I use the Tekram DC-310u Fast SCSI adapter. Good driver support.

Intel486dx33 wrote:

I use the Tekram DC-310u Fast SCSI adapter. Good driver support.

Wow! Does it support bus mastering?

Too bad you can't use solid state memories with SCSI controllers, so you're stuck with HDDs.

Unless you want to pass through the curse of the shamefully hyper-expensive Acard SCSI to IDE bridges.

I've got the 690CD, which was probably the best of all. Three IDE channels (one dedicated for CD-ROM drives), RAID 0, 1, and 10 support, and on-board cache up to 16 MB. And it does bus mastering too, of course.

derSammler wrote:

I've got the 690CD, which was probably the best of all. Three IDE channels (one dedicated for CD-ROM drives), RAID 0, 1, and 10 support, and on-board cache up to 16 MB. And it does bus mastering too, of course.

Wow man! A caching controller!!!!! (and with all those other specs). That would have been the DREAM of any MS-DOSser at those times!!!! Yes, yours is definitely better!

What about a Promise SuperTrak100 ?

ATA-100 RAID with up to 6x drives and up to 128MB cache.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/788/9

There are a couple on eBay for sale for cheap right now. (not me or anybody I know... just came across them when trying to look up the model number)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Promise-Supertrak100 … 60/401484424666

I would buy one, but I only use IDE when I have to since PCI SATA controllers are easy to get and the ones I use have drivers for Win9x. I really only use SSDs unless I have no other choice.. and then I use CF cards if possible.

EDIT:
Promise also made a newer controller that took SD-RAM - up to 256MB I believe. Fasttrak SX4000 (4-port) and Fasttrak SX6000 (6-port).

There was also an LSI based one that had 16MB built in and used the MegaRaid i4 chipset. Dell part # 9K646

aries-mu wrote:

Tekram Master 290: in my opinion, the best EIDE-age (up to PIO Mode 4, when first EIDE HDDs were released, like the 730 MB and 1080 MB ones, first migration from 486 to Pentiums) PCI controller, BUS Master supporting. Not to be confused with the Tekram DC290N, limited to PIO Mode 3 and non-Bus master.

Any other opinion on what was the best controller of this type?

There's one on ebay right now for $28.99.

stamasd wrote:

aries-mu wrote:

Tekram Master 290: in my opinion, the best EIDE-age (up to PIO Mode 4, when first EIDE HDDs were released, like the 730 MB and 1080 MB ones, first migration from 486 to Pentiums) PCI controller, BUS Master supporting. Not to be confused with the Tekram DC290N, limited to PIO Mode 3 and non-Bus master.

Any other opinion on what was the best controller of this type?

There's one on ebay right now for $28.99.

Thanks so much for trying my friend, unfort. that's the DC290N (no bus mastering and only PIO MODE 3).

cyclone3d wrote:

What about a Promise SuperTrak100 ?

ATA-100 RAID with up to 6x drives and up to 128MB cache.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/788/9

😳 😳 😳 😳 😳 😳 😳 😅 DROOOOLING!!!!

cyclone3d wrote:

There are a couple on eBay for sale for cheap right now. (not me or anybody I know... just came across them when trying to look up the model number)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Promise-Supertrak100 … 60/401484424666

Oh man!!!!! 😲 😲 😲 😲

cyclone3d wrote:

EDIT:
Promise also made a newer controller that took SD-RAM - up to 256MB I believe. Fasttrak SX4000 (4-port) and Fasttrak SX6000 (6-port).

Re-DROOOOOLING!!!

Oh sure of course I mean to use CF cards. Why? Is there any issue with CF cards on those nice controller-beasts?

@stamasd...

I answered above.

Addition: I'm having issues ascertaining that those beautiful beasts (SuperTrack 100 Pro and FastTrack SX4000) will work and have drivers under MS-DOS 6.22 + Windows 3.11

Any clue anybody?

Thanks!

The SuperTrak 100 needs Windows NT 4.0 or 2000 for configuration/maintenance of the RAID array, but the manual says the drives/arrays are accessible under DOS.
http://firstweb.promise.com/upload/support/in … ual_English.PDF

Unsure if the SX4000/SX6000 will work in DOS or not.. but you can create RAID arrays via the onboard BIOS so I imagine it should work.
https://www.promise.com/media_bank/Download%2 … anual%20v3a.pdf

And of course Promise has all the manuals and drivers available (except for the SX6000 ?)still available at:
https://www.promise.com/Support/downloadcenter

Also, CF cards should work fine.

cyclone3d wrote:

The SuperTrak 100 needs Windows NT 4.0 or 2000 for configuration/maintenance of the RAID array, but the manual says the drives/a […]
Show full quote

The SuperTrak 100 needs Windows NT 4.0 or 2000 for configuration/maintenance of the RAID array, but the manual says the drives/arrays are accessible under DOS.
http://firstweb.promise.com/upload/support/in … ual_English.PDF

Unsure if the SX4000/SX6000 will work in DOS or not.. but you can create RAID arrays via the onboard BIOS so I imagine it should work.
https://www.promise.com/media_bank/Download%2 … anual%20v3a.pdf

And of course Promise has all the manuals and drivers available (except for the SX6000 ?)still available at:
https://www.promise.com/Support/downloadcenter

Also, CF cards should work fine.

