Jim,
I'm using a 16-bit fast scsi-2 card with my NEC-73 without any problems.
The card is UltraStor 14F. Also make sure the scsi card you get has ASPI
driver support. That solves many problems on compatibility with different
devices. I'm using CorelSCSI as the drivers.
It also works great on my SCSI-2 based host adapter for the Atari ST too.
There are drivers for NEC CD-ROMs for OS/2 in the OS/2 forum. The windows
all you needs MSCDEX.