by Andrey Kuznetcov
11/23/2004 | 03:31 AM
The featured characteristic of the second generation of OneTouch drives has remained the same: there’s a button on the front side of the device which performs an instant back-up of important data from your computer. At the rear panel of the gray silvery case you can find a power-on button, a power connector, a USB 2.0 port, two FireWire ports, and a few vent holes. The drive is operational in horizontal as well as vertical position (on a special stand).
<%BANNER[article]%>The OneTouch II family consists of three models of 200, 250 and 300GB capacities. The drives use 100GB platters and rotate their spindle at 7200rpm. The amount of cache memory differs, though. The junior model has a standard 8MB buffer, while the senior two models are equipped with a 16MB buffer. This fact, of course, can seriously affect the performance of the devices. The manufacturer specifies an average seek time of less than 0.9 milliseconds.
The support of the two popular interfaces (USB and FireWire) gives the user the necessary flexibility in connection. The specified values of the maximum sustained data rates have remained the same since the previous generation: 34MB/s with USB 2.0 and 41MB/s with FireWire. The drives are operational within a temperature range of 5 to 35 degrees centigrade. Their dimensions are 41x140x210mm, their weight is 1.38kg.
The accessories include a stand, a 6-to-6-pin FireWire cable, a USB cable, a power adapter, a software CD (the bundle features Dantz Retrospect Express HD Backup), a user’s guide, and a warranty. The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the OneTouch II E01G250 model is $310.
We are going to check out the speed characteristics of the external drive from Maxtor in WinBench 99 2.0 and FC Test 1.0 on the following testbed:
The drive was attached to the USB 2.0 controller integrated into the ICH5 South Bridge and to an external PCI FireWire controller based on the VIA VT6307 chip. We performed our tests with the generic drivers of the operating system.
To have some wider perspective, we will compare the Maxtor OneTouch II with a model from the first OneTouch series as well as with an external HDD from Western Digital, which has been the fastest in our earlier tests. These opponents both have the same capacity as the reviewed Maxtor and even support the same pair of interfaces.
I’d like to present two data-transfer graphs first – one for each of the supported interfaces:
USB 2.0
FireWire
In the first graph there’s a straight line going along the 31MB/s mark. It is an indication of good quality of the platters as this speed is just slightly lower than the maximum data-transfer rate for the USB 2.0 interface as specified by the manufacturer. As for the second graph, the straight line goes at 42MB/s, which is a little better than the specification says.
Now let’s examine the performance of the Maxtor OneTouch II when it is attached to a USB 2.0 port:
The first diagram shows the Disk WinMark scores for the FAT32 file system. Here and elsewhere the results are sorted by the High-End Disk Winmark parameter. We performed the test, having partitioned the drive for its total capacity. The new external HDD from Maxtor easily leaves its predecessor as well as the drive from Western Digital behind. Note also that it is the best in both subtests of WinBench 99.
When only 32 gigabytes of the drive’s capacity are in use, the performance grows up somewhat. The OneTouch II is still comfortably nestled on top, without giving its competitors a single chance.
Let’s now see how the new drive performs in NTFS. The OneTouch model of the first generation wins this test, but the second-generation model is closely following it.
When 32 gigabytes of the capacity are used, the Maxtor OneTouch II regains its leadership, but the difference between the two Maxtors is actually negligible. It’s time to see how the drive behaves when attached via FireWire.
This diagram shows the Disk WinMark results for FAT32 and for the full capacity of the drives. The OneTouch II has a hefty advantage over its competitors here – it scored about half more points than the drive from Western Digital.
When the storage space is limited to 32 gigabytes, the superiority of the OneTouch II is unquestionable, too.
The drives are formatted in NTFS for their full capacity, and once again we see the OneTouch II taking the first place. It delivers much more performance than its competitors.
The special case with 32 gigabytes of storage space in use brings no corrections into the rankings: the OneTouch II doesn’t lose in any of the subtests.
