External vs. Internal iBook HDs

[Lazyhound]

Alight, I ran the test again. You were right about the 86 MB/sec being too high. I was actually testing the interface bandwidth. So i ran the test again. Here are the results. (The tests run 20 times in a row and these are the averages).

Powerbook is the internal 4200 RPM Hitachi drive
250 LaCie is the external FW 800
Seagate 200 is the FW 400

Summary of Read Speeds:
Internal: 51 MB/sec
FW 800: 40 MB/sec
FW 400: 33 MB/sec

Take a second look at the margins of error for those tests.

 

[Heb1228]

Take a second look at the margins of error for those tests.

I know its a large margin of error, but thats still the average of 20 tests. Unless that testing program is wrong, its still quite a bit higher than my external FW 800 drive.

 

[Heb1228]

I partially disagree.

A SCSI RAID array does not work well for portability.
My PB gets a lot of action in live situations, so a portable drive is my best option. Carrying a PM with a monitor, keyboard and a mouse, plus all of my other audio gear is just a pain in the butt.

If you are working at a stationary computer, like an iMac or a PM, then yes, a SCSI RAID array makes sense, but the OP has an iBook.

Oh, fyi, i am a "serious" audio person, that being a 2nd year masters student in Music Composition that works extensively with electronic music. Even with audio, a RAID array is not necessary.

You're right, didn't mean any insult with the comment. I was thinking more along the lines of video people using uncompressed SD and HD footage.

 

[faintember]

You're right, didn't mean any insult with the comment. I was thinking more along the lines of video people using uncompressed SD and HD footage.

It is all good. We were just coming from different perspectives, thus my "I partially disagree" comment. For video the RAID would be the best way.

 

[RGunner]

Great post Hattig...and

from experience exactly what I would have guessed. there is no way an internal 4200 is a better choice than any 7200 external (firewire of course).

Okay, I used XBench for these benchmarks:

iBook Internal Hard Drive:

Results 25.76
Drive Type TOSHIBA MK4025GAS
Disk Test 25.76
Sequential 42.29
Uncached Write 36.13 22.19 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 38.95 22.04 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 61.72 18.06 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 39.93 20.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 18.52
Uncached Write 6.56 0.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 35.49 11.36 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 51.32 0.36 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 63.06 11.70 MB/sec [256K blocks]

iBook Firewire Hard Drive:

Results 41.63
Drive Type ST320082 2A
Disk Test 41.63
Sequential 52.30
Uncached Write 55.05 33.80 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 58.06 32.85 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 36.29 10.62 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 73.84 37.11 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 34.58
Uncached Write 12.03 1.27 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 76.25 24.41 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 94.00 0.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 113.61 21.08 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Configurations:

System Info
Xbench Version 1.2
System Version 10.4.2 (8D37)
Physical RAM 1536 MB
Model PowerBook6,7
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.33 GHz
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.33 GHz
Bus Frequency 134 MHz
Video Card ATY,M12

40GB iBook 12" 1.33GHz Standard Configuration
200GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 in IcyBox Firewire enclosure

The firewire is twice as fast as the internal.

 

[Lazyhound]

I know its a large margin of error, but thats still the average of 20 tests. Unless that testing program is wrong, its still quite a bit higher than my external FW 800 drive.

Something is wrong with the test. The measurements are neither precise (70% margin of error), nor accurate (judging by the other benchmarks posted, the actual speed should to the far left of the probability distribution curve). Even if we assume the dataset is reasonable, I'm guestimating there would still be a ~42% chance of the FW800 drive being faster (someone with a stats background want to do the Skellam distribution?).

 

[leohans]

Wow.
I think you are forgetting something really, really important.
The speed of the disc is not the only that matter on video volumes. It is always recomended to capture video to a secondary disc.
One of the reasons is that the system disc is used for the virtual memory, and not to mention the frecuent permisions errors generated in the system volume.
The system disc has to deal with the video+swap files+etc vs. only video in the external drive. That's the question
So, I agree. If you plan to buy a bigger internal, go for the 80 (not 100) because the cost per megabyte.

The transfer rate is only one of the factors. Imagine a fragmented volume con tons of video files... A fast external disc can deal with it, and then send the data via FW. In other words, a faster drive (without talking about the transfer to the processor) can access the spreaded the data faster.

But extrenal is the best for video (and of course you can have 200mb for the cost of 20 in the internal).

Hans

 

[Wingsunn]

External Hard Drive Sufficiency

Hey,
I have a 15" powerbook (1.67 MHz G4) and I am looking into purchasing an external hard drive for video editing purposes. I want to see if it is possible to use my editing software and do my work straight from my external hard drive rather than my stock internal one without the data transfer rate being slower. Specifically, I will run the actual program off my internal HD but edit off video footage from my external HD. So basically I want to know if the data transfer rate of a 9 pin firewire connection is either equal or maybe even faster than the data transfer rate of my internal HD. I was looking into the lacie 250GB d2 HD, will that work? I just want to figure out if doing my work off an external HD is possible without sacrificing hard drive sufficiency. Because if its not, then I would much rather by a USB 2.0 lacie HD, that is like $60 cheaper, and just store my finished work on it and store my video footage on my internal HD while i am actually working. Thanks guys!

 

[RGunner]

Check out SATA

http://www.barefeats.com/hard54.html

new SATA PCM card coming out soon, INCREDIBLE performance.

check it out.

http://fwdepot.com/thestore/product.../1109?osCsid=e7cdd0186e120d7bf5ca38354be39cab