40GB Roundup Vol 1 - Page 4

SCSI Mechanic Linear Reading/Writing Tests

We performed the SCSI Mechanic tests as described in our test methology guide. The test results are illustrated in the following graph. Note that all numbers are Kb/s:

The faster drive for the linear "Sequential" reading test comes from Maxtor with the 740DX series. The drive takes the first place with 34683 Kb/s. Despite the drive's lowest access time at the "Random" reading test, comes forth! The Maxtor drive also didn't performed very well at the "Same Sector" test, which shows how good the drive handles its internal cache memory. Perhaps with the ATA133 interface numbers can be increased.

The Seagate's Barracuda ATAIII came second in "Sequential", "Random" and first at the "Butterfly" tests. The IBM 60GXP comes first in the "Same Sector" and "Random" tests. This shows the drive's good interface with IDE Bus... At the "Sequential" test comes third and at the "Butterfly" last with only 10875Kb/s.

The Western Digital comes third in the "Sequential", "Butterfly" tests. The drive's high access time, gives the last place at the Random test. Last the FujiTsu drive gets the last place in the Sequential test with only (?) 29765Kb/s. The drive seems not have the best cache algorithms since the "Same Sector" result is only 70656Kb/s!

At the linear writing tests, things change dramatically. The Fujitsu MPG3409AH-E gets the first place in all writing tests. The drive did performed very good and has a 36095Kb/s score in the Sequential Writing tests. Again outperforms competition at the Butterfly/Random tests with 23403/17020 respectively.

The Maxtor drive gets the second place with 35650Kb/s at the Sequential tests and Seagate Barracuda ATA III follows with 35000 Kb/s. At the Butterfly tests, the Maxtor 740DX comes second and the IBM 60GXP third. The Seagate Barracuda ATA III has very low performance at both Butterfly/Random writing tests.

The IBM drive seems more balanced with 32.000Kb/s at the Sequential test. At both Butterfly/Random tests, the drive gets the third/second place respectively, with however big performance gap from the first Fujitsu drive. The Western Digital drive gets the forth place at all tests. The performance gap with the first FujiTsu MPG3409AH-E is high enough - almost 4.7Mb/s at the Sequential tests.