Dean,

SCSI cards come with several flavors.  The proprietory cards that
are sold with scanners only support, (as a rule), an external device
attaching to the card, such as a scanner.  I have been told that
you can add additional external devices in a chain with these
cards, although I have not tried it.

Adaptec cards are not nearly as expensive as you have stated,
at least not for the last year.   You can get a their 2940UW or
their best card for around $180 in an OEM package.   This card
supports standard SCSI, Ultra SCSI and Ultra-Wide SCSI...
and has an external port.   The price ranges down from there.

You really should have a need for a SCSI card to invest in one.
I have one in my server for my scanner and my CD writer.  But,
none of my other systems have one as we have no other SCSI
devices such as hard drives that require it.

SCSI cards are fairly much the same once you have them setup
properly, at least when it comes to speed.   They move data at
a given industry standard for speed.  My card happens to be
a Western Digital card, (although WD sold out their SCSI division
to Adaptec last year).  It was a lot tougher to configure than an
Adaptec, (that is a big issue with SCSI cards).  I have installed
a few Adaptec cards and they are extremely easy to install...
and configure...    that is the big issue.

    Bob


At 11:12 AM 3/13/98 -0600, Dean wrote:
>
>I have always toyed with the idea of adding SCSI disk drives, but never
>had because they were too expensive, and I would have had to buy
>a SCSI host adapter.  The SCSI host adapter that I always looked at
>was one from Adaptec (and recommended by very knowledgeable
>colleagues), but cost about $300.  Then, new hardware started coming
>out that contained in the package a SCSI card to run that hardware (such
>as the stuff mentioned above).  However, Adaptec cards remained on
>the market and did not seem to come down in price.  (Last time I looked,
>anyway.)
>
>Now, with the faster IDE drives, going to SCSI is less likely, but I still
>think about purchasing stuff like a scanner or other things that use a
>SCSI interface.  If so, I would like to get decent equipment that was
>flexible and worked well.  (I think this kind of thought might be reflected
>by many pcbuilders.)
>
>So my question becomes, what is the difference between these SCSI
>cards???  Some cost $300 while others come almost free with hardware.
>Are some faster or have other qualities that are desirable over others?
>Mary, above, cites some interesting things, such as an internal connection.
>
>Perhaps if those knowledgeable on the topic would email their replies to
>me, personally, I could summarize them for the list in a later posting.
>
>Dean Kukral
>Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics
>Wichita State University
>[log in to unmask]
>
>