X-bit labs

Nine External Enclosures for 2.5” Hard Disk Drives Roundup (page 13)

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

[ 01/31/2006 | 02:18 PM ]

Now we format the drive in NTFS and run our test once more time:

The Sarotech FHD-254UF2 is again both the fastest (on the FireWire interface) and the slowest (on USB 2.0) enclosure at the same time. The Agestar IUB201 is the second best and is followed by the Thermaltake Silver River.

The next diagram shows the read speed at the beginning and end of the disk for each of the HDD enclosures. This diagram actually summarizes the data-transfer graphs we’ve published at the beginning of this section.

The diagram is indicative of the efficiency of the controllers of the tested devices. The controller of the Sarotech FHD-254UF2 is the best using the FireWire interface since this interface doesn’t limit the drive’s performance much. Alas, the same enclosure proves to be the slowest when attached via USB 2.0 – and the data-transfer speed remains almost the same in any part of the disk. The same thing can be observed with the Tekram TR-621S and the Agestar IUB2A6 – they are just a little better than the USB-connected Sarotech FHD-254UF2.

The last diagram shows the average disk access time. Although there are small gaps within the diagram, we want you to note that the drive has the lowest average access time when inserted into the Sarotech FHD-254UF2 enclosure and connected via FireWire.