How Fast Is The NEW IBM 48GB Travelstar 2.5 Inch Drive In A NEW Oxford 911 FireWire Case? July 12th, 2001 by rob ART morgan, Bare Feats Mad Scientist I've been champing at the bit to try the new 2.5 inch 48GB 5400 rpm IBM Travelstar with fluid dynamic bearings. I especially wanted to see how fast it goes one of the new Oxford 911 2.5 inch FireWire drive enclosures from FWDepot or Trans International. And, how close does this newest, fastest 2.5 inch ATA-5 drive in the newest, fastest FireWire drive enclosure compare to the speed of the newest, fastest 3.5 inch ATA/100 drive in the newest fastest FireWire drive enclosure? In the charts below, I compare... ... an iBook 2001 running the 48GB Travelstar in a 2.5 inch Trans International Ultra Compact "911" enclosure ... a Titanium G4 PowerBook running the 48GB Travelstar in a 2.5 inch Trans International Ultra Compact "911" enclosure ... an iBook 2001 running the 40GB IBM 60GXP in a 3.5 inch Granite Digital "911" enclosure ... a Titanium G4 PowerBook running the 40GB IBM 60GXP in a 3.5 inch Granite Digital "911" enclosure ... a Power Mac Dual G4/533 running the 40GB IBM 60GXP in a 3.5 inch Granite Digital "911" enclosure   As you can see in the charts above, the iBook blows away the TiBook when running a 60gxp in a 3.5 inch FireWire drive/enclosure. But the gap closes when both run the Travelstar 48GB in a 2.5 inch FireWire drive/enclosure. But what about in the REAL WORLD? With REAL WORLD TESTS, the difference between the iBook and TiBook becomes less dramatic but the iBook still wins 2 out of 3. It's also interesting to see that the difference between 3.5 inch drive and 2.5 inch drives evaporates in real world tests. It makes you wonder how the new "Oxford 911" drive enclosures compare in real world tests to the previous generation of FireWire drive enclosures. A year ago, the VST Full Height 3.5 inch and VST Portable Combo 2.5 inch were the fastest FireWire drives. If you click through to the next page, you will see how these compare to the fastest "Oxford 911" enclosures with the best 3.5 inch and 2.5 inch drives. MORE TEST RESULTS

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