

Yes, on 386 with only ISA or on a 486/Pentium PCI based machine the game might be completely different. I've only looked more deeply into the VLB end where you can also find controllers with RAM cache (cache adds performance on older drives, but not with modern disk solutions). On PCI you can for instance use much more modern SCSI controllers.

[@vetzRetro]

If you want to go into 386/486 ISA storage options old vs new, then that would make for an awesome video! ISA have a buslimit of 8mb/s so the SCSI interface limit of 10mb/sec should not be an issue.

[@renaryugu9120]

good vid. intressting item, whould be something to think about if i get a old pc one day hahahah. but i wonder, seens you moved and upgraded the channel like all people do. i feel you sound have get worse. i dont mean that you sound bad or anything its ok. i just heard the echo for it seem you get like nothing in the room. dont know if you know about it or dont think about. its not a huge deal just alittle its mostly in you newer videos maybe like 3-4 months back or soemthing. thanks if you fix it. otherwise keep a good work, learn alot about diffrent thing:)

[@TSteffi]

Hey Phil, i am collecting CPU's and i wonder if you would be interested in borrowing one or more for benchmarking. The possibly interesting ones would be: AMD Am486 DX2-80 AMD Am486 DX2-40 AMD K5 PR133 AMD K6-2 450 AFX AMD K6-2 300 AFR intel Pentium A80502-75 intel Pentium A80502-133 intel Pentium 3 450/512/100/2.0V Slot 1 intel Pentium 3 700/256/100/1.65V Slot 1 Cyrix 5x86 100 GP If you are interested, just let me know. Keep up the good work, like your channel :)

[@philscomputerlab]

I happily accept donations, but borrowing involves too much hassle.

[@ChrisNova777]

anyone ever heard of like a 3d printed CASE to house this unit? to actually use it as an external scsi drive?

[@interlace84]

Hmmm... 1MB/s sequential is kind of off-putting tbh, real scsi drives can get to or above 50MB/s. I wonder how fast windows boot times are on this. Did you ever hear back from the creator?

[@baglyo]

Did u say SCSI? Btw nice channel and nice video ^-^

[@philscomputerlab]

Scasi?

[@RetroPCUser]

Is it a good idea to use that in a Pentium MMX machine as well, as long as it's IDE and not PCI since finding drivers are somewhat hard, and they must be installed after Windows is installed or use Clonezilla to clone the main HDD to the SD card and smoke test it to see how it works.

[@Dxceor2486]

Adaptec cards are vastly supported ! Even DOS supports them

[@brostenen]

WinVistaUser2 Use a floppy based Win98/Ms-Dos-6.22 bootdisk, and you can install it. Absolutely no reason to install an entire operating system on a retro computer.

[@RetroPCUser]

I put ISA and it autocorrected on me.

[@anikilando]

Where can I buy that card? If it were in Spain better. Greetings.

[@RobertSmith-yz1mq]

Question... I am using the SCSI2SD as a replacement HD and it works great. Decided to try it as a replacement floppy, while this has been somewhat successful, I have run into an issue. Once booted up, I can remove and reinsert the micro sd card used in the "floppy drive" without a problem. Where I run into an issue, is if I boot my system without the sd card inserted into the drive, the system does not see it as a drive, then once booted up if I insert the sd card into the drive and try to read it, the system still does not see it. Has anyone tried this, seen a work around, or is there just a config that I am missing? Thanks.

[@philscomputerlab]

I actually never tried the FDD function and it's been a while since I initially used it. I use the GOTEK Floppy Emulator pretty much exclusively.

[@xav500011]

This could be useful for beige box Apple Powermacs. But it is insanity to mess about with those infernal computers as if they was a PC.

[@padlockbeats151]

i use a bunch of similar products for my akai mpc dope

[@keepitphatt9674]

Can u help me plz i need to replace my zip drive in my 2kxl what do u suggest me

[@victordeoliveiramelo]

is it compatible with hot swapple SCSI card? Could I swap SD cards with the PC on?

