"And as for thermal readings, the E5's aluminum construction did not heat up a single bit"
Of course it does not heat up but what is the HD's temp?
I have used an SATA Bytecc box for 7 months with a 3' sata cable, WD200G HD running as my XP64 play OS and for regular backups.
I see speedfan temps reach 52C.
The new small externals need better cooling, and if buying get a larg one.
I bought about 4 weeks ago 2/250 ext Acomdata SATA drive's which come with the sata card ..I get "Great" performance..and you can raid them up for even faster speed..I bought them at CompUSA..$200 each..if you want faster than USB/Firewire try one of these..great item..
What gives? You guys should have got a few more external drives to test this one against. I must say I am dissapointed that you guys didn't even compare this with a LaCie or something. Now that would be a good review. A BUNCH of external drives.
I was initailly excited when I saw "real world tests" in this article. But the one test I would have liked to see was missing.
If one of the goals of an external hard drive is to provide painless one button backup, then a good "real world test" would be to measure how long it takes to completely back up a hard drive with, say, 100GB of data using this system.
I was a little suprised to see how little difference there was between FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 transfer rates.
You can buy a aluminum enclosure for a harddrive yourself. Most of the price preminum for this is the software.
I got a 3.5 enclosure aluminum and firewire cable, threw in a 60gig drive, hooked to matching shuttle PC, works like a charm. Less than $100. Most of these devices only have certain place though, backup mainly. But your not going to store video on it with terrible transfer rates..:P
My external Firewire drive gets at least 30MB/s reads. It uses an Agere controller. I've heard the best Firewire IDE controllers are made by Oxford however. Apparently there is one controller that is really dire for Firewire, but it is the cheapest combo-chipset, and you've got to watch out for it. I personally don't care, I'm not using it for intensive purposes, the capacity is more important than the speed.
I'd like to see a new perspective on computers and drives. I'm wondering what could be done if computers were reworked for modularity. We would basically have a CPU-in-a-box with memory, CPU, and mobo inside a tiny enclosure similar to the Mac mini.
The back of the box would house one _very_ high-speed unpowered bus connector (PCIe-level stuff - decent for hi-speed RAID, 3D, etc.) and two or three moderate-speed unpowered connectors (S-ATA/SCSI-level - decent for single drives).
On the left side of this CPU-in-a-box, we would find a bunch of low-speed powered connectors (USB-2.0-level - decent for wireless NICs, sound, mice, etc.). On the right side of the box would be ports for the integrated NIC, AC'97 sound jacks, and possibly PS/2 legacy ports.
All external devices coming through the high-speed and moderate-speed connectors would be powered by also connecting them to the external power supply. The PSU would be in its own external case with a bunch of standard power connectors (like the modular PSUs, but with smaller connectors) all on the top. Also on top would be a tiny LED indicating voltage draw, load, etc. and a warning light. All power cables would be the same, with a common maximum power rating and a very low-speed data channel to communicate basic power requirements and status notifications. The PSU would have a standard cable for household power jacks.
Everything would be plug 'n play, so that you could remove your hard drive and GPU to play games on another computer, or swap components very easily. The CPU-in-a-box would act like a giant heatsink unto itself, possibly with fins, two large fans on top and bottom, and a finger-saving grill enclosure. Most people would just pick up a new box to upgrade their system. Enthusiast boxes could in theory be designed with a single thumbscrew for easy access to CPU, mobo, and RAM.
For those that would prefer not to have a mess sitting on their desks, components' layouts could be standardized somewhat, with a clip on one side, and on the bottom (which may not be centered) as well as a thumbscrew on the front. The CPU and PSU cases would be mounted in the rear. The traditional-looking tower case would itself be just a chunk of metal with some fans, one of those universal power cables, and holes for ports and drive bays, so it could function similarly to today's cases.
You can already buy external SATA enclosures. When I was looking for mine, I saw SATA versions of the IcyBox for example, and the price was pretty much the same in fact.
Earlier this month I bought a 200GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 (the silent IDE version) and an IcyBox external Firewire/USB2 enclosure (the one with the blue lighting). That worked out a lot cheaper than buying something pre-made like this. It too has a Firewire passthrough.
The price? £80 in total. Which is around $125 after you take tax off the UK price.
It's been coupled with my iBook, which only has a 40GB 4200 RPM hard drive. It's a handy backup solution, and I store all my media file on it as well. I plan to get a Mac Mini at some point in the future to which it will be permanently attached. The combination can then serve music to a SqueezeBox2 or similar, once I get one of those.
i've had hit or miss experiences using do it yourself external drive kits. i *think* that the premade ones tend to have better chipsets inside. and the diy stuff doesn't come with the software. and sometimes the premade stuff is about the same cost (after rebates and sales) as diy.
I wish I could talk my wife into letting me get that for her laptop. Her slow 60gb 4200 rpm drive is almost full. Oh well, she won't let that happen with that much money.
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pcmatt1024 - Sunday, August 28, 2005 - link
according to the test bed setup on p. 4, the test system is running ddr2 on an amd system. what gives?deathwalker - Sunday, August 28, 2005 - link
This device is in CompUsa's weekly sale add this morning......$199 after rebate.Ripvanwinkle - Sunday, August 28, 2005 - link
"And as for thermal readings, the E5's aluminum construction did not heat up a single bit"Of course it does not heat up but what is the HD's temp?
I have used an SATA Bytecc box for 7 months with a 3' sata cable, WD200G HD running as my XP64 play OS and for regular backups.
I see speedfan temps reach 52C.
