X-bit labs

Brando USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE Cable Review (page 2)

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

[ 06/05/2006 | 08:54 PM ]

Testbed and Methods

In order to evaluate the advantages of the Brando device, we decided to stick to the same testing methodology as for the tests of external chassis designed for ATA HDDs. We used the adapter cable to connect a Hitachi HDS722525VLAT80 hard disk drive to the computer. This HDD features high enough performance and uses the entire USB 2.0 interface potential. We made our conclusions about the efficiency of the Brando solution basing on the performance results of the test hard disk drive.

The following testing utilities were used:

• WinBench 99 2.0
• FC-Test 1.0

The testbed was configured as follows:

• Albatron PX865PE Pro II mainboard
• Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz CPU
• IBM DTLA-307015 hard disk drive, 15GB
• Radeon 7000 32MB graphics card
• 256MB DDR SDRAM
• Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2

Brando cable was connected to the USB 2.0 port integrated onto the mainboard. In order to ensure objective analysis of the obtained results, we will compare the results of our hero with those obtained for ViPowER VPA-3528T external chassis supporting identical interface and tested in the same conditions.

Performance in WinBench 99

First let’s take a look at the read speed graph taken for the first 32GB of the HDD storage space.

The data transfer line on the graph reflects the actual interface bandwidth implemented via the Brando cable. In this case it almost reaches 33MB/s.