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Originally
posted 10/10/02 by rob-ART
morgan, I was intrigued
by the 5400rpm Maxtor
DiamondMax
D540X-4G
not only for its large capacity (160GB) but the
fact that is runs at 5400rpm yet has an ATA-133
interface. Kinky. I decided to compare its
performance to an IBM
Deskstar 120GXP
120GB 7200rpm ATA-100 drive. Both drives have a 2MB
buffer. I used the Sonnet
Tempo ATA-133 PCI card as well as in a fast "911"
FireWire case kit as the two venues. I also tested
the Maxtor drive in Maxtor's own FireWire case
called "3000
XT."
We're having some fun now! REAL WORLD
TESTS Duplicating the
457MB "pak0.pk3" file from Quake3 is my favorite
test since it forces the drive to read and write to
itself at the same time. By setting
Photoshop's memory size to 41MB and having it
rotate a 45MB document, I force it to write to the
scratch disk... which is defined as the drive being
tested. I have a 5 second
uncompressed movie (177MB). In this test, I force
QuickTime Player to playback all frames. BENCHMARKS I have a custom
version of Intech's QuickBench X that does
sustained reads and writes of large 100MB
blocks. PERFORMANCE
ANALYSIS As expected, when
connected to an ATA-133 host adapter, the Maxtor
5400rpm D540X-4G
160GB drive wasn't nearly as fast as the
IBM
Deskstar 120GXP.
It's not a slow drive by any means. But certainly
not on the level of the newest, fastest 7200rpm
Ultra ATA drives. With the D540X
and 120GXP in the same Granite Digital FireWire
case kit, the 5400rpm, again, wasn't as fast as the
7200rpm drive, but the difference was much less
pronounced. That's mainly due to the fact that the
current crop of FireWire case kits hit the wall at
35MB/s, which is identical to the maximum rate
achieved by the Maxtor 160G with a faster ATA-133
interface. As you can see in
the graphs above, Maxtor's
3000XT
"pre-packaged" FireWire drive unit wasn't as fast
as the Granite Digital case kit running the same
drive. So if you plan to use the Maxtor 160G in a
FireWire case kit, you might consider buying the
bare drive and putting it in the fastest case kit
you can find. As for using your
new drive on an ATA-133 or ATA-100 or ATA-66
interface, unless you need the large capacity of
the Maxtor 160, you'll get a lot more speed out of
the IBM 120GXP. OTHER FACTORS
TO CONSIDER There was a
problem in the early days of the 160GB Maxtor.
Seems some FireWire boxes could only "see" 137GB of
the drive's capacity. Firmware changes have been
made in recent months that make it possible use the
full capacity. A similar problem existed with IDE
interface unless you used a host controller with
the "smarts" to handle drives over
137GB. Conventional
wisdom says that a 5400rpm drive runs cooler,
quieter, and therefore lasts longer than a 7200rpm
drive. I don't do long term testing, acoustical
testing, or temperature testing, so I can't verify
the validity of that statement. But it's something
to consider in choosing a drive where reliability
is as important as speed. WHERE TO BUY
STUFF I TESTED The bare 5400rpm
Maxtor DiamondMax D540X-4G
drive is sold at reasonable prices at
OtherWorldComputing
and GoogleGear.
The IBM
Deskstar 120GXP
(7200rpm, 2MB buffer) is going for as little as
$165 at GoogleGear.
The
Sonnet
Tempo ATA-133
card can be ordered from SmallDog
or OWC.
It comes with cables but my favorite cables are the
Teflon IDEVue ones from Granite
Digital
available various lengths from 6 to 36
inches. Another ATA-133
PCI controller to consider is the Acard
Hardware RAID
ATA-133
card. Used with a pair of 120gxp's, you can achieve
speeds
of over 100MB/s.
(It's also sold under the Sonnet, SIIG, and Miglia
labels.) Check Sonnet's site for updates on
drivers
and firmware. If you want it
pre-packaged in Maxtor's FireWire case, you can
order the 3000XT from SmallDog.com. The
Granite
Digital FireVue
case can be ordered direct from GraniteDigital.com.
It's the "Hummer HumVee" of FireWire case kits with
dual cooling fans and internal power supply. I also
like their Hot-Swap
FireVue
case kit with removable trays and triple cooling
fans. If you want
something more streamlined but just as quick, look
at: WiebeTech
DesktopDB
and OWC
Mercury Elite Pro.
Beware of off brand case kits with spotty firmware
update support. The fastest
FireWire PCI card is available direct from
FWDepot.com
(part# BTFWUSBPCI).
They have a new model (U2FW-PCI01) with the same
controller chip that includes USB 2.0 ports. The
second fastest FireWire card is available from
WiebeTech. My favorite
FireWire cables are the thin, white, flexible ones
available in two lengths from the Apple
Online Store.
(See cables section -- free ground shipping
currently) LINKS TO
RELATED ARTICLES FireWire
RAID
using three of the newest RAID boxes. Which
drive works best in an ATA RAID: WD1200JB or IBM
120GXP? Listing
of archived storage tests from Bare
Feats TEST
NOTES The test "mule"
was my trusty Apple
G4/1000 MP "SDR" Power Mac with 1.5 1GB of PC133
CL2 SDRAM and 120GB IBM 120GXP boot drive running
OS X (10.2.1). REAL WORLD TESTS
included... 2. Duplicating
a 457MB document on the test drive(s).
3. Playing
back every frame of a 5 second 177MB
uncompressed movie using Quicktime
Player BENCHMARKS |
HOME PAGE SPEED TEST RESULTS by Category LINKS to SPEED tests on other sites HOT DEALS on speed upgrades
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© 2002 Rob Art
Morgan "BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS" Email webmaster at rob-art@barefeats.com
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