The new small externals need better cooling, and if buying get a larg one.
kennyG - Sunday, August 28, 2005 - link
I bought about 4 weeks ago 2/250 ext Acomdata SATA drive's which come with the sata card ..I get "Great" performance..and you can raid them up for even faster speed..I bought them at CompUSA..$200 each..if you want faster than USB/Firewire try one of these..great item..ken..
V00D00 - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
What gives? You guys should have got a few more external drives to test this one against. I must say I am dissapointed that you guys didn't even compare this with a LaCie or something. Now that would be a good review. A BUNCH of external drives.wilburpan - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
I was initailly excited when I saw "real world tests" in this article. But the one test I would have liked to see was missing.If one of the goals of an external hard drive is to provide painless one button backup, then a good "real world test" would be to measure how long it takes to completely back up a hard drive with, say, 100GB of data using this system.
I was a little suprised to see how little difference there was between FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 transfer rates.
Dranzerk - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
You can buy a aluminum enclosure for a harddrive yourself. Most of the price preminum for this is the software.I got a 3.5 enclosure aluminum and firewire cable, threw in a 60gig drive, hooked to matching shuttle PC, works like a charm. Less than $100. Most of these devices only have certain place though, backup mainly. But your not going to store video on it with terrible transfer rates..:P
psychobriggsy - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
My external Firewire drive gets at least 30MB/s reads. It uses an Agere controller. I've heard the best Firewire IDE controllers are made by Oxford however. Apparently there is one controller that is really dire for Firewire, but it is the cheapest combo-chipset, and you've got to watch out for it. I personally don't care, I'm not using it for intensive purposes, the capacity is more important than the speed.CrystalBay - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
Who actually makes the HDD ? sorry , no I'm not.:)nullpointerus - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
I'd like to see a new perspective on computers and drives. I'm wondering what could be done if computers were reworked for modularity. We would basically have a CPU-in-a-box with memory, CPU, and mobo inside a tiny enclosure similar to the Mac mini.The back of the box would house one _very_ high-speed unpowered bus connector (PCIe-level stuff - decent for hi-speed RAID, 3D, etc.) and two or three moderate-speed unpowered connectors (S-ATA/SCSI-level - decent for single drives).
On the left side of this CPU-in-a-box, we would find a bunch of low-speed powered connectors (USB-2.0-level - decent for wireless NICs, sound, mice, etc.). On the right side of the box would be ports for the integrated NIC, AC'97 sound jacks, and possibly PS/2 legacy ports.
All external devices coming through the high-speed and moderate-speed connectors would be powered by also connecting them to the external power supply. The PSU would be in its own external case with a bunch of standard power connectors (like the modular PSUs, but with smaller connectors) all on the top. Also on top would be a tiny LED indicating voltage draw, load, etc. and a warning light. All power cables would be the same, with a common maximum power rating and a very low-speed data channel to communicate basic power requirements and status notifications. The PSU would have a standard cable for household power jacks.
Everything would be plug 'n play, so that you could remove your hard drive and GPU to play games on another computer, or swap components very easily. The CPU-in-a-box would act like a giant heatsink unto itself, possibly with fins, two large fans on top and bottom, and a finger-saving grill enclosure. Most people would just pick up a new box to upgrade their system. Enthusiast boxes could in theory be designed with a single thumbscrew for easy access to CPU, mobo, and RAM.
For those that would prefer not to have a mess sitting on their desks, components' layouts could be standardized somewhat, with a clip on one side, and on the bottom (which may not be centered) as well as a thumbscrew on the front. The CPU and PSU cases would be mounted in the rear. The traditional-looking tower case would itself be just a chunk of metal with some fans, one of those universal power cables, and holes for ports and drive bays, so it could function similarly to today's cases.
Andyvan - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
That is exactly what I've been envisioning for several years.-- Andyvan
Ecmaster76 - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
With standardized external SATA devices on the horizon, I would advise wiating to buy unless you really need external storage right now.Any of you cool dudes at Anandtech know how soon we can expect a wide selection of external SATA?
psychobriggsy - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
You can already buy external SATA enclosures. When I was looking for mine, I saw SATA versions of the IcyBox for example, and the price was pretty much the same in fact.UltraWide - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
I got a 320GB version on firewire through my audigy2 and it's excellent. it's fast, quiet and runs very cool.psychobriggsy - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
Earlier this month I bought a 200GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 (the silent IDE version) and an IcyBox external Firewire/USB2 enclosure (the one with the blue lighting). That worked out a lot cheaper than buying something pre-made like this. It too has a Firewire passthrough.The price? £80 in total. Which is around $125 after you take tax off the UK price.
It's been coupled with my iBook, which only has a 40GB 4200 RPM hard drive. It's a handy backup solution, and I store all my media file on it as well. I plan to get a Mac Mini at some point in the future to which it will be permanently attached. The combination can then serve music to a SqueezeBox2 or similar, once I get one of those.
ElFenix - Monday, August 29, 2005 - link
i've had hit or miss experiences using do it yourself external drive kits. i *think* that the premade ones tend to have better chipsets inside. and the diy stuff doesn't come with the software. and sometimes the premade stuff is about the same cost (after rebates and sales) as diy.formulav8 - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
I wish I could talk my wife into letting me get that for her laptop. Her slow 60gb 4200 rpm drive is almost full. Oh well, she won't let that happen with that much money.Jason
Olaf van der Spek - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
> and the results of CPU load for the FireWire 400 interface surprised us even more, since it is pier-to-pier.What's a pier?
TheInvincibleMustard - Saturday, August 27, 2005 - link
Arr, matey ... that be when ye be shipping pirated medias between your two drives ... yar-har-harrrrrr.:-D