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Posted
May 10th, 2002
by rob
ART morgan,
Bare Feats Mad Scientist
I'm always
testing various different drives with FireWire. I'm
constantly switching drives around from IDE to
FireWire and back. I don't even fully assemble the
FireWire cases I use. I leave the top open. I don't
even mount the drive. I sit it on a dense piece of
cardboard. So you can image my interest in the
Wiebetech
FireWire Drive
Dock.
It's the FireWire
case kit without the case. Cool. So cool, you don't
need a fan. You can pull power off your Power Mac
or use the optional external power
supply.
PERFORMANCE
ANALYSIS
As you can see by
the test results above, the FireWire Drive Dock,
which uses the "Oxford 911" chip set, is every bit
as fast as the regular FireWire case kits from
Granite Digital, OWC, and others. It's fastest when
running with Intech drivers under OS 9. Now if we
can just get someone to make faster drivers for OS
X....
Since this
article was first published, Wiebetech has
announced a drive
dock for small 2.5 inch drives.
SUGGESTED USES
FOR THE Drive Dock
As I indicated
above, it's the perfect Bare Feats Speed Lab bench
test tool for comparing various bare IDE drives to
see which runs the best under FireWire. It's also
helpful for comparing various FireWire
drivers.
If you are a
system administrator, you will find it handy for
transferring files from one bare IDE drive to
another since any drive formatted as an IDE drive
will mount when plugged into a FireWire bridge. Or
carry a "Drive Docked" drive around with your
system updates, installers, and
diagnostics.
If you have a
Power Mac with either an internal FireWire port or
a FireWire PCI card with internal FireWire port,
you could actually mount a bare drive inside the
case, plug the Drive Dock in (assuming there is
proper clearance), attach internal power cable, and
voila!
TEST
HARDWARE
Apple
Power Mac G4/800MP running both OS 9.2.2 and OS
10.1.4.
FireWire
drive/enclosure tested: Wiebetech
FireWire
Drive Dock
TEST SOFTWARE
& DOCUMENTS
Apple Disk
Utility, Intech's
HD Speed Tools
(including QuickBench and QuickBenchX), QuickTime
Player.
WHERE TO ORDER YOUR APPLE PRODUCTS
When ordering products from Apple Store USA, please click THIS TEXT LINK or any Apple display ad as your "portal" to the online store. In so doing, you help to support Bare Feats.
© 1995-2007 Rob Art Morgan
"BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS"
Email
, the webmaster
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