|
Posted
April 29, 2001
by rob
ART morgan,
Bare Feats Mad Scientist
At
first I didn't notice it but now that I'm testing
mostly in OS X, the FireWire drive speeds seem to
have dropped compared to OS 9 testing. A closer
study produced some interesting data including some
insights on whether third party drivers help with
either OS.
The
last time I tested a Wiebetech
Desktop GB
3.5 inch FireWire drive, it scored somewhere in the
middle of the pack. Yet, Wiebetech was getting much
faster times in their lab. I found out they were
testing under OS 9 using Intech's
HD Speed Tools.
So Intech sent me the latest 3.5 version so I could
try duplicating their results.
In
the graphs below, "Apple" means I used Apple's
FireWire Enablers included with the operating
system. "Intech" means I used the HD Speed Tools
enablers/extensions. I used the Wiebetech Desktop
GB 60GB drive as the "guinea pig." The results are
very revealing.
PERFORMANCE
ANALYSIS
The
Intech extensions made a significant difference in
the FireWire drive transfer speed for large,
sustained block transfers... but only in OS 9. (See
graph #1, #2, and #3)
The
advantage provided by Intech shrinks when doing
smaller random read/writes. (See graph
#4)
If
you run OS X exclusively, you are at a disadvantage
as you can see in graphs #1, #2, #3 and #4. There
are no "speed up" drivers or "tuning" tools
currently available for OS X. Yet when it comes to
moving a large folder of smaller files, OS X
doesn't need any "help." In my test, duplicating
6000 small files happened almost 4 times faster
under OS X as it did under OS 9. (See graph
#5)
WHAT
ABOUT OTHER THIRD PARTY DRIVERS?
I
tried the same "trick" using FWB's
latest HDT 4.5.2
drivers under OS 9, but it didn't add any speed
over the Apple drivers.
WHAT
ABOUT OTHER FIREWIRE DRIVE
ENCLOSURES?
I
tried the Intech drivers on the Granite
Digital
case and OWC
Mercury Elite case, both with an IBM 120GXP drive.
I also tested the Maxtor
160GB drive. Just like with the Wiebetech drive
unit, the Intech drivers did speed up large block
transfers under OS 9. But again, there's no
assistance for OS X.
BOTTOM
LINE?
Running
FireWire drives under OS 9? Use Intech's
HD Speed Tools
3.5 for optimal performance. Though the
Wiebetech
Desktop GB
FireWire drive scored mediocre times with generic
Apple drivers, it scored the highest sustained
large block transfer speeds of any drive tested to
date using the Intech drivers under OS
9.
Running
FireWire drives under OS X? Send email feedback to
Apple, Intech, FWB, and anyone else who does disk
utilities. Urge them to develop OS X FireWire
drive "optimizers" or "tuners" like those available
for OS 9.
TEST
HARDWARE
Apple
Power Mac G4/800MP running both OS 9.2.2 and OS
10.1.4.
FireWire
drive tested: Wiebetech
Desktop GB
60GB (IBM 60gxp).
TEST
SOFTWARE & DOCUMENTS
Apple
Disk Utility, Intech's
HD Speed Tools,
QuickTime Player
The
"One Big Document" was a 177MB MPEG uncompressed
movie file. That file used in the DUPLICATE and
PLAYBACK tests.
The
"6000 Very Small Files" was a folder was just that:
6000 small (28K) files totalling 164MB.
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
|
