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by
rob-ART,
mad scientist
Posted
8/1/02
Big Mahalo to Trans
International
for getting the drives to me as early as
possible.
I was beginning
to wonder if the Toshiba
MK4019GAX
drive (5400rpm, 16MB buffer, 9.5mm thin) was for
real. Especially when it disappeared from their
website a few weeks ago. Well it's back and ready
to ship. Now that I have a test unit, the big
questions is, "How does it compare to the
IBM Travelstar
40GNX
(5400rpm, 8MB buffer, 9.5mm thin)?" And how does it
compare to the two other fastest notebook drives
before these two new ones appeared?
This first test
is fun. I give Photoshop 36MB of application space.
Then I load up a 45MB document and rotate it 30
degrees. This forces Photoshop to use the scratch
disk, which is the test drive in this
case.
My next "real
world stress test" is to tell QuickTime Player to
playback every frame of a 5 second movie (177MB) as
fast as it can.
One of the
"meanest" things to do to a drive is to make it
READ from and WRITE to itself all at the same
time.
Intech's
QuickBench X, although it's a benchmarking tool, is
useful to comparing how fast each drive can handle
small random reads and writes.
The IBM's 8MB of
cache is efficient right up to the point where it
overflows. Meanwhile, the Toshiba seems to have
"forgotten" that it has any cache.
I have a
specially modified version of QuickBench X that
lets me test the drives with up to 100MB blocks so
that neither drive's cache can help it. In this
test, you can see the Toshiba GAX edges out the IBM
GNX.
CONCLUSION
The Toshiba "GAX"
with its 16MB cache is no slouch, but it only gets
a silver medal. The IBM GNX retains the gold medal
as the fastest "portable" (2.5 inch) hard drive.
Caveat: all tests
were run with the drives installed in an Oxford 911
FireWire case kit (Cutie from FWDepot).
When time and opportunity permits, I will test both
"winning" drives inside both a Pismo and a TiBook,
but don't expect the results to be significantly
different. Although, I've seen a case where the
internal Ultra ATA interface was able to utilize
the drive's cache more effectively than the
FireWire bridge.
An interesting
alternative to using these two drives in external
FireWire cases is to get a Wiebetech
SuperDock and a fast IBM
Deskstar 120GXP
3.5 inch 7200rpm drive. It's faster and it runs off
of FireWire bus power. Uh huh.
WHAT DO
YOU BUY? AND WHERE?
Either the "GNX"
or the "GAX" would be a good choice.
If maximum
storage is required, the 60GH is a viable option.
Trans
International
carries all three drives at reasonable
prices.
SPECS ON
2.5 INCH HARD DRIVES
- Toshiba
MK4019GAX
40GB 5400rpm 9.5mm thick, 16MB cache
- IBM
Travelstar 40GNX
40GB 5400rpm 9.5mm thick, 8MB cache
- IBM
Travelstar 60GH
60GB 5400rpm 12.5mm thick, 2MB cache
- Toshiba
MK4018GAP
40GB 4200rpm 9.5mm thick, 2MB cache
Tests were
conducted using a combination of "real
world" tests
and Intech's
QuickBench X. Test "mule" was a Titanium G4/800
PowerBook. The test drives were installed in a
FWDepot
"Cutie" FireWire case kit.
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