[@philscomputerlab]

No you can't.

[@luckybob77]

Scsi does have a 1gb barrier. in a lot of adapters, notably the one you mentioned, it is easily fixed by a firmware upgrade.

[@philscomputerlab]

Depends on the model. The 1542CF supports 2 GB out of the box. But the 1542B required both EPROM chips to be upgraded. I know this, because I did exactly that last week :) Worked quite well. The 1542B is configured through jumpers and locked address, whereas the 1542CF can be configured through the built-in BIOS and address can be configured through DIP switches.

[@brostenen]

PhilsComputerLab I did have problems with 9gb IBM drives on my controller, when connected to the external port. I needed to partition my drives, using the EZ suite. It has a barrier of 2gb on eksternal drives.

[@philscomputerlab]

brostenen Yea best to always check the specifications. The 1542CF also has a 2 GB limit, but it's quite an old controller. Now the SD2SCSI does support up to 4 devices, so you can create four 2 GB drives, which is pretty neat and works well with DOS 6.22.

[@scsi2sd404]

SCSI itself does not have a 1GB barrier, though many, many older partition types, filesystems, and SCSI controllers *do* have size limitations, which were considered to be practical at the time. That said, I have personally tested the SCSI2SD v5 with microSD cards up to 200GB (the tested 200GB card was a SanDisk) in size, and it works perfectly.

[@brostenen]

SCSI2SD That's strange... On some of my controllers, I can set a: "1gb < 1gb" option.

[@acdbrn2000]

I have an old Dell C640 (Pentium 4m, Radeon 7500 32Mb, 512MB ram) laptop that the 40GB IDE drive died in. I was thinking of making it a retro gaming platform just to give this amazing little bulletproof machine a second life. Which OS would be best to use? (98, XP, ?) Should I hunt for an IDE hard drive or are the IDS to SD drives a viable option (maybe a better option)?

[@Daniel-dl3tf]

Get an SD to IDE adapter, and install Windows 2000 on it.

[@armorgeddon]

P4m with Radeon 7500 would best fit to Windows 98, Me and XP.

[@acdbrn2000]

Yea, it was an XP machine up until the hard drive died on me. I was just curious if there was an advantage to running 98, ME, 2000, or XP if I was going to run some classic PC games?

[@armorgeddon]

That totally depends on the games that you want to run.

[@acdbrn2000]

Mainly late dos games through 90's win games. Master of Orion series Fallout Series That era of gaming.

[@ryanwakebradtelle8682]

I wonder how viable a version of this card of a 10 gigabyte flash on it would be

[@ryanwakebradtelle8682]

I guess if an SD cards included a 4 gigabyte SD card would be practically free if you bought it in both of more than a thousand

[@victorbart]

Not sure if I like the jumperless config. But the advanced options are cool :)

[@philscomputerlab]

Really? I much prefer software configuration :)

[@victorbart]

I like to pull of a jumper to set a different ID. Instead of connecting it start the software etc. But I'm oldskool

[@wich1]

victorbart moreover, how long will that configuration software be supported? 5 or 10 years down the line that might lead to a rather hard to use converter. Pretty cool device otherwise though.

[@brostenen]

wich Then the computer might have died from old age and be beyond repair. ;-) If not, then you can still use the software as it does not automatically stop working when support is ended.

[@scsi2sd404]

It's all open source (the client software and the microcontroller code) so this is far from a major risk factor. There are thousands of SCSI2SD adapters in the wild at this point.

[@ThrakaAndy]

When you configure multiple "drives" on a single card, how does that appear in windows when you plug the card in? Windows hates multipartitions on sd cards.

[@scsi2sd404]

Windows (and any other OS for that matter) will see only the first "partition", if that. The SCSI2SD itself does not create partitions on the microSD card, but rather it performs straight sector-for-sector pass through. It is ignorant of any and all filesystems as a result of this design decision. When you configure your SCSI2SD to have multiple SCSI devices/ID's, each device has their own range of sectors on the SCSI2SD card.

