from whatever photos I can see on the internet, that looks like a normal narrow scsi Adaptec AHA2940 scsi controller.

Curious what the /GE implies.

Can't quite see what the "/GE" is, but that looks like a regular AHA-2940, so narrow (8b), non-ultra (max 10MHz). The UW is both wide (16b) and ultra (20MHz), so is theoretically four times as fast. For the DVD it won't make a difference, for the HDD it might, depending on specs.

As for whether it's worth buying, that depends on price and what you want to do with it. For P166MMX, I'd aim for at least Ultra (AHA2940AU is ubiquitous) if not Ultra Wide (AHA2940UW). I'd also pair it with an UW HDD if possible, although actually I try to use Seagate Cheetah drives in as many of my SCSI builds as I can manage as they are very, very fast (low seek times) and - for SCSI - pretty quiet. They would be fastest with U2W SCSI (eg. AHA-2940U2W) in that system, but it really doesn't matter too much - the advantage of SCSI is low seek times and low CPU utilization. Linear transfer rates are less relevant - they matter for copying big files, but not for all the random reads when booting OS, for example.

/GE on the sticker is for German BIOS afaik. If the card is marked 2940/2940u then it be a narrow ultra but best to check the main chip, should be a AIC7880p...if a 7870 then non ultra...
Really should get a 2940UW or U2W instead if just using for internal drives (some external narrow scsi stuff does not work well with U2W)....they are all about same price range...

Guess I will go for the UW then. But every picture I see of a 2940UW has that big empty space where I expect a BIOS to be present. Do they one, or do I need a 2940UW-PRO for that?

sithlord2 wrote on 2024-12-24, 08:27:

Guess I will go for the UW then. But every picture I see of a 2940UW has that big empty space where I expect a BIOS to be present. Do they one, or do I need a 2940UW-PRO for that?

How about linking to one of those "every' pictures you refer to when you make statements like this. As pretty much every one I see has a PLCC EEPROM chip on it.

Example:

That square chip on the right with a sticker on it (helpfully displaying the version it shipped with, 1.32 in this case) is the bootROM.

It has a 50pin HD external connector with a 50pin internal one.
Depends on what hard drive you are going to be putting on it.

All of the 2940UW cards Ive had have had the BIOS. It might not look like what you think it should.
There are many versions of it. The Pro version adds features you dont need but might one day be good to have.

dionb wrote on 2024-12-24, 10:00:

sithlord2 wrote on 2024-12-24, 08:27:

Guess I will go for the UW then. But every picture I see of a 2940UW has that big empty space where I expect a BIOS to be present. Do they one, or do I need a 2940UW-PRO for that?

How about linking to one of those "every' pictures you refer to when you make statements like this. As pretty much every one I see has a PLCC EEPROM chip on it.

That square chip on the right with a sticker on it (helpfully displaying the version it shipped with, 1.32 in this case) is the bootROM.

I see. I was looking at the empty space left of it, which looked to me like a placeholder for an EPROM BIOS chip. Thanks for the clarification.

sithlord2 wrote on 2024-12-24, 10:27:

dionb wrote on 2024-12-24, 10:00:

sithlord2 wrote on 2024-12-24, 08:27:

Guess I will go for the UW then. But every picture I see of a 2940UW has that big empty space where I expect a BIOS to be present. Do they one, or do I need a 2940UW-PRO for that?

How about linking to one of those "every' pictures you refer to when you make statements like this. As pretty much every one I see has a PLCC EEPROM chip on it.

That square chip on the right with a sticker on it (helpfully displaying the version it shipped with, 1.32 in this case) is the bootROM.

I see. I was looking at the empty space left of it, which looked to me like a placeholder for an EPROM BIOS chip. Thanks for the clarification.

Common PCB for a series of cards.
The BIOS is there.

sithlord2 wrote on 2024-12-24, 08:27:

Guess I will go for the UW then. But every picture I see of a 2940UW has that big empty space where I expect a BIOS to be present. Do they one, or do I need a 2940UW-PRO for that?

Can't go wrong with either the 2940UW or 2940U2W. It's best to avoid OEM variants (i.e. IBM, etc.) unless you have a supported system . The reason being is that Adaptec BIOS releases don't support OEM cards and OEM BIOS releases can sometimes be tricky or impossible to flash on an industry-standard system. Fortunately, the latest (last) BIOS release for the 2940U[2]W is available in this thread (v3.10.0):
Need advice before I spend more money on a VLB SCSI controller.

I've tested v3.10.0 extensively with my 2940U2W and it works great across several operating systems. I have 146 GB and 300 GB hard drives, DVD-ROM, and a Super DLT tape drive.

Whereas boot drive functionality is concerned, the HBA will not overcome any inherit system BIOS LBA limitations. I mention this because there is a lot of misinformation out there on this topic. For example, my mobo only supports 24-bit LBA addressing, so I had to alter the logical capacity of my 146 GB boot drive with SeaTools to accommodate the systems 137.4 GB limitation. The 300 GB drive is not used for booting and did not have to be altered.

Hope that helps!