Test Rig Specifications

The MVKTech test platform that we are going to use today is build upon an Intel based configuration. While it is not the latest top performer it can certainly keep up with current gaming needs. Let's go ahead and take a look at the specifications and hardware we are going to use for this portion of the review.

• Intel Pentium 4 (Prescott) 3.0GHz CPU
• ASUS P4P800 Deluxe Motherboard
• 1024MB OCZ PC-3700 Gold Dual Channel Memory
• 200GB Maxtor HD IDE (UDMA133)
• PNY Verto 6800 GT (NV40) AGP 256MB
• Ultra Connect-X 500W Modular Power Supply
• Cooler Master Cooldrive 6
• Cooler Master ATC-200C Case
• Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000

We just need to plug in the USB cable from the Spire GigaPod III on one of the available USB connections of our test system. One done we can just switch on the power on the Spire GigaPod III SP110-NEB and Windows XP SP2 will automatically detect the external drive and recognise it.

As of now we are set to go and put this external USB drive to work and see how fast it ends up in relation to the Maxtor IDE setup.

Test Results & Benchmarks

SiSoftware Sandra Pro 2005.SR3

SiSoftware Sandra (the System Analyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software. We will be using SiSoftware Sandra to measure the performance of our removeable GigaPod III USB drive.

Spire GigaPod III USB 2.0 (Maxtor 120GB Ultra ATA/133)

We are starting with the GigaPod III USB drive and giving it a run on SiSoftware Sandra. This will provide us our reference of performance to compare it with another USB 2.0 enclosure by Sweex and an standard Ultra ATA/133 harddisk by Maxtor.

Benchmark Results

• Combined Index: 17045 operation(s)/min
• Endurance Factor: 1.7
• 512B Files Test: 31434 operation(s)/min
• 32kB Files Test: 9183 operation(s)/min
• 256kB Files Test: 3867 operation(s)/min
• 2MB Files Test: 732 operation(s)/min
• 64MB Files Test: 24 operation(s)/min
  Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Sweex Mobile USB 2.0 (Hitachi TravelStar 80GB)

Next we put the Sweex Mobile USB 2.0 drive to the same benchmark option on Sandra. We fitted the Sweex Mobile solution with a Hitachi 2.5" hard disk running at 5400rpm.

Benchmark Results

• Combined Index: 19877 operation(s)/min
• Endurance Factor: 4.0
• 512B Files Test: 32969 operation(s)/min
• 32kB Files Test: 14863 operation(s)/min
• 256kB Files Test: 5266 operation(s)/min
• 2MB Files Test: 479 operation(s)/min
• 64MB Files Test: 22 operation(s)/min
  Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Maxtor 200GB Ultra ATA/133 (DiamondMax Plus 9)

And lastly we have the normal performance of a Maxtor 200GB Ultra ATA/133 reported by Sandra. This is the same line of hard disk that we equipped our Spire GigaPod III with, namely the DiamondMax Plus 9 range.

Benchmark Results

• Combined Index: 31788 operation(s)/min
• Endurance Factor: 8.0
• 512B Files Test: 55842 operation(s)/min
• 32kB Files Test: 20841 operation(s)/min
• 256kB Files Test: 5804 operation(s)/min
• 2MB Files Test: 1351 operation(s)/min
• 64MB Files Test: 45 operation(s)/min
  Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Spire GigaPod III USB 2.0 vs. Sweex Mobile USB 2.0

Now that we have all results let's compare em and we will start with looking at the Spire GigaPod III against the Sweex Mobile solution, both coming with an USB 2.0 interface rated at 480Mbps. As we can see from the below graph the performance is very similar.

Spire GigaPod III USB 2.0 vs. Maxtor 200GB Ultra ATA/133

The give an idea on the performance difference between the Ultra ATA/133 and the USB 2.0 interface we also compared the Spire GigaPod III with a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 harddisk. The difference in performance from the below graph might be small, but don't forget that this is an exponential scale. The performance of the Ultra ATA/133 almost doubles the USB 2.0 interface.

What should we retain from the above comparisons is that the USB 2.0 interface is somehow limiting the performance of the hard drive used to build the removeable storage.