ULTRAPLEX 40X OPERATION MANUAL
23
Hardware Installation
By itself, your CD-ROM drive is incapable of communicating with your
computer. You must use a hardware link that enables your drive to “talk” with
the rest of your computer.
Plextor's UltraPleX drives use a SCSI interface as their link. If you own a PC,
there are four ways in which you can make the SCSI connection:
1) Use a separate SCSI interface board.
• The UltraPleX 40max internal and external drives attach to a SCSI
board with a 50-pin “narrow” SCSI connector.
• The UltraPleX Wide internal and external drives attach to a SCSI
board with a 68-pin “wide” SCSI connector.
Your SCSI card should be chosen with these connectors in mind. For
both the UltraPleX 40max and UltraPleX Wide drive, we recommend
using a 32-bit PCI bus-mastering SCSI interface board to maximize the
drives’ potential. Older 8-bit SCSI interface boards are not
recommended for the UltraPleX 40max. More cost-effective, but with
a decrease in video performance, are 16-bit ISA bus-mastering SCSI
interface boards. Both these bus-mastering interface technologies also
allow you to take advantage of SCSI multitasking in 32-bit operating
systems such as Windows 95/98, Windows NT, UNIX, SCO, Solaris,
etc. Another possibility is to use an ISA-PIO SCSI interface board, but
performance will suffer, as will multitasking.
2) Use the SCSI interface on the motherboard of your PC, if available.
Most motherboard implementations in the past supported 50-pin
“narrow” SCSI connections. Some more recent PCs, workstations,
and servers now offer Wide Ultra SCSI support on the motherboard,
the UltraPleX Wide can be connected directly to these. Please check
the manual that came with your system for details regarding SCSI
support on the motherboard.
3) If you have an external drive, you can also use a parallel-to-SCSI
interface. This is a device that plugs into your computer’s parallel port
(the one your printer normally is connected to). It is convenient, but
at a cost of reduced performance to your CD-ROM drive. It is not
recommended for the UltraPleX.
— CHAPTER 8 —
Summary of Contents for PX-40TSe
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