[@RoyMaya]

Over scsi it will show you all the drives, but if you directly insert the SD card into your computer then you can only see the first drive. The V6 Scsi2sd board does address this issue.

[@WR3ND]

Yeah, one of the good things about this sort of controller/converter would be that the OS just sees whatever is presented on the SCSI side of things, I would imagine.

[@balthron]

This could have been interesting to use in my junk SparStation 5 I have stored around here, but the compatibility list states that only SparcStation 2 is supported... Well, might be nice if try to refurbish an Amiga 4000 someday...

[@nilswegner2881]

Gil Verthaim but the amiga 4000 uses ide... you would need an accelerator with a scsi controller like the cyberscsi

[@balthron]

dam.. I knew that but forgot. zorro 3 expansion card are almost non existent for purchase those days :S

[@nilswegner2881]

Gil Verthaim yeah, seems like no one wants to give his/her zorro cards away by today :-(

[@Rolatnor]

Would one of these work in an old Packard Bell Pentium 1 desktop PC?

[@philscomputerlab]

It would, but I would just use IDE devices!

[@Rolatnor]

@@philscomputerlab i have an ide to sd and its not detecting it

[@romanrm1]

IDE to SD are way cheaper (around $7 from China), getting the SCSI one can only be worth it if you have a specific computer which only supports SCSI and there isn't any way to add IDE.

[@tweakpc]

Problem is that CF cards are also old, very slow and new CFs don't work that way anymore, since they use a different protocol SD cards are very easy and cheap to replace in 1-8GB region.

[@Geopholus]

Yes that is what I am trying to do, Does this one work? I haven't found any specifics about using an SSD card with a Mac IIsi, via SCSI port.

[@mutechpak5089]

2:38 I used to play this game back in 1996, i think the name of the game was God.

[@KuntalGhosh]

Victor bart... Skushi!!

[@awesomefacepalm]

I had an old ca 3000 RPM scsi drive It was crazy loud, but also broken since it failed to read some times But I got a replacement HDD from ebay which is more quieter. But if that one breaks I will replace it with this a SCSI2SD,

[@spidermcgavenport8767]

Any chance of a pata version for old laptop usage.

[@THEtechknight]

with IDE/PATA, you can use a simple IDE to CF card adaptor, since CF cards support IDE natively, and are still sold.

[@Rolatnor]

There are 2.5 inch ide / pata ssd's but they run higher than sata ssd's

[@sbrazenor2]

Do you think that this would work with legacy Apple computers?

[@philscomputerlab]

I only tested for the PC, but there are lots of other devices that have been tested: www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=SCSI2SD

[@sbrazenor2]

I'll have to do some research. I know a lot of those old drives can get a little buggy and if I can keep them from being used too much, that would be ideal. I have a bunch of old Macs from the "Beige Age", as I call it. It's obviously a good idea to still spin them up occasionally to prevent stiction, but I don't want to kill a drive that can be saved by just using a solid state option. Thanks for the quick reply. I really enjoy your videos. :)

[@philscomputerlab]

Have a look here: www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=SCSI2SD#Compatibility

[@scsi2sd404]

These DEFINITELY work in essentially all legacy macs, and in fact, these were the first machines to be tested while the SCSI2SD was in development. Visit our store today at store.inertialcomputing.com

[@ph1losopher]

I use one in my SE/30 and LC475, and they work perfectly.

[@rhuwyn]

They need to come out with an MSATA to SCSI adapter now that SSD prices are coming down so much

[@philscomputerlab]

To be honest, IDE all the way! I can see the need for SCSI on Amiga or Mac or something like that, but on the PC there are so many options with IDE.

[@rhuwyn]

@@philscomputerlab Completely agree the IDE adapter options are plentyfull and cheap. But like you said, the reason why this product exists is that some older systems only have SCSI. It's just so expensive.

[@philscomputerlab]

@@rhuwyn Fair enough!

[@edgarfranco6448]

I'm looking for a card like that but with compact flash memory, someone can help me

[@miketel01]

I am also looking for this device as well. Were you able to find a suitable SCSI2Compact Flash device?

