Fastest External HDD Interface?

[Mike]

While looking for an external HDD to hold me over 'til I build a PC in six
months or so I've been exploring external HDD interfaces. Currently, I have
a 4 year old Dell Dimension w/ XP Pro. I'm going to buy a USB2 Firewire
1394b internal card for it .I'd like to find out if 1394b is worth the
additional expense. I believe 1394b is capable of 800Mbs while 1394a is
capable of 400Mbs. A SATA II HDD (300MBs) in an external case w/ a 1394b
interface will a PC be able to make use of this high speed data transfer or
will the high data speed be wasted because the PC and XP Pro don't know how
to handle these speeds? What is the most cost effective combination for an
external HDD?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Rod Speed]

While looking for an external HDD to hold me over 'til I build a PC
in six months or so I've been exploring external HDD interfaces.
Currently, I have a 4 year old Dell Dimension w/ XP Pro. I'm going to buy
a USB2 Firewire 1394b internal card for it .I'd like to find out
if 1394b is worth the additional expense. I believe 1394b is capable
of 800Mbs while 1394a is capable of 400Mbs.

Its more complicated than that physical layer
speed, and firewire is a bit faster than USB2.

External sata is quite a bit faster than both.

A SATA II HDD (300MBs) in an external case w/ a 1394b interface will a PC
be able to make use of this high speed data transfer
Yes.

or will the high data speed be wasted because the PC and XP Pro don't
know how to handle these speeds?
No.

What is the most cost effective combination for an external HDD?

Cost effective complicates things because external sata isnt that cheap.

Does the speed actually matter that much for the 6 months ?

 

[Mike]

Its more complicated than that physical layer
speed, and firewire is a bit faster than USB2.

External sata is quite a bit faster than both.

SATA = 150MBs SATA II = 300MBs

Yes.

OK, so the through put will be about 100MBs? 1394b 800Mbs divided by 8 =
100MBs.

Cost effective complicates things because external sata isnt that cheap.

Does the speed actually matter that much for the 6 months ?

Not really, it became an intellectual exercise and I want to buy hardware
that'll be fast to compliment
my new fast PC.
mIKE

 

[Arno Wagner]

While looking for an external HDD to hold me over 'til I build a PC in six
months or so I've been exploring external HDD interfaces. Currently, I have
a 4 year old Dell Dimension w/ XP Pro. I'm going to buy a USB2 Firewire
1394b internal card for it .I'd like to find out if 1394b is worth the
additional expense. I believe 1394b is capable of 800Mbs while 1394a is
capable of 400Mbs. A SATA II HDD (300MBs) in an external case w/ a 1394b
interface will a PC be able to make use of this high speed data transfer or
will the high data speed be wasted because the PC and XP Pro don't know how
to handle these speeds? What is the most cost effective combination for an
external HDD?

External SATA will give you just the same speed as an internal
disk. USB2 and firewire have a tendency to be significanlty slower
due to the tranlation that is neded. If speed is your main concern
then SATA is you only option.

But note that the SATA interface speed is significantly higher
than the disk speed (as it should be, otherwise the interface
would be a bottleneck).

Arno

 

[Rod Speed]

SATA = 150MBs SATA II = 300MBs

Those physical layer speeds are irrelevant, the
actual thruput is determined by the drive physical
characteristics, sectors per track and rpm.

OK, so the through put will be about 100MBs?

No, less than that, determined by the drive physical characteristics.

1394b 800Mbs divided by 8 = 100MBs.

Again, there's a lot more involved in thruput than the physical layer
speed.

Not really, it became an intellectual exercise and I want to buy hardware
that'll be fast to compliment my new fast PC.

Then sata is the way to go, at a higher cost than usb2 and firewire.

 

[CJT]

While looking for an external HDD to hold me over 'til I build a PC in six
months or so I've been exploring external HDD interfaces. Currently, I have
a 4 year old Dell Dimension w/ XP Pro. I'm going to buy a USB2 Firewire
1394b internal card for it .I'd like to find out if 1394b is worth the
additional expense. I believe 1394b is capable of 800Mbs while 1394a is
capable of 400Mbs. A SATA II HDD (300MBs) in an external case w/ a 1394b
interface will a PC be able to make use of this high speed data transfer or
will the high data speed be wasted because the PC and XP Pro don't know how
to handle these speeds? What is the most cost effective combination for an
external HDD?

Thanks,

Mike

The most "cost effective" is the cheapest that will satisfy
_your need_. Since you haven't defined the need, nobody can
give you a good answer. The cheapest might be a used SCSI
array, or a zip disk on a parallel port, for all we know from
what you've told us.

 

[J. Clarke]

External SATA will give you just the same speed as an internal
disk. USB2 and firewire have a tendency to be significanlty slower
due to the tranlation that is neded. If speed is your main concern
then SATA is you only option.

But note that the SATA interface speed is significantly higher
than the disk speed (as it should be, otherwise the interface
would be a bottleneck).

SATA is not his _only_ option. SCSI works fine for external storage. LVD
allows something like 5 meters of cable as well, which can be a great
convenience. But you pay for it.

