Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (
More info?)
"Gordon Price" <gordon(thorn)@albedoconsulting.com> wrote l...
> "ggull" <ggullSPAM@NOTrcn.com> wrote
> > Big caveat: I have a firewire connection, not USB2 (the computer I ran
> > this
> > test on only has USB1). But they're comparable, aren't they? I could
run
> > this test later on a USB2 system.
>
> Firewire is much superior to USB in that the Firewire chip passes less off
> to the CPU. Even at a max of 400Mbs, Firewire is usually faster than
480Mbs
> USB2 in the real world. Pro audio external drives and high end recording
> gear are all Firewire for this reason, tho you can get some entry level 2
> channel recording gear in USB.
OK, I finally ran the same test on my new computer with USB2:
497 MB, 6 Files
1) Firewire, external drive to ~4 year old computer (Win Me, Athlon (~1GHz?
I've lost track of whatever I look under to find the processor speed),
vanilla HD). Time, ~40 sec.
2) USB 2, external to new computer, (Win XP HE, 3GHz P4, vanilla SATA
drive). Time ~20 sec.
3) just for fun, copy (not move) from one directory to another on same
internal SATA drive. Time just a bit less, maybe 17 sec.
In all cases, computer basically idle, no other USB/Firewire devices plugged
in.
Timing is crude, using wrist watch.
I'm not sure why the Firewire test was that much slower than the USB2.
Maybe just a slower-everything recipient computer. Maybe the HD was pretty
full (though recently defragged) on the old computer, and pretty empty on
the new.