[@JUKE179r]

Look for the Microtech PCD series SCSI card readers. They run from $200 and up! The SCSI2SD card is an excellent option.

[@corty1980]

Running Gods which was originally an Amiga game and a much better computer than the PC. Pity about the idiots that ran the company, if it wasn't for them commodore could have still been around today. SCSI really was used more commonly on the Amiga and Apple computers, more than PC.

[@MrJay_White]

whats the application of this tech these days, if any?

[@THEtechknight]

Vintage computing, and even the more popular musical equipment/samplers all used SCSI. If I were to stare at a pie chart, I would say that the music industry has the vast majority of these in the wild.

[@mr.iot-tech278]

Is anyone know sata DVDrom emulator device that i can simple put sd card with ISO and emulate dvdrom ?

[@philscomputerlab]

No such thing exists yet AFAIK.

[@mr.iot-tech278]

I found some usb external dvd-rom emulators but wonder is sata one exists.Thx for your replay

[@chillinfartdotcc]

If it works with Power Macintosh is a deal

[@bram9498]

expensive cards! :( around 100 dollar...maybe some cheap versions available?

[@silkroadesp]

What's the name of the game at 2:25? Thx!

[@philscomputerlab]

That's Gods.

[@idrissmonsif1729]

Je veut I acheter mais ou?

[@zerodegrees8]

That's an inane price. I bought an sd to ide from china for $8 shipped to my house and windows 95 and 98 boot in a few seconds.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yea IDE to CF or IDE to SD are much cheaper. But that doesn't help someone with an old machine that uses SCSI :)

[@devinsmith4151]

That is allot of jumpers on the SCSI, I thought IDE was nasty enough.

[@brostenen]

Devin Smith Not enough jumpers if you ask me. :-)

[@netautorisationnetautorisa545]

*NO IT IS "EASY" ...EVERYTHING IS ON THE "HD" ..ABOUT THE "JUMPERS" SUPER EASY*

[@modemfox]

I was hoping you were going to show it plugged in and functioning... I don't like reviews where you never see the item used.

[@philscomputerlab]

I explained that part :D

[@philscomputerlab]

vortex222 Yea basically >

[@Yrouel86]

I was looking at the v5 and the v6 for my macs aswell and it seems the v6 is kinda overkill considering also its price. Also the v5 has the standard molex power connector while the v6 would require an adapter.

[@scsi2sd404]

The V6 costs more to manufacture (larger PCB size, more complex Bill of Materials), and has not yet been manufactured in the volumes the V5 has. This has a very real impact on the price per unit.

[@muchosa1]

$60! Yikes!

[@scsi2sd404]

Compared to what? IDE? Tested-and-warrantied, used legacy SCSI hard drives often sell for significantly more. Then, there's the ability to swap microSD cards (even hotplug, if your OS supports it), not to mention emulate multiple device types, including CD-ROM. You can set up a SCSI2SD to expose itself as one large hard disk, or a smaller disk and multiple (up to 4 SCSI ID's, total) CD-ROM drives. And, since the code is all open, anyone can improve upon it and contribute fixes if they're so inclined.

[@philscomputerlab]

Some of the older SCSI drives can cost a lot as well. Remember you can configure up to 4 devices. So you need to imagine a SCSI configuration with 4 hard drives. And you can use several SD cards also.

[@GGigabiteM]

If you complain about $60, you weren't around back in the day when SCSI drives were still relevant in the market. In 1994, *just* the SCSI controller (like an Adaptec AHA2940) was $400. A 2.1 GB SCSI drive was an additional $1489, and if you needed a SCSI CD-ROM, that was an additional $279. I had a Super Micro P6DBE with two PIII-550s back in the late 90s that was all SCSI. The SCSI setup alone was half the cost of the system.

[@raydeen2k]

$60 is a bargain! I've been looking for something like this for my old classic Mac computers, and believe me, if this product was still available (webpage is down) I probably would have snapped this sucker up right now.

