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VLB SCSI card worth it?

BTW: I swear by Adaptec products. Absolutely the best SCSI controllers.

Why all the love for Adaptec? Aren't they like they Creative Labs of SCSI cards?

To be fair, just about all the SCSI cards I use are Adaptec models...but I have been told for years that Bus Logic cards are infact superior. I think the Compaq cards are pretty good too, but those are mostly for EISA.
 
Why all the love for Adaptec? Aren't they like they Creative Labs of SCSI cards?

They are solid, well-supported cards. Lots of them were used in production environments so they're still fairly available. Might not have been the absolute fastest thing available for their era, but not the slowest either.
 
I was doing some reading over at vogons and I came across someone using a vlb video card and vlb SCSI card causing issues with resources and busmasterung. I'm not completly sure what that's all about but I do run a vlb video card. Should I go for an Isa SCSI card if I'm already using a vlb video card or should I be fine?
 
VLB was initially designed as a buss standard for improved video performance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_Local_Bus

I don't know about any conflicts between VLB cards.
If I had to choose which adapter was the most important, I would say video. Many motherboards that had VLB also had EISA slots. If yours has that, then I would choose an EISA SCSI card. I have two 486 MOBO's with only 1 VLB slot and several EISA, so that was my choice.
 
As far as I can tell my board has 2 vlb and the rest are 16 bit Isa. I'm going off the assumption they are 16 bit Isa because they are black and not brown. I don't think I've ever seen a eisa slot before.
 
VLB was pretty much restricted to 486 class machines, although it did appear on some early P1 systems as well. EISA, while an improvement technically, was eclipsed by PCI making its appearance in 1993, so the EISA window is pretty small--there were a few 486 boards with PCI as well.

So you can have a 486 board with just ISA, ISA and VLB, EISA and VLB, and ISA and PCI. I don't know if any VLB+PCI+ISA or VLB+EISA+PCI boards were marketed.

What a mess! All over MCA licensing and royalty, pretty much.
 
The plastic slot color should be different for EISA but the EISA slot will also have little bumps in the middle of the slot to keep ISA cards on the upper (ISA) bank of connectors without falling into contact with the lower bank of connectors.

VLB did sometimes have problems with multiple cards installed at the same time. This varies depending on model of cards and motherboard involved. While I can find some references to the problems, I can't find any detailed list of them or combinations that work correctly together or suggested changes that reduce issues. I know magazine articles covering that existed during VLB's heyday but didn't get web published.
 
I'm guessing SCSI over a 16 bit Isa card is still faster then the onboard IDE. Or at least the dame speed but with the option of more then 2 devices.
 
So you can have a 486 board with just ISA, ISA and VLB, EISA and VLB, and ISA and PCI. I don't know if any VLB+PCI+ISA or VLB+EISA+PCI boards were marketed.

The VLB+PCI+ISA were available, they were referred to as VIP boards.
 
In my opinion VIP boards were more common than the ISA/PCI variety.
VIP pretty much stinks though. The early VIPs had the PCI bridged off the VLB, so your PCI performance was gimped. On the later VIP boards the VLB was bridged off PCI, so your VLB performance was gimped.
 
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