Test Results & Benchmarks (Cont.)

HD Tach 3.0.10

As a second benchmark suite we opted for HD Tach to evaluate the performance of the RaidSonic ICY BOX USB 2.0/FireWire external drive powered by our Maxtor 120GB hard drive. We will once again put a normal IDE hard drive against it to see the performance and speed difference, as well as a comparison between USB 2.0 and FireWire.

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

Once again we will kick this of by using the USB 2.0 connection on the ICY BOX IB-360UE-BL mobile storage solution to check the performance reported by HD Tach. HD Tach will run several tests, namely a Burst Test, a CPU Test, a Random Access Test and a Sequential Read Test. All these combined will provide us the final benchmark outcome.

RaidSonic ICY BOX USB 2.0 Drive
- Tested on 2006-05-13 at 11:49
- Random access: 14.7ms
- CPU utilization: 9% (+/- 2%)
- Average read: 30.8MB/s
- Burst speed: 31.2MB/s

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

After that we unplugged the USB 2.0 cable and made the connection with the ICY BOX using the FireWire cable. Once the external storage drive is recognized by the system we just run the exact same HD Tach benchmark to report the performance delivered. This way we will be able to compare at a later stage these results.

RaidSonic ICY BOX FireWire Drive
- Tested on 2006-05-13 at 11:41
- Random access: 14.3ms
- CPU utilization: 1% (+/- 2%)
- Average read: 39.1MB/s
- Burst speed: 42.4MB/s

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

And finally we also used a normal Maxtor 200GB Ultra ATA/133 hard drive, connected via the standard way, with the IDE cable. Once again we load up HD Tach and run the same benchmark. By doing so, we can show the difference in performance between the external storage approach and a normal IDE hard drive.

Maxtor 200GB Ultra ATA/133 Drive
- Tested on 2006-05-13 at 11:45
- Random access: 13.3ms
- CPU utilization: 2% (+/- 2%)
- Average read: 49.0MB/s
- Burst speed: 118.3MB/s

RaidSonic ICY BOX USB 2.0 vs. FireWire

Let's start comparing these results a bit more closely by looking into the difference between the USB 2.0 and FireWire interface. These actually perform roughly the same way, although by using the FireWire connection the Maxtor 120GB hard disk has better results in terms of raw data transfer speed. We notice that for the FireWire solution the CPU utilization is quite better as well.

In the end it comes down to this, if you have a FireWire port available on your computer it is best to use it and leave the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 for what it is. Of course with the RaidSonic ICY BOX you have the choice and that is actually quite an added value. For those who don't have a FireWire connection, the USB 2.0 interface will do nicely. So you don't hear us complaining at all, as the ICY BOX performance is just right and by using the FireWire ability you get just that extra boost. Well done RaidSonic!