AcomData E5 320GB External Desktop Storage: Slap on another
by Purav Sanghani on August 27, 2005 12:48 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
The Test
Our list of tests for external drives has many of the benchmarks as our internal hard disk drive, but we are focusing more on file system tasks, since external devices are mainly used for archival. We have not changed our test bed from our usual storage platform. Take a look at the details.| AcomData E5 320GB External Storage/Backup Test Bed | |
| Processor: | AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, Socket 939) |
| Motherboard/Chipset Drivers: | Giga-Byte GA-K8NXP-SLI (nForce v6.66) |
| Hard Disk Drives: | Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 400GB |
| RAM: | 1GB Corsair XMS4400 DDR550 (2x512MB, 2.5-4-4-8) |
| Video Card: | NVIDIA 6600GT 128MB SLI Edition (Single card) |
Our test methods are as follows...
WinBench 99 - transfer rates over the disk surface, disk access time, and CPU utilization
HDTach - sequential read speeds and burst speeds
Real World File System Task Tests - timed tests of basic file system tasks including zipping/unzipping and copying files from a higher performance SATA drive to the external device, as well as within the external device
Real World Multitasking Test - timed tests of basic multitasking processes, timing a file zip operation while copying a larger 4.5GB file
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Andyvan - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
That is exactly what I've been envisioning for several years.-- Andyvan
Ecmaster76 - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
With standardized external SATA devices on the horizon, I would advise wiating to buy unless you really need external storage right now.Any of you cool dudes at Anandtech know how soon we can expect a wide selection of external SATA?
psychobriggsy - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
You can already buy external SATA enclosures. When I was looking for mine, I saw SATA versions of the IcyBox for example, and the price was pretty much the same in fact.UltraWide - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
I got a 320GB version on firewire through my audigy2 and it's excellent. it's fast, quiet and runs very cool.psychobriggsy - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
Earlier this month I bought a 200GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 (the silent IDE version) and an IcyBox external Firewire/USB2 enclosure (the one with the blue lighting). That worked out a lot cheaper than buying something pre-made like this. It too has a Firewire passthrough.The price? £80 in total. Which is around $125 after you take tax off the UK price.
It's been coupled with my iBook, which only has a 40GB 4200 RPM hard drive. It's a handy backup solution, and I store all my media file on it as well. I plan to get a Mac Mini at some point in the future to which it will be permanently attached. The combination can then serve music to a SqueezeBox2 or similar, once I get one of those.
ElFenix - Monday, August 29, 2005 - link
i've had hit or miss experiences using do it yourself external drive kits. i *think* that the premade ones tend to have better chipsets inside. and the diy stuff doesn't come with the software. and sometimes the premade stuff is about the same cost (after rebates and sales) as diy.formulav8 - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
I wish I could talk my wife into letting me get that for her laptop. Her slow 60gb 4200 rpm drive is almost full. Oh well, she won't let that happen with that much money.Jason
Olaf van der Spek - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
> and the results of CPU load for the FireWire 400 interface surprised us even more, since it is pier-to-pier.What's a pier?
TheInvincibleMustard - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
Arr, matey ... that be when ye be shipping pirated medias between your two drives ... yar-har-harrrrrr.:-D