ICY DOCK MB664US-1S: eSATA with a twist
by Dave Robinet on October 9, 2007 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Test Setup
We are utilizing an Intel QX6700 quad core CPU to ensure we are not CPU limited in our testing. A 2GB memory configuration is standard in our XP test bed as most enthusiasts are currently purchasing this amount of RAM. Our choice of high-range OCZ Reaper PC2-9200 memory offers a very wide range of memory settings with timings of 3-4-3-9 used for our benchmark results.
Our test bed now includes a water-cooled MSI 8800 GTX video card to ensure our game tests are not completely GPU bound and to reduce noise/heat levels. Our video tests are run at 1280x1024 for this article at High Quality settings. All of our tests are run in an enclosed case with a dual optical/hard drive setup to reflect a moderately loaded system platform. Windows XP SP2 is fully updated and we load a clean drive image for each system to keep driver conflicts to a minimum.
The drive is formatted before each test run and five tests are completed on each drive in order to ensure consistency in the benchmark results. The two high and low scores are removed with the remaining score representing our reported result. We utilize the Intel ICH8R SATA ports along with the latest Intel Matrix Storage driver to ensure consistency in our playback results when utilizing NCQ, TCQ, or RAID settings.
Our test drive today will be the Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB that we recently reviewed. We implemented AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) in the BIOS to properly test the hot swap capabilities of this drive enclosure when utilizing the eSATA interface. Without the proper matrix storage driver support and AHCI implementation, hot swapping was not possible with our test bed.
| Standard Test Bed Playback of iPEAK Trace Files and Test Application Results |
|
| Processor | Intel QX6700 - 2.66GHz Quad Core |
| Motherboard | DFI Infinity 965-S |
| RAM | 2 x 1GB OCZ Reaper PC2-9200 Settings - DDR2-800 - 3-4-3-9 |
| OS Hard Drive | 1 x Western Digital WD1500 Raptor - 150GB |
| System Platform Drivers | Intel 8.1.1.1010 Intel Matrix RAID 6.2.1.1002 |
| Video Card | 1 x MSI 8800GTX |
| Video Drivers | NVIDIA ForceWare 158.19 |
| Optical Drive | Plextor PX-760A, Plextor PX-B900A |
| Cooling | Tuniq 120 |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX620 |
| Case | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
We are utilizing an Intel QX6700 quad core CPU to ensure we are not CPU limited in our testing. A 2GB memory configuration is standard in our XP test bed as most enthusiasts are currently purchasing this amount of RAM. Our choice of high-range OCZ Reaper PC2-9200 memory offers a very wide range of memory settings with timings of 3-4-3-9 used for our benchmark results.
Our test bed now includes a water-cooled MSI 8800 GTX video card to ensure our game tests are not completely GPU bound and to reduce noise/heat levels. Our video tests are run at 1280x1024 for this article at High Quality settings. All of our tests are run in an enclosed case with a dual optical/hard drive setup to reflect a moderately loaded system platform. Windows XP SP2 is fully updated and we load a clean drive image for each system to keep driver conflicts to a minimum.
The drive is formatted before each test run and five tests are completed on each drive in order to ensure consistency in the benchmark results. The two high and low scores are removed with the remaining score representing our reported result. We utilize the Intel ICH8R SATA ports along with the latest Intel Matrix Storage driver to ensure consistency in our playback results when utilizing NCQ, TCQ, or RAID settings.
Our test drive today will be the Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB that we recently reviewed. We implemented AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) in the BIOS to properly test the hot swap capabilities of this drive enclosure when utilizing the eSATA interface. Without the proper matrix storage driver support and AHCI implementation, hot swapping was not possible with our test bed.
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Homerboy - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
ntSeanFL - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
one complaint I have about the 559 is that the drive is always on...even if my machine is off. It would be much nicer if the drive could spin down after a pre-set adjustable time for people like me that just use it to back up each day/week, etc. Other external drives can do that.Anyone know if this new enclosure does it any differently?
floflooo - Thursday, October 11, 2007 - link
Please give me some references... I've been looking for external HDD cases that have power management.icthy - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
I'm not an expert as you can see....I'm looking for a way to use my 3 ATA 133 drives; can I get an enclosure such as the Icy Dock that will deal with these?retrospooty - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
There are enclosures out there that use the ATA 133 interface, but not eSATA onces. You will be able to find USB 2.0 and Firewire enclosures, just search for them.http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL...">http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ternal+d...
icthy - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
Thanks. Guess I should have figured that out myself.DigitalFreak - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - link
Um, what's the twist?StraightPipe - Tuesday, October 9, 2007 - link
Well obviously, $70 is bad. Many decent enclosures start around $15-20.The PC power option is good. I keep an e-sata drive on my HTPC (it feels fast like it's in the box instead of on a wire). It would be great if the enclosure was powered by the PC (like this icydock). That way I could keep the USB and wall plug in a bag together for when I take the drive to a friend's PC. I can leave my PC connections on top of the PC case, and take the drive and it's cable bag to go.
pnyffeler - Tuesday, October 9, 2007 - link
How would a Raptor perform in this case?Would it be too hot, given the lack of active cooling?
StraightPipe - Tuesday, October 9, 2007 - link
Raptors peform about the same as that samsung they tested in the article.As drive densities have increased the transfer rates have too.
My raptor is no hotter than my 500GB WD RE2 drives in RAID0. I would assume temp is not a problem in normal (70-80F ambient) conditions.
The fact is for the price of a 150GB raptor you can get a 500-750GB drive that performs almost as well. Now that there are better performing drives available, those raptors just are not worth the cost anymore.