The last diagram in this section shows the access time parameters of the drives in the FAT32 file system and with the USB 2.0 interface. As we see, the OneTouch II has a better access time than its predecessor, but a worse one compared to the Western Digital. Maxtor must have refused to slow down the movements of the heads through the Advanced Acoustic Management in OneTouch II series drives.
The next benchmark we use is FC-Test which examines the drives as they are performing real-time tasks. FC-Test measures the time it takes to create (i.e. write), read and copy file patterns which vary in the average size and number of the files they are comprised of.
Particularly, the Windows and Programs patterns include many small files, while the other three patterns contain fewer files of a large size. For the copy tests, two 32GB partitions are created on the drive. File patterns are then copied within one partition (copy-near) and from one partition into another (copy-far).
Let’s examine the performance of the drives with the USB 2.0 interface first.
The results for the FAT32 file system come first. When creating files, the OneTouch II wins in two patterns (that include many small-size files) and loses in the remaining three patterns.
When reading files, the OneTouch II wins in three patterns out of five.
The copy-near operation is performed by the OneTouch II without a hitch – it wins all of the patterns.
The next diagram shows that the new drive is fast at copying files from one partition into another. The advantage of the OneTouch II over its opponents is considerable in all the patterns.
Now, let’s see how the drives perform in the NTFS file system.
The OneTouch II turns to be slower than its opponents at creating files. In two patterns (with small-size files) it takes the second place, though, outperforming the HDD from Western Digital.
The new product from Maxtor is the slowest at reading files in this test.
The OneTouch II wins three patterns out of five in the copy-near test (files are being copied within the same partition). On the other hand, its results in the MP3 pattern are quite bad.
The results of the copy-far test resemble those of the previous test. Once again, the OneTouch II is the fastest in three patterns and equals its predecessor in one more pattern. The MP3 pattern seems indigestible for it, though.
Now we attach the drives to our FireWire controller and run the tests one more time:
The first diagram shows you the numbers we got in FAT32. The OneTouch II leaves its opponents behind in all the patterns.
Reading files is no big problem for the new drive from Maxtor – it is again the fastest in all the five patterns of FC-Test. Its advantage is most overwhelming when many small files are being processed.
Copying files within one partition is done faster by the OneTouch II, too, in all the patterns.
The OneTouch II has the highest speed when copying files from one partition into another. This is especially clear in the three patterns that consist of large files.
Switching into the NTFS file system brings us nothing new – the OneTouch II is still on top in the file creation test.
In the reading test the new product from Maxtor wins in two patterns only, but the drives are overall performing similarly in this test.
The diagram for the copy-near test depicts another victory of the OneTouch II. It is the fastest with any pattern.
The last diagram shows you the results in the test of copying files from one partition into another. The Maxtor OneTouch II boasts the highest speed in each of the five patterns.
Maxtor’s external hard disk drive from the second generation of the OneTouch family has proved to have much better characteristics than its predecessor. In fact, it won almost all of the WinBench tests! Its advantage over the two drives we had chosen as its opponents was most conspicuous when FireWire is used, as this interface allows to reveal the speed potential of the drive more fully.
We suppose that the lower access time of the OneTouch II compared to the first-generation model contributes to this performance growth.
Our second benchmark, FC-Test, also agrees that the Maxtor OneTouch II is a fast drive, especially in copy operations. Maxtor’s drives have traditionally been good in copying, but the new model is complemented further by its 16MB buffer. The OneTouch II was noticeably faster than the other two drives in both file systems and with both interfaces. As for the best operational mode, the OneTouch II delivers the highest performance when working across a FireWire connection and with the FAT32 file system.
So, combining high-density platters with a large 16MB buffer and reducing the access time, Maxtor has created an external hard disk drive which boasts the best performance among its analogs. With support of two interfaces, the OneTouch II is the best choice for users who need an external drive of high capacity and maximum speed!