Test Rig Configuration

What about the MVKTech test system that will be used for putting this RaidSonic ICY BOX external enclosure to some performance testing? We will be using an Intel based configuration which features about 4 USB 2.0 and 2 FireWire external ports. While it might not be a top performing platform this is what most regular users will have and that will represent the performance of the USB 2.0 & FireWire external hard drive at best. So let's go and check the specifications and hardware that was used for the benchmarks we have performed.

• Intel Pentium 4 (Prescott) 3.0GHz CPU
• ASUS P4P800 Deluxe Motherboard
• Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2x 512MB Dual Channel Memory
• Maxtor 200GB HD IDE (UDMA133)
• PNY Verto 6800 GT (NV40) AGP 256MB
• Hiper Type-R HPU-4B580 (580W) Power Supply
• Cooler Master ATC-200C Case
• Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000

We just need to plug in the USB or FireWire cable from the ICY BOX IB-360UE-BL on one of the available USB/FireWire connections of our test system. Once done we can just switch on the power on the RaidSonic ICY BOX and Windows XP SP2 will automatically detect the external drive and recognize it.

When using the FireWire cable the drive just gets recognized as an IEEE 1394 device. 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, but as well to compare the USB 2.0 against FireWire interface operation.

Test Results & Benchmarks

SiSoftware Sandra Pro 2007 (10.98)

SiSoftware Sandra (the System Analyzer, 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 removable ICY BOX USB/FireWire drive.

RaidSonic ICY BOX USB 2.0 (Maxtor 120GB Ultra ATA/133)

First we will be looking at the ICY BOX IB-360UE-BL as an USB 2.0 external drive and make a benchmark run with SiSoftware Sandra. This will provide us our reference of performance to compare it with the ICY BOX IB-360 as a FireWire external storage and a standard Ultra ATA/133 hard disk by Maxtor.

Benchmark Results

• Combined Index: 12879 operation(s)/min
• Endurance Factor: 2.1
• 512B Files Test: 19345 operation(s)/min
• 32kB Files Test: 11709 operation(s)/min
• 256kB Files Test: 3927 operation(s)/min
• 2MB Files Test: 672 operation(s)/min
• 64MB Files Test: 27 operation(s)/min
  Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

RaidSonic ICY BOX FireWire (Maxtor 120GB Ultra ATA/133)

The same configuration, namely ICY BOW IB-360UE-BL is used for our next benchmark run but now we will use the FireWire interface. Once the FireWire external storage is recognized we use SiSoftware Sandra suite to run the exact same performance analysis.

Benchmark Results

• Combined Index: 19487 operation(s)/min
• Endurance Factor: 3.7
• 512B Files Test: 29205 operation(s)/min
• 32kB Files Test: 18150 operation(s)/min
• 256kB Files Test: 5041 operation(s)/min
• 2MB Files Test: 823 operation(s)/min
• 64MB Files Test: 33 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 RaidSonic ICY BOX with, namely the DiamondMax Plus 9 range. Again the same benchmark is executed to get the final performance result.

Benchmark Results

• Combined Index: 33548 operation(s)/min
• Endurance Factor: 5.2
• 512B Files Test: 58898 operation(s)/min
• 32kB Files Test: 22127 operation(s)/min
• 256kB Files Test: 5843 operation(s)/min
• 2MB Files Test: 1452 operation(s)/min
• 64MB Files Test: 52 operation(s)/min
  Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

RaidSonic ICY BOX USB 2.0 vs. FireWire

Now that we have all results let's compare em and we will start with looking at the ICY BOX USB 2.0 against the FireWire solution. In both cases we use the same mobile ICY BOX storage and will just be changing the interfacing method used. As we can see from the below graph the performance is in favor of the FireWire connection. Although the USB 2.0 has a data transfer rate set at 480Mbit/s against only 400Mbit/s for FireWire 400, we can clearly see that from a performance perspective the FireWire solution is taking the lead. The difference shown here are due to the architecture of the two interfaces.

FireWire uses a peer-to-peer architecture in which the peripherals are intelligent and can negotiate bus conflicts to determine which device can best control a data transfer. Hi-Speed USB 2.0 uses a master/slave architecture in which the computer handles all arbitration functions and dictates data flow to, from and between the attached peripherals. In that logic the FireWire architecture will always be faster then what the USB 2.0 can attain in sustained data transfer throughput.