 

[Odie Ferrous]

While looking for an external HDD to hold me over 'til I build a PC in six
months or so I've been exploring external HDD interfaces. Currently, I have
a 4 year old Dell Dimension w/ XP Pro. I'm going to buy a USB2 Firewire
1394b internal card for it .I'd like to find out if 1394b is worth the
additional expense. I believe 1394b is capable of 800Mbs while 1394a is
capable of 400Mbs. A SATA II HDD (300MBs) in an external case w/ a 1394b
interface will a PC be able to make use of this high speed data transfer or
will the high data speed be wasted because the PC and XP Pro don't know how
to handle these speeds? What is the most cost effective combination for an
external HDD?

Thanks,

Mike

You won't notice any real difference between 1394a and 1394b.

Firewire is marginally quicker than USB2.

On the PC, I typically get a transfer rate of anything from 15MB/sec to
25MB/sec using either firewire or USB.
I don't get an awful lot more on my internal, single SATA drives -
although the mass storage drives in RAID 0 give about a 20% boost in one
or two machines, and 30% in others.

On the Mac, I get an absolute minimim of 42MB/sec firewire, and a tiny
bit less (maybe 40MB/sec) with USB.
With a single SATA drive (I don't have RAID in my Macs) I get well over
45MB/sec.

In all cases, there is practically no difference whether I am using SATA
or PATA drives.

In my main recovery machine, which has a PCI-express SATA2 controller,
running anything from 4 to 8 drives in RAID 0, there is no appreciable
difference whether the drives I'm using are SATA150 or SATA300.

In the UK, eSATA devices are right down in price; about £45 for the
housing, cable and adaptor, plus the cost of the drive. (This is a
fairly simple setup, taking one of the SATA channels to a blanking plate
/ adaptor, then running another SATA cable from that to the housing.)


Odie

 

[Arno Wagner]

Arno Wagner wrote:

SATA is not his _only_ option. SCSI works fine for external
storage. LVD allows something like 5 meters of cable as well, which
can be a great convenience. But you pay for it.

True. And has much better cabeling too. But very expensive.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

SATA is not his _only_ option. SCSI works fine for external storage.

LVD allows something like 5 meters of cable as well,

10 to 12 to 24 meters even, depending on which LVD standard or what SCSI configuration.

 

[Mike]

I still configure scanners using SCSI interface to PC.
Seems almost nostalgic.

Mike

 

[Mike]

True. And has much better cabeling too. But very expensive.

Arno

I'm going to pass on SCSI.

Mike

 

[Mike]

The most "cost effective" is the cheapest that will satisfy
_your need_. Since you haven't defined the need, nobody can
give you a good answer. The cheapest might be a used SCSI
array, or a zip disk on a parallel port, for all we know from
what you've told us.

I'd like to get the fastest technology I can. The more I looked at the
options the more I want to get opinions from other,
which I did.
Thanks all,

Mike

 

[Mike]

Mike wrote:
You won't notice any real difference between 1394a and 1394b.

Firewire is marginally quicker than USB2.

On the PC, I typically get a transfer rate of anything from 15MB/sec to
25MB/sec using either firewire or USB.
I don't get an awful lot more on my internal, single SATA drives -
although the mass storage drives in RAID 0 give about a 20% boost in one
or two machines, and 30% in others.

On the Mac, I get an absolute minimim of 42MB/sec firewire, and a tiny
bit less (maybe 40MB/sec) with USB.
With a single SATA drive (I don't have RAID in my Macs) I get well over
45MB/sec.

In all cases, there is practically no difference whether I am using SATA
or PATA drives.

In my main recovery machine, which has a PCI-express SATA2 controller,
running anything from 4 to 8 drives in RAID 0, there is no appreciable
difference whether the drives I'm using are SATA150 or SATA300.

In the UK, eSATA devices are right down in price; about £45 for the
housing, cable and adaptor, plus the cost of the drive. (This is a
fairly simple setup, taking one of the SATA channels to a blanking plate
/ adaptor, then running another SATA cable from that to the housing.)


Odie

That's useful information.

Mike

 

[Neill Massello]

While looking for an external HDD to hold me over 'til I build a PC in six
months or so I've been exploring external HDD interfaces. Currently, I have
a 4 year old Dell Dimension w/ XP Pro. I'm going to buy a USB2 Firewire
1394b internal card for it .I'd like to find out if 1394b is worth the
additional expense. I believe 1394b is capable of 800Mbs while 1394a is
capable of 400Mbs. A SATA II HDD (300MBs) in an external case w/ a 1394b
interface will a PC be able to make use of this high speed data transfer or
will the high data speed be wasted because the PC and XP Pro don't know how
to handle these speeds? What is the most cost effective combination for an
external HDD?

For a take on the future of FireWire 800 from a vendor of the hardware,
see Jame Wiebe's FireWire Evolution white papers at
<http://www.wiebetech.com/whitepapers.php>:

"If you are making storage decisions based on rollouts of FireWire 800
technology, your purchasing priorities are sadly out of order. Apple
was the only champion of FireWire 800; a task it seemed to take
reluctantly. Now, Apple is making marketplace moves that are absolving
itself of FireWire 800."