Thanks so much.

Yes, I saw those downloads on Promise website.
But I wonder:

Does Windows for Workgroup 3.11 need a driver too?
Also, do I have to necessarily build a RAID array? Couldn't I simply use 1 drive (CF card)?

Even if you only have a single drive, it will still create an array so you can use the drive.

If you can read the drive in DOS, then it should work without a driver in Windows 3.x and 9x.

cyclone3d wrote:

Even if you only have a single drive, it will still create an array so you can use the drive.

If you can read the drive in DOS, then it should work without a driver in Windows 3.x and 9x.

Fantastic, thanks!

aries-mu wrote:

Wow man! A caching controller!!!!! (and with all those other specs). That would have been the DREAM of any MS-DOSser at those times!!!! Yes, yours is definitely better!

Why? MS-DOS had no utility for shutdown (unless your card had one). Unless you configure your cache to read-only or your cache is battery backed up , you're risking to lose valuable data every time you shut down your computer.

Also, they're of limited use for gamers... games don't read data so often (or they shouldn't) so it may be overkill.

Zup wrote:

aries-mu wrote:

Wow man! A caching controller!!!!! (and with all those other specs). That would have been the DREAM of any MS-DOSser at those times!!!! Yes, yours is definitely better!

Why? MS-DOS had no utility for shutdown (unless your card had one). Unless you configure your cache to read-only or your cache is battery backed up , you're risking to lose valuable data every time you shut down your computer.

Good point!!! Oh no no, I want cache in write mode too!!!! 😁
I wonder if the utilities/drivers have a little file one can run to write the cache on the disk before shutting down the pc!

About the overkill for games: oh but I used not only games at DOS times. I used EVERYTHING I could put my hands on! (I remember, the only software I let go was Autocad.... you know I was just a mid-school and then high-school kid... now I understand why I let Autocad go 🤣!)

aries-mu wrote:

Does Windows for Workgroup 3.11 need a driver too?

Not for basic access and usage. Its built-in BIOS INT13H support should be enough for that.
Driver only is required for performance in 386 mode. Win3x Fastdisk 386 drivers are 32bit vxds which don't use BIOS/DOS but talks with the controller directly. That means no need to switch to v86 mode to read and write to the adapter using the ROM Adapter/DOS routines, and usage of all the features of the VMM VCACHE 32bit windows cache. Full VCACHE means DOS boxes are pageable to disk, as the VMM doesn't need to keep track between dos box data and the bios/dos int13h structures, which means you can open more DOS boxes, or you get more memory for windows apps while having DOS boxes opened at same time.

Unfortunately, not even all older adapters had a FastDisk driver. Newer PCI stuff generally doesn't offer such option, except maybe some Adaptec and LSI/Mylex stuff. If you need such performance in 386 windows 3 mode, you need check FastDisk drivers availability on each card option.

hyoenmadan wrote:

Not for basic access and usage. Its built-in BIOS INT13H support should be enough for that. Driver only is required for performa […]
Show full quote

aries-mu wrote:

Does Windows for Workgroup 3.11 need a driver too?

Not for basic access and usage. Its built-in BIOS INT13H support should be enough for that.
Driver only is required for performance in 386 mode. Win3x Fastdisk 386 drivers are 32bit vxds which don't use BIOS/DOS but talks with the controller directly. That means no need to switch to v86 mode to read and write to the adapter using the ROM Adapter/DOS routines, and usage of all the features of the VMM VCACHE 32bit windows cache. Full VCACHE means DOS boxes are pageable to disk, as the VMM doesn't need to keep track between dos box data and the bios/dos int13h structures, which means you can open more DOS boxes, or you get more memory for windows apps while having DOS boxes opened at same time.

Unfortunately, not even all older adapters had a FastDisk driver. Newer PCI stuff generally doesn't offer such option, except maybe some Adaptec and LSI/Mylex stuff. If you need such performance in 386 windows 3 mode, you need check FastDisk drivers availability on each card option.

WOW! This is something!!! Thanks so much my friend!!! Saving this info.
Too bad for Win 3.11 anyway 🙁 I got few Promise controllers, not Adaptec or LSI 🙁