[@GAIUSJAKE]

@@raydeen2k yup, go for over a hundred dollars now.

[@danielson9579]

386 with a scsi thats not really a good match up if you could afford scsi back in the day you normally wouldent be using a 386

[@philscomputerlab]

For this type of SCSI, it is a great match for a 386. With faster machines, just use IDE, it wipes the floor with what you're getting out of this adapter.

[@alynicholls3230]

i dont understand why they used a female plug for the interface?, surely a male would have been better, then instead of a cable you could just plug it directly into the isa/pci card. a right angle male plug would have been the dogs bollocks.

[@fila1445]

unrelated comnent incoming you sound like Tuningfork from MCM

[@Wil3vlbc9gvk604]

They are australians.

[@fila1445]

I think Phil migrated from another country

[@nilswegner2881]

fila1445 yes he seems to be german, like i am

[@ferdinandoportel]

I need to agree with some colleagues who don't understand what the purpose of this review. you did not use the product any time in the displayed system, and instead it, has permanently damaged it. And even recommended your purchase without knowing the actual performance compared to a product that costs a tenth of its price

[@BladeRunner21577]

You cant power a SCSI device over its 50 pin IDC connector it is for data only. The power sent on the cable is for active terminator power. Power over the data cable was something that came in with the 80 pin connector. There are adapters that can turn a HDDs 80 pin connector (SCA-2 is its propper name) 50 or 68 pin connector so you can buy the enterprise class HDDs and use them on desktop cards, however the 80 pin disks were always fitted to servers with backplanes that the drives slotted into usually via a caddy. There would be no point going from 50 pin to 80 pin via an adapter due to the places you usually found the 80 pin connectors. The access time of 1MB/s is pretty shocking even for 8 bit Single Ended SCSI, they were never that slow, the first version of SCSI was up to 5MB/s. Most SD cards these days can sustain 10MB/s... Did you use a slow SD card or is it a fault of part of the SCSI setup you were using? The card should allow upto 10Mb/s, the 16bit bus upto 15MB/s. Taking IO over heads into account, such as the fact its using the ISA bus a speed of 7MB/s shouldnt be a problem if the card is capable of it of course, so why such a slow transfer rate from this adapter? Even using just asynchronous mode of SCSI-2 it should be faster than 1MB/s ;) $69.99 or $56.24 + shipping seems very expensive to me for what it is, a resolution to the CDROM emulation is needed for me to consider buying one. I wait for an update on it.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes, it can use the terminator power to power the board. At least that's what I took from the documentation. I tested a 500 MB SCSI drive, and the SD2SCSI was faster than that drive in terms of sequential speed, and much, much faster in terms of random access. I actually got a 10 GB SCSI drive with 80 pin, and an adapter to 50. But I didn't have those little jumpers to configure the drive. Might be interesting doing a roundup on storage solutions for a 386, comparing the speeds.

[@BladeRunner21577]

Im not sure I would like the idea of using the SCSI bus to supply power to both this and the terminator if this isnt being used as the bus terminator. I would be interested to see the speeds you get out of some of the later SCSI-2 drives, I dont remember them being so slow... However having said that I dont suppose it matters really as most people will be loading up DOS games with it, and then 1MB/s would be more than fast enough. You can buy jumper blocks off ebay, I know the 80 to 50 pin adapters need you to set the SCSI ID on them, the 80pin disks had it built into the drive. I had some of them adapters a long time ago, I remember them being quite simple, just set the IDs and you were ready to RAID them all together.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes I got the manual, and I know what jumper to set. But they are like micro jumpers or something like that :) I will look on eBay.

[@BladeRunner21577]

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Lot-Of-50-Mini-2-54MM-And-Micro-2-00MM-Jumper-Combo-/130373285116?hash=item1e5ada74fc:m:mw7RjUSK9ovp_zSl3xxICpw

[@BladeRunner21577]

That auction has a set of both jumper block sizes.

[@GAIUSJAKE]

$100+? Is this a joke?